Shiver Me Timbers!

Shiver Me Timbers! (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy are out sailing when they come across a ghost ship. Of course, they enter the ship when ghosts attack them but thankfully Popeye brought his spinach along. This is a pretty good entry in the series that manages to be fairly funny, although I'm pretty sure the ghosts in the film would scare most younger kids. The animation is very good throughout with a lot of thought going into the ghost ship as well as a storm that pops up towards the end. Wimpy gets some dialogue in this short and also manges to have some of the best scenes including one where he stumbles upon some haunted hamburgers. It's also interesting to see Popeye being more human here because at first he's scared of the ghosts. In previous films, the word fear never came into play.

Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy come across a beached hulk with a sign proclaiming it a ghost ship, so of course they decide to investigate. Spooky stuff happens.

The Popeye cartoons had settled into rhythms that differed from the usual chaotic hodge-podge of gags that director Dave Fleischer liked. Instead, the animators had settled on a more deliberate and structured series of gags, with the pace increasing until Popeye eats his spinach, then a half minute of pounding the **** out of the ghosts, skeletons, and threatening waves to restore order. Cue "I'm strong to the finish" and a couple of toots on the pipe.

Lovers of classic movie cues will note not only Mysterioso #2, but "The Worms Crawl In".

Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy encounter a ghost ship. Olive is scared and wants to leave. Popeye isn't concerned at all. They board the ship and it sails into the open seas. The ghosts start problems for the group.

I like the various ghost pranks. I especially like their pranks on Wimpy. Of course, Popeye eats his spinach and punches out the ghosts. It's fine but I wanted something more imaginative. The ghosts should be pirates. Maybe punching ghosts doesn't work and they need a smarter plan. They draw a fake treasure map which lures the ghosts off the ship. That would be different and more fun.

The Fleischer Studios pioneered modern animation; notice how some of them feature a three-dimentional background using glass plates or even miniature sets on which the cartoon characters were added optically. That is not the case with this particular cartoon though but it does show certain familiar characters in a stage of development. Popeye, for example, finally finds a situation he is not in complete control of and reacts the way a regular person would: with fear and hesitance. Popeye, Olive and Wimpy find a ghostship and, against the better judgement of Olive and Wimpy, go aboard. Quicker than you can say "weigh anchor" the ship sets sail all by itself. When Popeye declares "There ain't no ghosts!" suddenly they are surrounded by them and Popeye's strength, which is great even without spinach, is suddenly useless. For an 8 minute cartoon we take a strange psychological turn as the ghosts turn each persons fear against them. Popeye is tied high on a mast swinging like a human penduum contantly hitting iron rings with his head and. . .um . . .lower regions. Wimpy's torture is worse when you consider his appetite. He is chained to a mast beside a table loaded with food. When he tries to grab a snack the table not only runs away but hits him hard in the stomach as well. Olive's ordeal is the worst, well to me anyway because that is my fear as well. Tied to the deck milk is dripped on the bottoms of her bare feet and licked off by cats. Oh yeah Popeye saves everyone but I think they have all learned a lesson by the end of the cartoon. The supernatural is ain't nothin' to be made fun off.

This is a "ghost ship" story and not really anything that funny, at least nowhere as good as the normal Popeye cartoon by this time. It might be even a little bit too scary for small kids.

Popeye, Olive and Wimpy come across this ghostly ship one day. (The three of them seem to go out boating a lot, and wind up on desert islands.)

The boat has some humorous features, such as neon-type signs that change and floorboards which move up and down making music, but then its a mite sadistic as ghosts tie up our three pals and torture them, although not in any gruesome way. Yet still, as mentioned, it's a little dark for small kids to be watching. I sometimes think these early Popeye cartoons were made more for adults. Popeye then finally figures a way to fight these sadistic spirits, but isn't done in his normally-humorous fashion.