Big Bad Sindbad

"Cheaters", cartoons that use stock footage and clips from previous cartoons to form the bulk of a "new" cartoon, usually with new footage as a framing device to incorporate the re-used clips, are not all that unusual. What makes this one of the strangest compilation cartoons is the fact that Paramount Famous Studios uses clips from Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor, which was made by Fleischer Studios (!) in 1936! Fleischer Studios made three color Popeye two-reel "Specials" in the mid-to-late 1930s. Paramount Famous Studios made three "cheaters" using footage from those three Fleischer shorts. The truly sad thing is, using the older footage makes it crystal clear how much better the old Fleischers were in terms of animations, backgrounds and plotting compared to the 1950s Paramount Famous Studios product. To be fair, cost had a lot to do with the disparity-it was a lot more expensive in the 1950s to make cartoons. But mostly, the 1950s Popeyes were remakes of old Fleischer shorts done in color with a few changes. Here, the framing footage is nice, but 75% of the cartoon is older material and they re-looped some of the dialogue and changed it, losing some of the charm. This is the saddest of the cheaters, because Sinbad was the best of the two-reel Specials. Big Bad Sinbad isn't that bad a cartoon, actually. It simply isn't that good, either. For completeists only, or people who just like Popeye, period.

Popeye takes his three nephews to Nautical museum and tells them how he once met Sindbad the greatest sailors in history.

It is an excuse to show clips from an earlier Popeye cartoon when he and Sindbad fought over Olive Oyl.

Popeye even turns two chained up fierce lions into pussycats.

There was some good animation from the earlier cartoon but it just shows how low budget it got for some of these 1950s cartoons.

This one is for the kids and nephews.

Often, animation companies would pillage their vaults and make compilation films that were short on new ideas but long on recycled film. BIG BAD SINDBAD takes a wide array of scenes from POPEYE MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR, but cannot match the animation brilliance. However the story line weaves fairly seemlessly throughout, and the addition of Popeye's nephews as a plot device works well. An above-average 1950's POPEYE production, mostly because of the old film use.

Remembering, too much, Popeye meeting Sindbad , it has the only two virtues - the naughty nephews in the visit to the naval museum and the statue of their uncle , conclusion of story, hommage to their hero.

Popeye takes the nephews to the sailing museum, and tells them about the time he whupped Sindbad the Sailor. At this point, we leave the 1952 footage and enter an edited version of 1936's POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR, back when the Fleischers were in charge of the studio.

And in so doing, this cartoon shows how budgets shrank over the sixteen years between.... or at least how inflation had knocked them to pieces. Although there is a lot to say in favor of the character design of Popeye int he 1950s, there's little comparison terms of the lush background art, Technicolor, or sheer number of gags.