Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938

Okay, I know that last time I promised I'd have that "Star Trek: Captain's Log" DVD review ready for today, and I was all prepared to divide it into two parts and post it. But between the time I wrote the bulk of it out and today, for some reason I just can't lay my hands on the blasted thing. So it looks like it's on hold yet again 'til who knows when. But, in its place I've got a commentary on a new release that I'm sure when the DVD review boards select their top releases for 2007, this will most certainly be the animated release of the year.

Way back in my youth, I recall that the first time I ever saw "Popeye the Sailor" on TV was in an animated half-hour program each day on one of the local syndicated stations. These were a series of three or four color cartoons each, selected mostly from the 1960's and some from the 1950's, all of them variants on the same theme of Popeye the do-gooder in the scenario fighting off the big bully Brutus to win the honor of long-time girlfriend Olive Oyl. These segments were cheesy and for the most part good clean fun. Then, of course, there was the big 1980 live-action feature film directed by the late Robert Altman with Robin Williams (seemingly miscast) as Popeye and Shelley Duvall (perfectly cast, though) as Olive Oyl - I thought that was the biggest thing to come down the pike since sliced cheese. Not to mention all of those Saturday morning cartoon series throughout the 1980's. Who would have thought that there was so much history to Popeye that came decades before? Certainly not me!

Believe it or not, Popeye has been around since the early 1930's, when he made his debut in E.C. Segar's comic strip "Thimble Theater". For that matter, when the strip began, he wasn't even the star at first - that honor went to Olive Oyl and her family. Popeye didn't come onto the scene until at least a full year later, and at that time he was a supporting player. But once he arrived, things fell in place, and "Thimble Theater" really took off with Popeye as the star. Then, in 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer brought Popeye to life as the star of a series of aniimated theatrical shorts released by Paramount Pictures that ran for at least the next two decades. From time to time I would catch portions of these segments on TV, thinking how cheesy and amateurish they were - how little I knew. But at the time of their release, animation was emerging and growing as a thriving theatrical form in the 1930's.

Now, Warner Home Video has brought together 60 of these classic shorts from the 1930's together into the new four-disc "Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938". And before I go any further, I've got to say this - if you've never seen Popeye before, or even if you're a long-time fan, you're going to be absolutely blown away by this new set!

All 60 of these segments represented in this new set have been lovingly restored and mastered from the best nitrate sources available and presented in chronological order of release, so what you're getting are seven hours of cartoons that look incredibly crisp and full of detail. Granted, we're talking animated films that are 70-75 years old, and there's some obvious age and grain present at times, but overall the crispness and clarity in each segment is beyond belief! Over the past decade we've seen a lot of cheapjack releases slapped together from poor prints, looking and sounding questionable at times - not so with Warner's release. While the sound is English mono soun, it's perfectly acceptable when given the stunning visual quality here!

The set starts off with the initial installment from 1933, entitled, aptly enough, "Popeye the Sailor", which features Popeye singing his signature theme song and even appearing alongside long-time cartoon star Betty Boop for a number. If that weren't enough, it's got lyrics to it that I've never heard before! How's that for initiation? Now someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I clearly remember seeing in print these lyrics:

"I'm Popeye the sailor man,
I live in a garbage can.
I love to go swimmin' with bow-legged women,
I'm Popeye the sailor man."

Can anyone confirm if these lyrics were ever recorded and used in one of the cartoons?

From there the set just gets better and better with each successive segment across the four discs. As if that weren't enough, in addition to the black-and-white one-reelers, Warner has included two of its most stunning Popeye efforts to date, the Academy Award-nominated "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor" on Disc 3 and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" on Disc 4. Both of these impressive Technicolor two-reel entries, running nearly 20 minutes each, were at the time of their releases the pinnacles of the Fleischer Studios, and at many theaters at the top of the marquees - and this was before the overwhelming success of Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and the Fleischers' own adaptation of "Superman" in the 1940's! If you think the black-and-white segments are something, just wait until you see how beautiful these two color segments look!

Another thing that Warner has done that earns big points in my eyes is that they have kept all of these segments intact and unedited as originally shown in theaters in the 1930's, complete with a disclaimer at the start of each disc stating these views. In this day and age of political correctness, it would have taken a miracle to get these cartoons released in the theaters or on television with the amount of racial, ethnic, and sexual connotations that were obviously present in these entries. Case in point: check out the entry with Popeye and Betty Boop - as Betty dances hula style, it becomes clearly obvious that all she has on is a grass skirt and lei and nothing else! For that matter, in "The Twisker Pitcher", they've clearly kept in a bit where once a baseball is hit, it jumps up in black face and says, "Mammy!" which is not only a tip of the hat to Al Jolson but also a poke at black stereotypes at the time. (And you thought that Disney was the only one who got away with some of this sneakiness!) Furthermore, with the recent rash of TV series and movies released on DVD with alterations left and right, it's refreshing to see a DVD release that is preserved as it was originally intended, despite its sometimes controversial content.

