Little Swee'pea

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.

Many fine cartoons were seen with Dave Fleischer. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

While not quite one of my favourite Popeye cartoons, 'Little Swee Pea' is still very well made and great fun, with plenty of amusement and managing to not be too cute. This is not a Popeye versus Bluto cartoon, and another change of pace for Popeye, which are every bit as enjoyable and in a good deal of them even more so than the Popeye versus Bluto efforts. The premise is not an original one, so the cartoon is on the formulaic side, but 'Little Swee Pea' has enough invention to stop it from becoming predictable and repetitive, or too much so at least. It is a fine example of why Popeye and his cartoon appeal a lot to me and what makes them work so well is all evident here.

Olive Oyl is on the bland and underused side, but Popeye and debuting Swee Pea are dead on. Popeye is very easy to like and is is amusing yet easy to feel sympathy for, but despite being a baby Swee Pea manages to be an even more interesting character, avoiding being obnoxious or too cute and is both adorable and funny. Their chemistry/interaction was essential for 'Little Swee Pea' to work and sparkles.

There are many clever and very amusing to hilarious gags, the cartoon is hardly short-changed in this regard. A highlight is the sequence with the hippo. The asides and mumblings are even funnier and helped by Jack Mercer's ever genius vocal delivery, just wish there was more.

Regarding the animation, it is very good as always from this period. It's beautifully drawn and with immaculate visual detail, that doesn't ever feel cluttered or static, and lively and smooth movement. The music likewise, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.

Jack Mercer easily steals the show when it comes to the voice acting, for all the above reasons.

In conclusion, very nicely done Popeye cartoon and a worthy introduction to Swee Pea. 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 grew up watching this Popeye and unlike the heroes the kids have to look up to today he was honest, truthful and always did the right thing even when it meant more trouble for his "predicamink". Granted Popeye never took himself to seriously but that's just another factor that endeared him for me. Just simply a great cartoon as all the old Popeye cartoons are. Oh and for those of you asking about Swee'Pea and where he came from, he was an orphan. One legend has it that Popeye found him in the Swee'Pea vines, thus the name. The other legend says he was left on the Oyle family's' doorstep. According to this version when first introduced to Popeye he "socked" him right in the eye and Popeye said he "layed me in the Swee'Peas!" Thus another origin for the name. Olive seemed to have became his adoptive Mother. So take your pick of origin legends but please allow this to put to rest any notion of Swee'Pea being an illegitimate child once and for all. Let us not tarnish the long standing respect for Popeye and his world.

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.