User reviews

On this Election Day, I thought I'd look at some vintage cartoons that had popular characters running or dreaming of such. Having just watched Betty Boop for President, I checked this out from ThadBlog right after. With the same voice talent (Mae Questel) and some of the same music from the previous black-and-white short, this color cartoon has Olive bopping Popeye after he laughs when she expresses interest in running for the highest office in the land. Most of what Ms. Oyl would do is pretty silly and a little sexist (like having her cabinet consist of the male Paramount contract roster) but by the time she addresses the elephant and donkey audience in Congress and gets them to stop arguing by having Cupid shoot (through a machine gun!) arrows on them, I was amused enough to find this animated short pretty entertaining in its own right. Oh, and there's a cameo of Famous Studios' Little Audrey licking a giant ice cream cone...

Popeye and Olive are listening to various politicians busking for votes. She grows tired of same ole promises and wonders if she could be President. Popeye laughs at her and she hits him with a skillet. He gets knocked out and starts dreaming Olive laying out her platform. This seems to be progressive but somehow it comes off as sexist. It happens a lot during this era. They like to do a special episode with women as political leaders but they always look at the work from a housewife's point of view. It's a cartoon of its era.

While not one of my favourite Popeye/Olive Oyl cartoons (though it's predominantly an Olive Oyl cartoon), 'Olive Oyl for President' was still very well made stuff and very entertaining.

Some of Olive's antics in the early part of the story is on the silly side and may raise eyebrows for some. However, there were a lot of uproariously funny and inventive moments once the story gets going.

It is not easy making politics (a heavy and controversial subject that can go over my head and sees the worst of people when debated) entertaining but 'Olive Oyl for President' manages to do so.

On top of that, the animation is rich and colourful, with very meticulous and beautifully drawn backgrounds and well-rendered character designs that don't look too stiff. Winston Sharples provides yet another outstanding music score, even in mediocre or worse cartoons Sharples' music was never among the flaws (if anything always one of the strengths or the best asset).

Love the lusciousness of the orchestration here and how characterful and whimsical the music was without going overboard in either, even better was how well it fitted in the cartoon and how it merged with the action. Olive is a lot of fun and carries the cartoon with ease. The voice acting is very good.

All in all, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

We very seldom hear a word out of Olive, other than to admire Bluto or go along with Popeye's schemes. Lots of yelling. Here, Popeye is struck and dreams that Olive is running for President. Her feminist side takes over and most of her proposals are self serving. And that's great. We are also given a taste of the windbag politicians that usually win. Good job.

Olive sings her version of "I Enjoy Being a Girl" in this fanciful, entertaining cartoon which gives us a glimpse into the way her mind works. Very well done.

This cartoon is a great one. I never knew Mae Questal sung the song "If I Were President" This even shows the part that a beautiful 18 year old redhead woman in her green dress has a box with two silkworms forming silk stockings over her legs. I think this is the best part I have ever seen in my entire life. Now even if they remade this Popeye cartoon short, Olive Oyl would not be a skinny woman, she would be more of a voluptuous brunette woman which is more attractive. The new voice of Olive Oyl should be played by Megan Fox; Paris Hilton; Scarlet Johansson; Jessica Simpson; Mandy Moore or Britney Spears. They make great voices for Olive Oyl. Even I think Jessica Simpson; Britney Spears or Mandy Moore should sing Ìf I Were President.

. . . Popeye was all for Olive, this picture documents. What guy would not back Olive, given her promise to provide herds of scantily-clad floozies leaping over gentlemen suffering from insomnia in a new federally guaranteed shut-eye program? When this proposal was screened in 1948, the actual Real Life Rosie-the-Riveter type American women were being strongly encouraged to set their welding masks aside in order to tend the cribs of the upcoming Baby Boom Crowd. After all, the surviving male inhabitants of our U. S. Homeland were mostly back from their World War Two tours overseas, and needed to resume bringing home the bacon as heads of their happy homes. Therefore, serving as sleep aids for the victorious hero-laden masculine gender was a perfect job assignment for all those ladies who had stayed put, safely confined to the Home Front.