Popeye for President

It's the Presidential election time and Popeye, of the Spinach Party, is running against Bluto, of the Blutocratic Party. Popeye promises free ice cream while Bluto dishes out cigars. Things are not looking good for our hero, according to the crowd size. Popeye has just one little dog sitting there waging is tale while Bluto has a huge group of people listening to him.

While the two candidates get in an argument, they notice a neon ticker-tape sign flashing on a nearby building that says the election is all tied up with just one vote left in Green County: a "Miss Olive Oyl." Naturally, our two rivals are going to do their best to persuade Olive to vote for them so they race out to the country outskirts to woo her.

Popeye's methods of chopping and stack wood, plowing the field and putting hay in the hayloft are creative and very funny. Bluto is stupid and ineffective in every thing he does in this cartoon, an appropriate representative of his party name.

Popeye is running for the Spinach Party. Bluto is running for the rival Blutocratic Party. They end up tied with only Olive Oyl yet to vote. They both rush out to the country for her vote, but she has chores to do.

This premise makes no sense. I make a lot of leeway for a cartoon, but this really makes no sense. I'm not sure where to begin. If this is a local election, all the quirks can be excused. This apparently is a big city election or maybe the Presidency. Let's hope that the kids didn't watch this to learn about the democratic process. Schoolhouse Rock wouldn't need spinach to beat this.

The Popeye/Paramount cartoons were winding down--1957's CRYSTAL BRAWL being the last one. And like The Three Stooges;half of them were using stock footage.

So this is one of the better ones---the Popeye/Bluto rivalry taken t he highest stakes of all--The White House. Hey,this looks downright ssane compared to the state of USA politics today and the Trumpchimpanzees ruining America bit by bit. Well,at least we kept a boor from The White House for a 60-year reprieve.

With a title like that, you expect a lot more than Popeye and Bluto helping Olive out with farm chores so she can get to the polls. How about Popeye kicking out Congress?? Single-handedly building new roads?? How about Bluto trying to frame him in a scandal?? How about entertaining us??!!

Popeye for President (1956)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye and Bluto are running for President and they soon realize that the election is tied with only one person in the country who hasn't voted yet and that's Olive Oyl. Both men rush to her farm to win her vote by doing the various chores.

POPEYE FOR PRESIDENT is certainly one of the better shorts from this era of the series. There's a lot of great action throughout the film as well as some nice laughs. The highlights certainly begin once we're on the farm and we get some creative scenes of Popeye helping out on the farm including a very funny bit dealing with some wood that needs chopped. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy this film as the action is non-stop.