Have always preferred Fleischers' Popeye cartoons over those from Famous Studios, with the best period for me being the late-30s where the quality was pretty much consistently pretty good to great. Famous Studios' were all watchable but less consistent, with the later ones suffering from budget and time constraints. While the previous years from the late-30s were a little more consistent quality-wise, 1939 was still a very solid year for the Popeye series.
Of which 'Hello-How Am I' is one of that year's best. If anybody has not watched a Popeye cartoon and wants to know and see what the fuss is all about, while there are better must-watches 'Hello-How Am I' represents what is great about prime-Popeye extemely well and is actually not too bad a place to start. It is good to have a change in pace once in a while, in this case Bluto doesn't feature and one doesn't find themselves missing him that much. Actually find most of the change in pace cartoons as interesting and as good as the Popeye vs. Bluto outings.
There is very little to dislike here, but Margie Hines somehow doesn't quite do it for me as Olive. It is not because of being unable to accept anybody else other than Mae Questel voicing the character, but Hines and Bonnie Poe for me never fitted anywhere near as well with Olive's character design and personality (Poe too mature, Hines slightly too shrill).
Popeye and especially Olive not seeing through Wimpy's disguise required a little suspension of disbelief for me as well.
Conversely, the animation is nicely drawn and detailed, shining in the characters' expressions. The music is non-stop liveliness and richly orchestrated, gelling with the action like a glove. There are gags and laughs galore, and the best of them mostly revolving around the chemistry between Popeye and Wimpy (like Popeye trying to fool the fake Popeye) are hilarious. Some fun dialogue too, like in the exchange starting with "is there only one washington?" Popeye's mumblings always bring a smile to my face.
Energy is constant and nothing feels too predictable. As entertaining as Popeye is, it is Wimpy that steals the cartoon. Their chemistry really helps make the humour work as it does, very witty. Jack Mercer's voice acting is a delight.
Altogether, great. 9/10
