The Twisker Pitcher

The Twisker Pitcher (1937)

**** (out of 4)

It's opening day of baseball and Popeye and Bluto are playing against one another when the mean Bluto goes up 21-0 entering the final inning.

THE TWISKER PITCHER is certainly one of the best episodes from the long-running series. If you're a fan of Popeye or just baseball then you're going to love the creative style on full display here, which includes a lot of baseball action as well as some funny fights. These fights include Olive Oyl going up against Bluto's girlfriend who looks like like him! There are many highlights in the film but one of the best happens when Bluto comes to the plate with the bases loaded. There's a lot of funny moments throughout this short.

It is Popeye's Pirates vs Bluto's Bears at the baseball stadium. Olive Oyl is battling Bluto's girlfriend in the stands. Popeye drops his can of spinach. Bluto eats it all, fills it back up with weeds, and gives it to Popeye. Popeye is surprised by Bluto's new-found excellence. When Popeye eats his spinach, he is shocked by his even worst performance. He pulls out a pack of spinach seeds.

They are switching it up a little in this episode. If Bluto knows about spinach, he would be eating it all the time. Let's not think about that although I always assumed that he hates the taste of spinach. This is interesting and a little different.

In this episode of the Popeye cartoon series, he and Bluto are pitchers on opposing baseball teams. Popeye packs a can of spinach for a pick-me-up. However, when it falls out of his jersey, Bluto eats it and puts grass in the can. And so, by the unvarying physical laws of the cartoon universe, it's Bluto who can do all the fancy stuff, and Popeye who is humiliated.

Bluto got to eat spinach in a couple of other cartoons, but he never carried the learned lesson for wrong. Instead, we are left here with a sense of anxiety -- because how will Popeye win the day without cheating? -- and the usuaal large number of gags that director Dave Fleischer put into his cartoons.

This is much cheaper than attending a major league game and more entertaining to boot, although at times it bears little resemblance to anything drawn up by Abner Doubleday. Olive has the best scene, right at the end. Great fun and worth watching. Recommended.

If you know anything about baseball, all you can do is shake your head and laugh (or groan) and the craziness of the game shown in cartoons. Whether it's Popeye, Goofy or some other cartoon figure, you know you are going to see insane antics on the diamond.

Much of the time you see the same things: pitchers who delivers fast balls and curves like you've never seen; catches in the outfield in which the outfield pushes back the entire section of the stands and then catches the ball; and other one-man feats that only Superman could perform. Mostly, you see things that are totally ludicrous, such as Popeye in this cartoon coming to bat 21 times in a space of 10 seconds! All can you is just enjoy the lunacy and laugh.

The big baseball game features "Popeye's Pirates" versus "Bluto's Bears." Each has a special box seat for their best fan. For Popeye, it's Olive Oyl and for Bluto some big heavyset woman. They are right next to each other so you know some fireworks will take place between those two, not just Popeye and Bluto.

What set this Popeye cartoon apart from others is that Popeye's can of spinach drops out of his pocket right before the game and Bluto downs the green stuff, replacing the empty can with weeds. This produces problems for Popeye, as you can imagine.

Overall, more funny stuff and a cartoon that just flew by because it was so entertaining. (Hey, I'm a baseball fan.)