Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/04/2008

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11772 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-11-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 201 minutes

Features

• 32 Remastered, Uncut Originals. Popeye Goes To War! Greetinks, mates! Welcome back to Popeye's world, where pocket change can get you a burge and a cuppa joe. And where, if you cross the Sailor Man's sense of fair play, he'll throw in a sock to the jaw for free! That sense gets crossed big time in these 32 first-time-on-disc treasures. 'Cause in addition to Problem Happy, Oli

Amazon.com
By 1941, Fleischer Studio was tottering on the brink of disaster. The failure of their second feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (which opened three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor) coupled with a bitter quarrel between Max and Dave Fleischer and a mounting debt to Paramount led to the closure of the Miami Studio. Executives at Parmount fired the Fleischer brothers, installed new management, changed the studio name to Famous, moved operations back to New York City, and cut the artists' pay. Not surprisingly, the quality of the cartoons fell. A number of the shorts in this collection are domestic comedies, with Popeye babysitting the incorrigible Poopdeck Pappy or his four identical and uninteresting nephews. It's an incongruous role for the rough and tumble sailor, and films like "Problem Pappy" and "Me Musical Nephews" recall the joyless cartoons that turned Betty Boop into a hausfrau a few years earlier. Popeye, like Bugs Bunny, is a winner, and he isn't funny as a straight man or a fall guy. These films also lack the original vision that characterized the Fleischers' best work. "Nix on Hypnotricks" feels like an inferior remake of the classic Popeye-Olive-Bluto short "A Dream Walking," while "The Hungry Goat" borrows heavily from Tex Avery's "Tortoise Beats Hare." The war-themed cartoons feature outrageous racial charicatures of the Japanese that make Warner Bros.' "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" look almost flattering. Unlike the Disney and Warners characters, who made fun of the Nazis, Popeye fought the Japanese almost exclusively. The cartoons in Popeye the Sailor, Vol.3 rank as curiosities that are more interesting to historians of animation and American popular culture than to viewers looking for laughs. (Unrated: suitable for ages 10 and older: violence, alcohol and tobacco use, offensive racial stereotypes) --Charles Solomon

(1. Problem Pappy, 2. Quiet! Pleeze, 3. Olive's Sweepstakes Ticket, 4. Flies Ain't Human, 5. Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle, 6. Olive's Boithday Presink, 7. Child Psykolojiky, 8. Pest Pilot, 9. I'll Never Crow Again, 10. The Mighty Navy, 11. Nix on Hypnotricks, 12. Kickin' the Conga 'Round, 13. Blunder Below, 14. Fleets Of Stren'th, 15. Pip-eye, Pup-eye, Poop-eye and Peep-eye, 16. Olive Oyl And Water Don't Mix, 17. Many Tanks, 18. Baby Wants a Bottleship, 19. You're a Sap, Mr. Jap, 20. Alona on the Sarong Seas, 21. A Hull of a Mess, 22. Scrap The Japs, 23. Me Musical Nephews, 24. Spinach Fer Britain, 25. Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue, 26. Too Weak to Work, 27. A Jolly Good Furlough, 28. Ration Fer The Duration, 29. The Hungry Goat, 30. Happy Birthdaze, 31. Wood-Peckin', 31. Cartoons Ain't Human)

Customer Reviews

Popeye the Sailor is called to wartime duty! UNCENSORED
Just a word of caution, these are from the wartime years and do contain non-politically correct wartime stereotypes.

This collection completes the Max Fleischer produced cartoons on disc 1 & some of disc 2. The Famous Studios B&W produced cartoons are also included on disc 2.

Disc 1 (all Fleischer produced)
Problem Pappy (1941) w/ Poopdeck Pappy
Quiet! Pleeze (1941) w/ Poopdeck Pappy
Olive's Sweepstakes Ticket (1941) w/ Olive, Swee'pea, Bluto & Poopdeck Pappy (1941)
Flies Ain't Human (1941)
Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle (1941) w/ Rip Van Winkle & Chico Marx.
Olive's Boithday Presink (1941) w/ Olive Oyl
Child Psykolojiky (1941)w/ Swee'pea & Poopdeck Pappy.
Pest Pilot (1941) w/ Poopdeck Pappy
I'll Never Crow Again (1941) w/ Olive Oyl
The Mighty Navy (1941) - First true wartime themed Popeye.
Nix on Hypnotricks (1941) w/ Olive Oyl & Professor I. Stare.
Kickin' the Conga 'Round (1942) w/ Olive Oyl & Bluto.
Blunder Below (1942) - Wartime themed.
Fleets Of Stren'th (1942) - Wartime themed.
Pip-eye, Pup-eye, Poop-eye and Peep-eye (1942) w/ Nephews
Olive Oyl And Water Don't Mix (1942) w/ Olive Oyl & Bluto.

