Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp

When this show was on I watched it every time I could! I thought that the characters were really funny and all had great personalities. The animation in My opinion was crisp, clean, and really clear. Not to mention beautiful! Most of the characters in this show are hilarious like the Looney Tunes characters that we all love. in My opinion these characters are the funnies and talented ever seen. In fact, The things that goes on in this series' cartoons are in My opinion nuts which that is what makes them hilarious! There are so many to like and laugh at and the silly things they do! If you like the original Looney Tunes then I strongly recommend that you watch this show!

So in this fun, longer than usual Popeye cartoon it's strangely Olive herself who dreams the whole thing up while trying to write a movie script for the studio she works at, which is probably why it has Popeye as Aladdin and herself as the princess, and she even calls him Popeye at one point and then corrects herself, in an early example of breaking the fourth wall that is pretty neat. The look of the version I watched was very faded and bleached of a lot of the colour, but I still couldn't miss the richness of the details in some of the scenes, especially the moonlit palace with the full moon behind it, very dramatic and beautifully done. As always in just about any animation he ever lent his quirky voice talents to, big props to Jack Mercy and his wonderfully odd pun-filled mutterings that keep things moving along and provide some of the biggest laughs. I just love the gross evil vizier who Popeye has to eat multiple cans of spinach before he can beat, his manic leering expressions and villainous theatrics are so funny and of the certain style that could only ever have come out of the Fleicher studios! I didn't like the overly camp genie though, he was an obnoxious bad stereotype, but it was still cool how Popeye was having a blue genie doing goofy hijinks over fifty years before we had Robin Williams delivering his classic performance! There is quite a few unmistakeable precursors to the Disney movie in this.. For me this isn't quite a gem like the Sinbad Popeye special was but it's fun and entertaining enough nonetheless, well worth checking out! X

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Classic Popeye short has Olive working at a movie studio where she's typing screenplays. One day she writes a story dealing with Aladdin, the magic lamp and of course her and Popeye have major roles.

ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP had Popeye going from his usual 7- minute B&W shorts to twenty-two minutes and in Technicolor. I must admit that I love the B&W Popeye shorts and I'm glad that the majority of them were shot that way but there's no denying that this story just screams for color and we're given something very special. The story is wonderfully charming and is perfectly suited for Popeye and Olive. There are some great visuals throughout the film but the highlight is the final battle where Popeye is climbing some stairs with one obstacle after another. This one here is certainly a very entertaining one.

Many of Dave Fleischer and Fleischer Studios' cartoons were good to classic. The best of them were fun and charming and even if there were cartoons of theirs that veered on the cute and some cartoons had more interesting characters than others they were always outstandingly scored, very easy to like and extremely well made, some of the techniques used even were innovative for back then.

'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' is the longest Popeye cartoon, more a short film somewhat, and for me and many others it's one of his best, classic Popeye if you will and contains everything so great about his best cartoons. Of the three Arabian Nights Popeye cartoons, 'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' is my personal favourite though all three are more than well worth watching. Did not mind the absence of Bluto at all and didn't actually miss him all that much, it is always good to have changes of paces in the Popeye cartoons and most of those in question do that well, of which 'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' is one of the best examples.

Olive Oyl is not quite as interesting as Popeye and the villain and Mae Questel's voice fits the character a little more than that of Margie Hines. But really there is very little to criticise.

Popeye is as amusing and likeable as ever, the genie is lots of fun and the villain is just as entertaining and also a good enough threat without being too over-the-top. Jack Mercer does a great job as always as Popeye and relishes Popeye's mumbling and asides.

As ever, the music is lush and characterful, synchronising beautifully with the action. The story is not too formulaic and filled with energy and charm, as well as the customary magic. The best assets though are the animation and dialogue. The animation is meticulously detailed, vibrant and sees a lot of smoothness in design and with some imaginative visual flourishes. The dialogue is fresh and one can tell that the writers were having a great time writing the dialogue here, mumblings have seldom been more hilarious than here.

In summary, really great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A POPEYE Cartoon.

Surprise Pictures scriptwriter Olive Oyl dreams-up a film version of ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP, starring her spinach-munching boyfriend & herself.

This was the third in a series of 3 excellent two-reel cartoons, created by Max Fleischer, in which Popeye & his friends are interpolated into the classic stories of The Arabian Nights. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Jack Mercer is the voice of Popeye; Mae Questel does the honors for Olive Oyl.