Really like to love a good deal of Popeye cartoons, even if story-wise they tend to be on the formulaic side, and like the character of Popeye. Seeing a Popeye cartoon centered around Thanksgiving, a holiday that should be portrayed in animation more, was more than welcome. Will admit though to preferring the Popeye cartoons from the Dave Fleischer era, the cartoons tend to be funnier and there is more originality and more risk taking in some of them and they look better too.
'Pilgrim Popeye' is a late Popeye cartoon and made near Famous Studios' roughest and most variable period where budgets were much smaller in particularly the animation and deadlines and time constraints were shorter and tighter. All things considered, while there are infinitely better Popeye cartoons (especially during the Fleischer era) and there are signs of what made this period an inferior one for Famous Studios, 'Pilgrim Popeye' is not a bad late Popeye cartoon. Though also not a particularly great one at the same time.
There is quite a lot good here. The animation is very nicely done. Very colourful, meticulous in background detaill, the fluidity in drawing and movement having gotten smoother all the time and the expressions freer. The setting is vividly done and far from wasted, it actually looked like the whole crew were having a lot of fun with it, and Popeye's expressions and body movements are as ever a joy. The music is always fantastic in the Popeye series and it is here. It's beautifully orchestrated, rhythmically it's full of energy and there is so much character and atmosphere, it's also brilliant at adding to the action and enhancing it. While the gags are not exactly creative or hilarious, 'Pilgrim Popeye' is not short on them and enough of them are amusing and quite well timed.
While the pacing is not consistent, 'Pilgrim Popeye' does pick up in the last third which is wonderfully wild and carried beautifully by the conflict, one that is both entertaining and tense. Popeye has great comic timing and is likeable and the nephews are amusing enough, but the best, funniest and most rootable character is the turkey. Jack Mercer's voice acting is spot on.
Less so is the story, which is very thin and could have done with more variety and imagination. While the energy is there in the final quarter, the set up is slightly too long. Some of the material is on the tired side.
Nice to see the nephews again, but they are primitively animated and fairly underused. Also there is some stereotyping with the Indians, and it is neither funny or tasteful as well as adding nothing.
Summing up, not bad if not great. 6/10.
