| Me Musical Nephews | |
| Number 113 | |
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Me Musical Nephews is Popeye's 113th animated short, released on December 25, 1942 by Famous Studios.
Plot[]
Popeye is falling asleep as Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pupeye practice their music. The nephews are playing with a piano, a drum set, a trombone and a trumpet. They see their Uncle Popeye is asleep, so they wake him up. He tells his nephews they have been good while practicing their music and that it is now their bedtime. The nephews are not tired yet and want Uncle Popeye to tell them a bedtime story, and he agrees to. The nephews put on their pajamas, brush their single teeth and wash their faces. They sit on Popeye's lap and begin with "Once Upon a Time". Uncle Popeye tells them a version of Little Red Riding Hood called Little Hooding Ride. Once the story is finished, Uncle Popeye carries the nephews to bed while they criticize the story for being too short, however, they are willing to go to bed anyway. The boys say their prayers, mentioning Olive, Swee'Pea, Wimpy, Bluto and their uncle. The latter is unimpressed when the nephews only say "Popeye" in ther prayers including him. The four jump into their beds and come back out for a moment to say one more prayer involving the audience. Then, as the boys start sleeping, their sailor uncle gets ready for bed himself. Shortly afterwards, the nephews are up again, wondering what if they made music all night. The first nephew starts with his leg, the second flips pages from a book, the third smacks a fly, and the fourth plays with a spring. The boys realize that maybe making music at night would be more fun than in the day. They begin to do so by smacking their cheeks. One nephew blows a toy ship, another blows some bottles, the third and fourth nephews make a guitar out of a pair of overalls. The first nephew uses a bed bar as a saxophone and plays with some bed springs, the second plays with a trash can and a toy piano, while the third blows a balloon and the fourth plays with a toy ship like a violin. The first nephew blows a sprayer. The third nephew uses the balloon as part of his coffee kettle instrument. The second nephew clangs with the fireplace and a bell portrait. Lastly, the third nephew plays with a heater and closes the window. The boys also take turns playing with their instruments, which include a trombone, a clarinet, a trumpet and a saxophone. The music wakes their Uncle Popeye, so he investigates where it is coming from. He believes it comes from his radio, so he destroys it, but then realizes that the music is being made by his nephews. When checking on them, he sees the boys seemingly asleep and goes back to bed. However, the nephews soon resume playing. Uncle Popeye repeatedly tries to catch them playing, without success, even when peeking from the windows, a drawer and a floorboard. He gives up, so he makes the cartoon iris out, getting on the outside black area and taking his bed with him. He fully closes the iris and tries to go back to sleep in complete darkness, but in the end, the nephews' music still gets to his head, making him go crazy and jump out of the movie theater screen. The nephews appear again next to his bed and the cartoon closes with their music along with the Paramount Cartoons logo.
Color remake[]
Me Musical Nephews was remade in 1950 as Riot In Rhythm, also by Famous Studios.
Trivia[]
- This short still has Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pupeye wearing their original outfits instead of the white Navy uniform-like ones they would mostly wear afterwards.
- In the redrawn and recolored version, Popeye is colored to match his original outfit at one point. Also, in the same version, the iris is colored red instead of black.
- This is the oldest Famous Studios Popeye cartoon to enter the public domain.
- This cartoon is similar to the Color Classics entry The Kids in the Shoe. The difference is that while the old woman trying to send the children back to bed succeeds by passing some apple cider as castor oil, Popeye is unable to control his nephews.
- First Popeye cartoon to use a custom variant of the Paramount Cartoons logo. In this case, the Paramount Cartoons logo appeared behind Popeye's nephews and his bed after he jumped out of the movie theater screen. However, the original version of this cartoon was lost so the regular Paramount Cartoons logo was used instead.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Me Musical Nephews at the Internet Movie Database