Little Swee'pea

This is basically a 'Baby Herman' movie: a baby keeps obliviously wandering into perilous situations, and then just as obliviously wandering out of them again ... while the frantic guardian, all too aware of the danger, keeps getting hurt. But at least this cartoon gives Popeye a change from his usual formula of trading punches with Bluto or some other menace.

Is Swee'Pea meant to be Olive Oyl's nephew, or is he her illegitimate son? Whatever he is, Olive dumps him on Popeye for the day. Popeye dumps Swee'Pea into the pram, and heads for the zoo. There's some nice multiplane animation during the trip to the zoo, and the sequence with the cartoon elephant seems to contain some rotoscoped footage of a live-action elephant.

Most of the gags are quite obvious. At one point, Swee'Pea rides bareback astride a leopard while the soundtrack plays 'Hold that Tiger'. Given that choice of music, why didn't the animators put Swee'Pea on a tiger instead of a leopard? I suspected that there was some gag coming up involving the leopard's spots, which wouldn't work as well with a tiger's stripes. Sure enough.

I dislike movies about babies, and I like cartoon babies even less. Popeye is funnier without Swee'Pea, and it's unfortunate that Olive's role in this toon is so brief that it gives her nothing to do. More for the impressive animation than anything else, I'll rate this 6 out of 10. The Fleischer Studio's cartoons were released through Paramount. After they lost Fleischer, the cartoons produced by Paramount's in-studio animation unit were consistently the worst animation output by any major Hollywood studio. Even the worst Fleischer Popeye cartoon is far better than any of the post-Fleischer Popeyes.

Like cartoon producer Max Fleischer's star character Popeye the Sailor, Swee'Pea first appeared in E.C. Segar's comic strip THIMBLE THEATRE. In the baby's animated debut, LITTLE SWEE'PEA, he is an effective foil for Popeye. Here, the sailor takes the baby to the zoo. However, Swee'pea escapes from his carriage and wanders along the cages of various large and dangerous animals. The bulk of the cartoon concerns Popeye's efforts to rescue Swee'pea from these beasts while trying to avoid being mauled himself.

As in most of the Max Fleischer Popeye cartoons I have seen, LITTLE SWEE'PEA has a lot of clever and enjoyable gags. One particularly inventive sequence has Popeye searching for Swee'pea in a hippo's cage only to find the baby right inside the hippo when the beast opens its mouth. One wonders why this particular zoo lacks any staff to prevent babies like Swee'pea from entering these cages. Then again, if anybody was around to stop Swee'pea we'd be denied the joy of seeing Popeye struggle with the animals, wouldn't we? For this cartoon, the Fleischer staff used live-action backgrounds. The results are impressive, creation a 3-D illusion. I've never seen the colorized version of LITTLE SWEE'PEA, nor do I desire to. From what I hear, the people who recolored this black-and-white cartoon obliterated these attractive backgrounds.

And there's always the joy of listening to Jack Mercer as Popeye. He provides an ideal voice characterization, a deep gravelly voice that nevertheless conveys a jovial warmth, revealing the sailor's golden heart beneath his rough exterior. One also gets to hear Mercer's muttered ad-libs, although in my opinion there aren't enough in this particular cartoon.

LITTLE SWEE'PEA, like most of the Max Fleischer Popeye cartoons I've seen, remains fresh and funny after over sixty years. Like all fine cartoons, this is essential family entertainment, testifying to the greatness of both the Max Fleischer studio and Jack Mercer.

in this animated short,Popeye takes Swee' Pea to the zoo,and of course chaos and hi jinx ensue,with Popeye being pretty much oblivious.this is the 1st Popeye short i have seen,and i thought it was quite funny,and of course absurd.this is one of the short films from the Fleisher studio,who also did a number of Superman animated shorts,17 in all,i think.one of the funniest things about Popeye is his strange way of speaking,or mumbling rather.that and the fact that he always has a can of spinach on him no matter where he goes.of course,as soon as the can of spinach is drained,Popeye becomes super strong.in just over 7 minutes,there is a lot packed into this short.i really enjoyed it.for me,Popeye:Little Swee'Pea is an 8/10

Popeye is taking Olive Oyl to the zoo. It turns out that she's busy and he takes Swee'Pea instead. Baby's day out becomes one big adventure. This is a classic Popeye. He keeps saving the baby from the animals. Swee'Pea with the crocodile is a classic scene. There are a few other great bits. The only thing that I don't like is Popeye's closing song where he says he'll never have a baby. It's too cynical for Popeye. Overall, this is a great classic.

I remember Little See'pea as the debut cartoon for the Segar-created baby Swee'Pea. (Sock-a-Bye Baby was not Swee'pea's debut, though I at first thought that the babe whom Popeye was baby-sitting WAS Swee'pea.) This cartoon showed what Swee'Pea was like; when Popeye took him to the zoo (because Olive Oyl was too busy with housecleaning to go with Popeye), Swee'Pea crawled in and out of mischief, with Popeye in pursuit. With the aid of spinach, he spanked the hippo and threw him into the ground, then twirled a leopard, which lost its spots. The punching of the crocodile into suitcases, seen in several other Popeyes, was absent. At the end, Popeye gave Swee'pea a toy monkey, which led him to SQUALL! Olive Oyl thought that Popeye had FRIGHTENED Swee'pea, hit him with her broom. The REAL nitty-gritty was that Swee'Pea was squalling because he did not have his way. This was seen in later Popeyes featuring Swee'Pea, like Baby Wants a Bottleship and Thrill of Fair. All in all, a fine cartoon debut for Swee'Pea.