Really like to love a vast majority of Popeye's cartoons and the character himself. Fleischer's Popeye cartoons though tended to be funnier, more imaginative and better made, Famous Studios' on the most part entertained though their later Popeye, and overall filmography actually, cartoons had tighter deadlines and lower budgets evident which accounted for the animation not being as good, less surprises and the material not as imaginative.
'Moving Aweigh' is not Popeye at his best, while not the greatest of representations of him it hardly disgraces him either. It is still enjoyable stuff and there are a lot of great things, just felt that something was missing. As far as the second world war-period Popeye cartoons go, 'Moving Aweigh' is somewhere in the solid middle. Thankfully it does not make the mistake of being heavy-handed or have any stereotypes that are not for the easily offended (even the cop character), but generally there are funnier and more creative Popeye cartoons. It's actually not even the first moving day Popeye cartoon and it was done much better before.
Although Shorty, in his third and final appearance, entertains enough to begin with, his interplay with Popeye being one of the cartoon's strongest assets thanks to the clever dialogue for my liking he is used too much. He is not as interesting or as likeable as Popeye and grates slightly this didn't strike me as a minor problem. Don't hate him as a character but can see why he was fairly short-lived. Arnold Stang voices him well though.
Story-wise, 'Moving Aweigh' is nothing special really. There is plenty of energy, but not enough surprises or imagination, some of the material even feels recycled. Would have liked to have seen much more of a silent Olive, who is fairly wasted here
Popeye though is amusing and easy to like, and Jack Mercer as ever does a great job making the most of his material but how the cartoon used him and Shorty could have been better balanced.. The wordplay and dialogue are very clever and one is not left stone-faced. Mercer, as aforementioned, cannot be faulted with the voice work, mumblings and asides have seldom been funnier. The cop character may be too much of a stereotype for some, thought him and his interplay with the other characters amusing.
Furthermore, the animation is very good, 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 reaction shots, like a number of Popeye cartoons, make for great viewing. 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 gags are a sizable amount and they do work thanks to crisp timing and creative visuals.
Overall, enjoyable if not great cartoon. 7/10
