Popeye - The 1940's Collections!

Recently added the 1940's Popeye cartoons to my collection and enjoyed them thoroughly. These are some of the cartoons starring the Sailor Man which are most impressed in my memory from childhood and many many hours catching the cartoons in the afternoons. These are all in color and in these cleaned up versions are brilliant to behold -- they've never looked this good in my experience. Whether the method was Technicolor or the cheaper Polacolor, all the cartoons are handsome. 

That said, these are not as strong as the earliest Popeye cartoons from the Fleisher studios. Too many of the cartoons have mechanical plots which are just gimmicks to get Bluto and Popeye fighting over Olive. The settings change but the characters are the same all the time. The wonderful gruffness of Popeye's vintage muttering is diminished a great deal and so he's somewhat simplified as a hero, and even at times appears to be a dupe. Bluto changes, sometimes beyond immediate recognition but his role as antagonist is fulfilled by him or some dope very similar.

A few here and there break from the pattern and they are refreshing to see. These are shining vintage cartoons, but be warned that all signs of political correctness have been removed for the sake of authenticity. There's racism and sexism galore in many of these cartoons, but any adult should be able to encounter them without getting triggered. Seek to be insulted and you shall find. 

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Into The Enchanted Forest !

Last week while I was plumbing the depths of a quintet of Harvey Comics collections I was also spending some time watching some vintage Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons. I picked this collection up earlier this year and it contains a wealth of Casper stuff. There are all 55 Casper cartoons made for theater release from 1945 to 1959 by Famous Studios (the former Fleisher Brothers operation) for Paramount Pictures. Also included are 26 new cartoons made in 1963 when the Casper TV show hit the air. It's a remarkable collection to watch as the series switches from full animation to a stylized versions similar to what UPI was doing to the limited animation which came to dominate and make possible television animation. There is even one of them which was designed for 3-D though this collection only has the very handsome 2-D version. 

Now I've always been a little off put by Casper's treacly personality in the past and at times it grates here still, but I found more of a classic cartoon subversive quality to many of these cartoons. I especially grew to look forward to the nigh inevitable reactions from adult humans and animals to the presence of a ghost with the classic "It's a G-g-g-Ghost!" stammer and a creative exit. My personal favorite is a cartoon where a scientist working a time machine is explaining his device, sees Casper and then erupts with fear transforming into a rocket and heading into the stratosphere. The the Popeye transformations when Spinach got onto the scene and into his system, these fearful changes were something to energize the cartoons. 

The cartoon series and the comic book were particularly interrelated with many of the cartoons adpated to comics later the reverse when Harvey took full control of the character and made the TV episodes. We get lots more Spooky and Wendy, both who had shown on the big screen and we get Nightmare's debut. These cartoons from the Shout Factory were quite entertaining at times, more than I expected. I got them because of the high quality of Shout Factory products and my general interest in the Fleisher Studios and Famous Studios cartoons. I liked them for their own merits quite a bit. 

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