The Popeye color cartoons from the Famous/Paramount studio were always well animated – but the stories were largely ill-conceived and nauseatingly repetitious. Pick a setting and drop Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto into it, and go on auto-pilot. Or, so it seemed.But, on occasion, they resisted formula and produced something fun. “Private Eye Popeye” is such a short. And one not yet available on DVD.
Sure, he’s NOT A SAILOR (one of my main complaints) but the “Popeye/Olive/Bluto” triangle is absent and Jackson Beck’s “evil butler jewel thief” makes a good one-shot villain.
As a detective, Popeye apes the shtick of another popular animated character of the time – Tex Avery’s DROOPY – but we hardly mind, as this cartoon is a welcome break from formula.
One final, personal note… I’d never seen this cartoon in color before – as we got our first color TV set in 1968, and I’ve somehow managed to miss this cartoon on TV ever since. There’s a nice gag whenever the gem is exposed, that I’d never noticed until seeing this one online.
Enjoy Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck in “Private Eye Popeye”… Toot! Toot!
2 comments:
Joe,
They COULD have tied the private eye gig in with Popeye's status as a sailor: NCIS! ;-)
The "Blut-ler"'s reactions to Popeye popping up here, there, and everywhere illustrate one of Famous' major failings: they fell short in the area of exaggerated humor (apart from "pancake" gags and such). The reactions should have been much wilder in the Avery tradition... or even in Tom & Jerry's.
Chris
Chris:
Yes, of course! If you’re going to rip-off DROOPY, you might as well rip him off all the way!
But, I wonder what animation fandom’s reaction would have been if the Avery “homage” actually was far more blatant? No matter, Famous still gets props for doing something different for a change – even if they could have taken it further.
And, hey… Popeye DID spend one brief scene in a BOAT in this one!
Joe.
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