Brotherly Love

Brotherly Love (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Fast-moving Popeye cartoon as Olive Oyl calling the sailor out saying he needs some brotherly love so he heads out to do some good deeds but soon runs into a riot.

BROTHERLY LOVE once again flows like a classical music as we're given a terrific little score as well as an extremely catchy title song. As you'd expect the animation itself is extremely good and there's just a fun nature that is running throughout the entire running time. There are some pretty funny moments with that raspy voice Popeye talking to people as he does his thing. The final fight itself is quite memorable.

Inspired by Olive Oyl's singing, Popeye sets out with a skip and a jump to help his fellow man. When he encounters a riot, however, he finds himself suffering for his beliefs.

There are a lot of small, hidden gags in this Fleischer cartoon lurking in the background, from a reference to Chaplin's EASY STREET to the signs that proclaim what business is conducted in a shop. Although the dirt of Segar's THIMBLE THEATER comic strip is lacking, there is always the amusingly run-down and twisted urban landscape to amuse the observant audience, and the "I Yam What I Yam" attitude of the Sailor Man. It's a solid and funny episode in the cartoon series.

Olive is annoyed by Popeye's propensity for violence and talks him into preaching brotherly love. So he sets out to help people. This is fine at first, but when he comes upon a couple of brawling groups, he puts a different kind of "love" into the equation. I believe spinach becomes involved.

This is my favorite Popeye cartoon. Made on the 1930's, it captures the humor and style of its time. In my opinion, the cartoon is sarcastic at the highest degree. In those days, Europe was at the dawn of the Second World War, and "brotherly love" was spoken of but never really practiced. The music is very good too. Watching today's cartoons, I get a bit disappointed at the lack of simplicity of the material watched by our children. Perhaps Popeye is not as influential upon children today as it was in my childhood, and this is a pity, because he is a unique character - I ate spinach mainly because of him. Many people say that Popeye is politically incorrect, because he smokes and uses violence to solve problems, and also because spinach is not so good to health as we used to think. But ... does this really matter? The cartoon is funny, interesting and sticks to our memory. So "all we need is brotherly love".

Somehow, I doubt that Gandhi would recognize the conclusion of this short as a good example of brotherly love! A very funny cartoon, well executed and true to the character's nature. Olive is in her typically "fine" voice, as is Popeye, in the singing of the title song. Very good cartoon, if a tad obvious in spots. Well worth watching. Recommended.