This article is about the animated short. For other meanings, see Popeye the Sailor (disambiguation).
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Popeye the Sailor or Popeye the Sailor with Betty Boop is a 1933 Fleischer Studios animated short, directed by Dave Fleischer, and released as part of Betty Boop's series. As per the billing, it stars Popeye the Sailor in his first animated appearance as the protagonist, Bluto, the antagonist and Olive, the deuteragonist, with Betty making a minor appearance. The cartoon was released on July 4, 1933.
Plot[]
The cartoon begins with stock film footage of newspapers rolling off a printing press, a front page appearing with a headline declaring that the character Popeye has become a movie star. The camera zooms in on the illustration of Popeye the one-eyed sailor, which comes to life as Popeye sings about his amazing prowess in his signature song, "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man", while turning everything he hits with his fists into something else, such as anchor turning into fish hooks.
The sailors arrive at the docks and get off their ship. A tall and skinny girl named Olive Oyl appears, looking for her boyfriend Popeye. An anthropomorphic dog sailor asks Olive if she would like to hang out with him. In response, Olive growls at the dog sailor and beats him. A peg-legged pig sailor lifts himself and asks Olive if she would like to hang out with him. Olive beats him as well. Popeye's nemesis, Bluto, puts his finger on Olive's chin. Olive tries to beat Bluto with her fists, but Bluto will not budge. She tries to do so with her feet, and Bluto still will not budge. Popeye eventually gets off the ship and invites Olive to a carnival, which she accepts. Refusing to give up, Bluto decides to follow Popeye and Olive. At the carnival, everyone rides on a roller coaster, a Merry-Go-Round, the ferris wheel and The Tunnel of Love. At the ticket booth, a peacock eats the coins paid by a pig and a rabbit. Popeye gives the peacock a coin from Olive's sock and the peacock gives them the tickets. He and Olive proceed to enter. The peacock expects Bluto to pay him a coin, but instead Bluto blows the feathers off of him. Popeye and Olive are at the Ring the Bell game. Bluto barges in at a pig's turn and rings the bell. The dog in charge attempts to give Bluto a cigar, but Bluto takes the whole box and puts the cigar in the unimpressed dog's mouth. Bluto then scares him away. He lets Popeye take his turn with the mallet, but Popeye crumbles the mallet into dust and rings the bell with his fist so hard that it hits the sun in the eye. Later, Popeye and Olive are at the ball toss game. Olive takes a ball, shakes her behind, spins and tosses the ball, and manages to hit the African American man at the target. Bluto appears and takes a ball. He tosses it, and it ricochets into his mouth. Popeye takes several balls, including the one in Bluto's mouth, sending them directly at the man with his bicep muscle. Popeye, Bluto, and Olive now go to the main performance attraction. A monkey showman presents Betty Boop's dance, and Betty appears. Everyone jumps as the performance begins. Betty does a hula dance, wearing only a grass skirt, with her modesty protected by a lei necklace. Popeye jumps on stage and joins Betty. He mimics Betty's dance moves. Popeye wraps himself in a long beard that he pulled from "Madame Hari"'s face to use it as a hula skirt, however, the skirt falls off, and a big snake pokes Popeye's behind. Popeye uses smoke from his pipe to make the reptile pass out.
Bluto sees Popeye as a show-off, while Olive enjoys Popeye's dance with Betty. As the performance ends, Bluto tries to seduce Olive then kidnaps her, resulting in Olive calling for Popeye's help. Betty sees that Bluto has kidnapped Olive, and Popeye comes to her rescue. While kidnapped, Olive's legs swirl. Bluto uses a crow as a pair of scissors to cut a suspension bridge after crossing it. Popeye avoids falling with the bridge, then uses a rope to pull the ground together. Bluto's evil plan is revealed as having Olive being run over by a train. Bluto ties her to a railroad track, using the track itself as ropes. He punches Popeye to the ground, and a big rock turns into smaller ones when Popeye's head lands on it. Popeye kangaroo kicks Bluto on the head. Bluto swings Popeye around. The tied-up Olive sweats as a train approaches, with one of the sweatdrops landing on her nose, and she flicks it away. Popeye and Bluto continue fighting, Popeye smoking his pipe during the brawl. As Bluto keeps stomping oon Popeye, the latter grabs a can of spinach from his shirt and eats it. Now Bluto tries to stuff Popeye in a tree, only for Popeye to turn it into a coffin for his enemy and defeat him with an uppercut. Popeye tries to pull Olive by her legs but it does not work, so he uses his fist to punch the steam engine in the "face" and bring the whole train to a crushing halt, thanks to his ever-reliable can of spinach. Olive is happy that Popeye saved her life. Popeye concludes the cartoon by tooting his pipe.
Censorship[]
- Nearly every recent airing of this short cuts the entire scene where Popeye and Bluto are playing African dodger, a ball-toss game where the target is an African American, making this the first Popeye cartoon to feature such racist elements. As of 2023, the short no longer airs on Boomerang, probably due to this.
Trivia[]
- First animated appearances of Popeye, Bluto and Olive.
- First Paramount cartoon starring Popeye.
- Only Betty Boop cartoon owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The others are owned by Paramount Global.
- The Popeye-Bluto-Olive plot would later be used as the formula of Popeye's own series. Said plot was not used in the Segar comics.
- The engine on the train, with a baggage car, and three coaches, is a 2-4-2 engine or an American type steam locomotive. These kinds of locomotives of this standard wheel arrangement were used most commonly in the 1800s and 1830s, and no later than 1928 on American railroads.
- Some elements in this cartoon would be changed for later entries, for example: Popeye's pipe makes a different tooting sound, the spinach fanfare does not play when Popeye eats it, and the end title uses the inkwell card with the Paramount logo.
- The voices of Olive, Bluto and Popeye are deeper than in later shorts.
- This marks the first time Bonnie Poe voices Olive. She would only voice her in the earlier shorts.
- The first short in which William Costello voices Popeye. He would voice him in all following shorts until being fired in 1935.
- The first short in which William Pennell voices Bluto.
- "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" is heard in full in this cartoon.
- Only cartoon in which Olive does not get jealous at a female character, in this case, Betty Boop. This is because Olive enjoys Popeye performing with Betty.
- Betty's depiction as a Polynesian hula dancer is the same as her depiction in Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle.
- Instead of the usual Betty Boop theme, this Betty Boop cartoon used "Strike Up the Band" for the opening titles.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Popeye the Sailor at the Internet Movie Database