Shiver Me Timbers!

You already know that I am a huge Popeye fan, and I am also a fan of the Fleischer Studio's work. This is a favorite Popeye cartoon, perfect for Halloween. It has a little bit of the spooky surrealism that was used in "Minnie the Moocher" and "Betty's Hallowe'en Party," both starring Betty Boop.

In this short, Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy are out for a picnic on the beach when they come upon a ghost ship. Of course, they climb aboard the ship where the ghosts attack them. But thankfully, Popeye brought his can of spinach along.

Like I said, I didn't have any particular scenes I liked because I loved the whole cartoon. There is another good Popeye short for Halloween called "Ghosks Is the Bunk" from 1939, where Popeye and Olive used invisible paint to pretend to be ghosts to get even with Bluto, who had played a scary trick on the pair in an old, deserted hotel. Anyway, this cartoon is a great, spooky cartoon for Halloween or any other time of year.

Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy come across a beached hulk with a sign proclaiming it a ghost ship, so of course they decide to investigate. Spooky stuff happens.

The Popeye cartoons had settled into rhythms that differed from the usual chaotic hodge-podge of gags that director Dave Fleischer liked. Instead, the animators had settled on a more deliberate and structured series of gags, with the pace increasing until Popeye eats his spinach, then a half minute of pounding the **** out of the ghosts, skeletons, and threatening waves to restore order. Cue "I'm strong to the finish" and a couple of toots on the pipe.

Lovers of classic movie cues will note not only Mysterioso #2, but "The Worms Crawl In".

Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy come across a ghost ship. Of course, despite concerns by the other two, Popeye insists on injecting his macho self onto the ship. What follows is lot of ghost cartoon action. Eventually spinach rears its head (excuse the absurd image) and Popeye faces the spirits.

This is a "ghost ship" story and not really anything that funny, at least nowhere as good as the normal Popeye cartoon by this time. It might be even a little bit too scary for small kids.

Popeye, Olive and Wimpy come across this ghostly ship one day. (The three of them seem to go out boating a lot, and wind up on desert islands.)

The boat has some humorous features, such as neon-type signs that change and floorboards which move up and down making music, but then its a mite sadistic as ghosts tie up our three pals and torture them, although not in any gruesome way. Yet still, as mentioned, it's a little dark for small kids to be watching. I sometimes think these early Popeye cartoons were made more for adults. Popeye then finally figures a way to fight these sadistic spirits, but isn't done in his normally-humorous fashion.

Shiver Me Timbers! (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy are out sailing when they come across a ghost ship. Of course, they enter the ship when ghosts attack them but thankfully Popeye brought his spinach along. This is a pretty good entry in the series that manages to be fairly funny, although I'm pretty sure the ghosts in the film would scare most younger kids. The animation is very good throughout with a lot of thought going into the ghost ship as well as a storm that pops up towards the end. Wimpy gets some dialogue in this short and also manges to have some of the best scenes including one where he stumbles upon some haunted hamburgers. It's also interesting to see Popeye being more human here because at first he's scared of the ghosts. In previous films, the word fear never came into play.