Plumbing Is a 'Pipe'

The character of Popeye was entertaining enough early on in the Fleischer Studios days, when William Costello was doing vocal duties. But the real spark that made Popeye special was when Jack Mercer took over. Mercer started as part of the animation team and then became the voice of Popeye. The choice of Mercer was perfect, because Mercer basically created Popeye's personality, particularly with the mutterings and under the breath asides Popeye would make that were usually funnier than the principal dialogue.

Plumbing Is a "Pipe" is an excellent example of this aspect of the Popeye shorts voiced by Mercer. Listen for Mercer's remarks throughout the final four or five minutes of this one. That, and the fact that Wimpy is a "plumber", are hilarious and make this worth tracking down. Most recommended.

What's nice about watching these old Popeye cartoons on the new Popeye The Sailor DVD sets is that you can play them with English subtitles. So.....all those times Popeye is mumbling something to himself, you can discover what he's saying, and many times it is hilarious. That was certainly the case in this cartoon as Popeye tries everything to fix leaks in all of Olive's pipes. Things get out of hand and her house is nearly flooded.

Of course, it all starts with a tiny leak than Olive discovers one morning. She tries plugging it, but holding a finger on the leak- like the famous Dutch boy and the dike - isn't going to work here and things go from bad-to-worse. Finally, she calls a plumber. That's a good idea, but a bad choice when the plumber turns out to be Wimpy, who winds up no help at all.

It's Popeye to the rescue and how it's done is pretty funny, but the best parts are his mumbling and his voice. Kudos to Jack Mercer. His voice-work on Popeye, as fellow reviewer Robert Reynolds point out, was fantastic!

Plumbing Is a 'Pipe' (1938)

*** (out of 4)

Amusing short has Olive springing a leap from a bad pipe so she calls a plumber (Wimpy) who is too slow but luckily for her Popeye shows up.

I wouldn't call this a classic short but there's enough action here where fans of the series should have a good time with it. The lack of laughs is a little bit of a letdown but the action is enough to get you through the short running time. The highlight of the film is when Popeye has finally had enough and pulls out the spinach to battle the pipes. As you'd expect the animation is extremely good and especially the various scenes with the water gushing around.

A pipe in Olive Oyl's house starts to leak. She calls plumber Wimpy, but he keeps getting delayed. Meanwhile, Popeye shows up and tries to fix the problem. Each time he tries something, it only makes it worse.

This is Margie Hines'' first time voicing Olive Oyl, and to someone like me, accustomed to Mae Questal's performance, it's not very good. Still, the gags are up to par, and Dr. Seuss would later use the arc of every attempt to fix things making it worse in THE CAT IN THE HAT, albeit without spinach.

Peculiarly, when Wimpy stops to eat lunch, it's a chicken in a loaf of bread, and ot a hamburger.

Olive has a leaky pipe. She calls Wimpy the plumber but he keeps forgetting things and delayed by lunch. Popeye arrives and tries to fix it himself. This is a classic. All the pipe work is classic cartoon. The only one missing is Bluto. I actually remember this when it was shown right after school in the old days when black and white cartoon reruns are still being shown. All the pipe work may have been reused in other colored cartoons. They're classic.