Disc 2
Many Tanks (Fleischer) (1942) Wartime themed
Baby Wants a Bottleship (Flesicher)(1942) w/ Olive & Swee'pea - wartime themed.
You're a Sap, Mr. Jap (Dan Gordon)(1942) - first Famous Studio cartoon. Wartime themed, BANNED FROM TELEVISION.
Alona on the Sarong Seas (Isadore Sparber)(1942) w/ Olive as Princess Alona & Bluto.
A Hull of a Mess (Sparber)(1942) - Wartime themed
Scrap The Japs (Seymour Kneitel)(1942)- Wartime themed, BANNED FROM TELEVISION.
Me Musical Nephews (Kneitel)(1942) w/ nephews
Spinach Fer Britain (Sparber)(1943) - Wartime themed
Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue (1943) - Wartime themed, BANNED FROM TELEVISION
Too Weak to Work (Sparber)(1943) w/ Bluto
A Jolly Good Furlough (Gordon)(1943) w/Olive, Bluto, Twinkletoes & Nephews. - Wartime Themed.
Ration Fer The Duration (Kneitel)(1943) w/ Nephews. - Wartime themed.
The Hungry Goat (Gordon)(1943) - Wartime themed
Happy Birthdaze (Gordon)(1943) w/ Olive Oyl & Shorty.
Wood-Peckin' (Sparber)(1943)
Cartoons Ain't Human (Kneitel)(1943) w/ Olive Oyl & Nephews. Popeye makes an animated movie using stick figures.

Popeye: A true American Icon
Is it kind of ironic that this DVD set was released on election day? I'm pretty sure I am in the majority that I bought this set on the day of its release, but did not have a chance to watch it until the day after due to the election. We were originally supposed to have this set on September 30, but it got delayed in order to prevent the issues that arose with Volume 2. While I was disappointed about the delay at first, let me just say it was worth the wait.

After watching disc 1 last night after work, and disc 2 this morning, I can't more than recommend this set to anyone who is a fan of Popeye or Golden Age animation. This set appeals to both the casual fan and the hardcore collector. And what is best about the format Warner's is following is the fact that they have chosen to release the Popeye shorts in chronological order, something they could've (and should've) done with Tom and Jerry.

Disc 1 starts off with 1941's "Problem Pappy" and ends with 1942's "Olive Oyl and Water Don't Mix". The first 7 on this disc are the last to have the ship-door opening title sequence. The remaining 11 cartoons on this disc (as well as the first 4 on disc 2) go to a new opening sequence that features a close-up of Popeye's pipe "toot-tooting" in sequence to the opening theme. Among the best shorts on this disc are "Problem Papp", "Quiet! Pleeze", "Child Psykolojiky", and "Pest Pilot", which have Popeye paired with his troublesome father Poopdeck Pappy. Also among the best on this disc are the first few Popeye shorts that relate to World War II. The first Popeye short with a wartime theme, "The Mighty Navy" was actually produced before America entered the war (the identity of the enemy is kept secret), but it was quite obvious at the time many Americans knew their country would eventually be involved in a war. Other wartime greats on this disc include "Blunder Below" (unedited here; most TV airings have edits) and "Fleets of Stren'th".

Disc 2 starts off strong and kind of lags towards the end. I will admit, I am not much of a fan of anything made post-Fleischer. The first two shorts on this disc are the last two produced by the Fleischers. The next 14 are among the first Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios, and also the remainder of the Popeye shorts filmed in black-and-white. Actually, the first two Famous shorts credit Paramount since a studio name had not been decided upon yet. The real gems on this disc are the wartime shorts that can't been shown on television today, which include "You're a Sap, Mr. Jap, " "Scrap the Japs" and "Seein' Red, White n' Blue". All three of these pretty harshly stereotype Japanese and may offend some (especially anyone who is of Japanese descent). The way they are presented in this collection, however, is the right way to present them on a commercial release. Having them released in chronological order (and having "1941-1943" in the program's title) will caution many who may be blind to the fact that such racist depictions did exist back then. Also, like many people have mentioned in reviews for other classic-era releases by Warner, there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the disc explaining the context of such stereotypes. Since most people probably know ahead of time, I doubt this set will suffer the same fate that "The Golden Age of Looney Tunes" did almost two decades ago when the inclusion of a certain wartime short named "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" caused controversy to the point where the set had to be recalled. Aside from those three, Popeye also battles the Nazis in "Spinach fer Britain" (which has had limited airings on "The Popeye Show" that used to air on Cartoon Network). Other great cartoons on this disc include "The Hungry Goat" and "Happy Birthdaze", the latter of which is the first of three cartoons to feature Popeye's friend Shorty, whose name is a perfect description of the character.

I am not going to go into much detail of the bonus content on this set. In my opinion, the best feature was a Popumentary about the wartime shorts. Also worth watching is the feature on early animation from the 1910's through the 1930's. In addition to that, there are two more Popumentaries and a handful of Fleischer "Out of the Inkwell" shorts that feature Koko the Clown. However, the bonus shorts are from the silent era, and may be hard to sit through if you aren't used to watching a film with no sound, because absolutely no music tracks are played with these films.

Overall, this volume is on par with the first Popeye set released in terms of quality. Like it was explained many times before, the delay in the release of this set was to make sure all the cartoons are presented as close to original as possible. Not a single cartoon on this set has any A.A.P. produced titles, and once again, Warner's has done a terrific job with their restoration efforts. These cartoons never looked so good, and I no longer have to dig through all those VHS tapes in my basement which I used to tape these cartoons off of TV. In conclusion, if you haven't already, you should buy this set.

One last thing (sorry to go off-topic). I have heard that people have finally received their volume 2 replacement discs. I haven't ordered mine yet, is it too late to call? If I do call, how long should it take? As long as it would arrive within the next 4 months, it should arrive before I move to a new address.

Been waiting too long
I must say that the past reviewer, and his call to boycott these Popeye discs, can not be a fan who has been waiting years and years for these releases !!!! They could have doubled the price and probably made close to the same number of sales. I paid more for crappy bootlegs !! They are almost priceless !