Wild Elephinks

Wild Elephinks (1933)

**** (out of 4)

Popeye and Olive Oyl land in the jungle and must fight off various animals including a wild elephant and a gorilla. I'm really shocked to see how much I'm enjoying these early Paramount cartoons but so far they've all been a lot of fun with this one here being one of the best. There's some great action, nice animation and a lot of funny lines including a great exchange of words between Popeye and the King of the Jungle. It seems the gorilla kidnapping Olive subplot is a homage to King Kong.

When the cartoon starts, Popeye and Olive Oyl are on a raft. Soon they debark onto a desert island populated by lions, gorillas, snakes, moose, giraffes, and elephinks. Er, elephants. As Popeye takes on the animals in order to the tune of "The Tiger Rag", the large assortment of gags ordered by director Dave Fleischer continues to tickle the audience's fancy.

When I write that Dave Fleischer was the director, I mean he was credited as such. In actual fact, his role seems to be that of producer. The director was done b Willard Bowsky, who directed many of the Popeye cartoons for the Fleischers through 1941. He died in 1944 at the age of 37.

Basically, Popeye and Olive find their way to a jungle where animals from every continent attack them. A gorilla kidnaps Olive for some reason. From then on it's just a matter of time before all these creatures will meet Popeye's wrath.

They have some pretty decent sight gags in here, especially the beginning when Popeye and Olive are in their ocean raft sailing toward an island. How he makes the raft go, and provide sardines, is pretty good

Once the two get to the island, it's "Wild Kingdom" as all kinds of animals appear and none of them friendly. Can Popeye fight off an elephant (and numerous other beasts) and at the same time rescue Olive from a King Kong-type ape? That's the storyline.

Overall, this was very good and you can see the gags are getting a little more clever as this cartoon evolves. One thing that was different in this one was Olive feeding Popeye his spinach at the end. This was the sixth theatrical release.

Popeye and Olive Oyl are on a wooden raft with Olive's drawers as the sail. They finally land on a tropical deserted island. Olive gets kidnapped by a gorilla while Popeye punches an elephant. He battles a moose. Popeye chases the gorilla and saves Olive. He fights off various animals. The elephant comes back for a second round.

Animal lovers beware. Popeye is getting red paint splashed on him. He's punching the fur coats off the animals. It doesn't get more irksome for the PETA crowd. This is definitely one for the old times and not for the new era. That happens a lot in these oldie cartoons.