Fleets of Stren'th

Popeye is relaxing on deck when he's ordered to move a torpedo. The commander doesn't like his work and orders him to stand at attention. Just then, the enemy attacks. This is wartime Popeye with a bit of patriotic propaganda. It is what it is. It even ends with a giant V. The enemy remains faceless and unnamed. That leaves this short without a strong bite.

Like the character of Popeye very much, have said this more than once. Some of his cartoons are disappointing, namely the late-40s and late-50s periods, but when the Popeye theatrical series was at its best (the late-30s) the cartoons were truly great. Overall, the theatrical series is well worth watching with many very good cartoons and the only theatrical series of Fleischer Studios when the studios declined, if more the more imaginative and funnier Fleischer efforts than the less consistent Famous Studios ones.

Was rather mixed on the wartime Popeye cartoons (so the ones from the early 40s and especially when Popeye is in war and navy action), but there are some very good ones. 'Fleets of Strenth' is one of them. Not one of my favorites from the overall series, but very impressive for past-prime Fleischer. On top of being well made and funny, 'Fleets of Strenth' doesn't veer into heavy-handedness and having stereotyping as some other wartime Popeye cartoons did.

'Fleets of Strenth' may be a bit of a slow starter and the character animation at times doesn't have the same amount of attention to detail and care that went into the backgrounds.

However, a lot is great here. Most of the animation is fine, simple but has some nice detail in the backgrounds, the shading is crisp and the character designs are far from ugly or off. The inventive shots are striking. Even better is the music (always important for me to talk about and Popeye cartoons always fared very well in this respect), again lush and cleverly orchestrated and doing so well adding to and enhancing the action. The dialogue amuses mostly and even more so the increasingly wild action up in the air. Everything with Popeye in plane mode is indeed the highlight.

Popeye is amusing and likeable, with the commander (a strong foil if not in the same league as Bluto, Swee'Pea or Pappy), and Jack Mercer as always does a great job voicing him. It is one of the funnier wartime Popeye cartoons, the action and gags are far from scant, they are well timed and most importantly they are funny. It refrains from preaching too, it is so easy for something to make a point about something important and relevant and lay it on too thick. 'Fleets of Stenth' may not say much new, but it does educate and to me it didn't go overboard making its point. There is a good deal of tension from the conflict being genuinely menacing.

Very good on the whole. 8/10.

Fleets of Stren'th (1942)

*** (out of 4)

This WWII era short has Popeye getting screamed at by his senior officer and he is forced to stay in attention. Just as this happens some planes start attacking his ship and it's battle time.

FLEETS OF STREN'TH isn't nearly one of the better Popeye shorts but there's enough action to make it worth sitting through. Obviously the ship comes under attack and before you know it Popeye is pretty much battling everyone on his own. The highlight of the film is when Popeye pretty much becomes a plane and flies into the sky to take on the enemies. As you'd expect, the animation throughout is top-notch and there are some funny moments sprinkled throughout the short.