As if that weren't enough, Warner has seen fit to include quite a generous amount of supplement on this four-disc "Popeye" set. First off, it has interview segments and no less than 22 different audio commentaries from numerous contributors to the set, among them historians Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Daniel Goldmark, and Glenn Mitchell; animators Dave Tendlar, Mark Kausler, Jorge Gutierrez, and Sandra Equihua; filmmaker Greg Ford; directors Eric Goldberg, John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Terry Gilliam (yes, that Terry Gilliam of "Monty Python" fame!); "Superman" and "Batman" writer/producer Paul Dini; film producer Michael E. Uslan (who produced the first four "Batman" theatrical films); actor Jack Mercer; and cartoonist Kali Fontecchio, among others. Now how's that for an impressive line-up! All of the above participants also contributed to two retrospective documentaries - "I Yam What I Yam: The Story of Popeye the Sailor" on Disc 1 and "Forging the Frame: The Roots of Animation 1900-1920" on Disc 2 - and no less than eight brief yet separate "Popumentaries" on the set, including "Mining the Strip: Elzie Segar and Thimble Theater" and "Me Fickle Goyl, Olive Oyl: The World's Least Likely Sex Symbol" on Disc 1; "Wimpy the Moocher: Ode to the Burgermeister" and "Sailor's Hornpipes: The Voices of Popeye" on Disc 2; "Blow Me Down! The Music of Popeye" and "Popeye in Living Color: A Look at the Color Two-Reelers" on Disc 3; and "Me Lil' Swee'pea: Whose Kid is He Anyway?" and "Et Tu, Bluto? Cartoondom's Heaviest Heavy" on Disc 4.

"I Yam What I Yam" covers the history of Popeye's origins in "Thimble Theater" and his growth throughout the 1930's cartoons. "Forging the Frame" is extremely interesting, as it takes a look back at the origins of animation in film, providing viewers with some extremely vintage animation footage from the first 20 years of film, something that as time passes becomes harder and harder to preserve - thank goodness for studios like Warner! "Mining the Strip" takes a look at how the cast from "Thimble Theater" was translated from comic strip to screen, as well as Segar's involvement in the creation of the Popeye cartoons with the Fleischers. "Me Fickle Goyl" is a humorous look at how the beanpole-thin Olive Oyl became the center of Popeye's affections over the decades. "Wimpy the Moocher" is an equally humorous look at the lovable character who made "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" a household slogan.

"Sailor's Hornpipes" is a look at the different voices for the Popeye character, while "Blow Me Down" looks at the creation of Popeye's signature theme for the series. "Popeye in Living Color" analyzes the Fleischers' first attempts at bringing the cast to life in both of the two-reel segments, the combination of animation and physical sets, the entries' overwhelming success, and their inspiration for the "Superman" segments of the 1940's. "Me Lil' Swee'pea" is an affectionate look at the series' youngest cast member and puts to rest once and for all just who the baby's parent really is. Finally, "Et Tu, Bluto?" looks at Popeye's frequent nemesis and competition for Olive Oyl's hand. All of these documentaries and featurettes can be accessed either through the main episode menu or through the separate bonus features menu on each retrospective disc.

If you think all that material is enough to make you want to pick your jaw off the floor, think again. Warner has taken the extra step in giving viewers a look at no less than 16 vintage animated reels from Hollywood's golden years! On Disc 1 we have a look at three silent shorts from Bray Productions - "Colonel Heeza Liar at the Bat" (1915), "Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing" (1916), and the Mutt and Jeff short "Domestic Difficulties" (1916). Disc 2 contains three more Bray Productions shorts - "Bobby Bumps Puts a Beanery on the Bum" (1918), "Feline Follies" (1919), and "The Tantalizing Fly" (1919). Disc 3 has six short subjects from its "Out of the Inkwell" series - "Modeling" and "Invisible Ink" (1921), "Bubbles" and "Jumping Beans" (1922), and "Bedtime" and "Trapped" (1923). Finally, on Disc 4, we have three more "Out of the Inkwell" shorts - "A Trip to Mars" (1924), "Koko Trains 'Em" (1925), and "Koko Back Tracks" (1927) - along with a Fleischer short subject from 1933, "Let's Sing With Popeye", which is basically a short pre-music video/karaoke sing-along segment lifted from the opening moments of the first Popeye segment.

All of these vintage cartoons are taken from the best surviving elements out there, including some prints preserved by the George Eastman House. The quality is obviously rough and in not the best of shape, given the age of these elements, but at least we should be glad that these animated segments were preserved to begin with. Without them, a major piece of cinematic history would be forever lost. But through these short subjects we see the genesis of film animation and its influences not only on the Fleischers but also Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and many more over the generations.

But we're still not yet done. Disc 4 also contains a trailer gallery for upcoming animated DVD releases, such as "Tom and Jerry" and the first season release of "The Smurfs", among others. In addition, at the head of Disc 4, are unadvertised trailers for the net "Looney Tunes" compilation and the forthcoming "Superman: Doomsday" direct-to-DVD project coming in September. Furthermore, Best Buy customers can also pick up this four-disc set in an exclusive collector's tin.

Whew! Now how's that for a DVD feast? Simply put, Warner Home Video has done an extremely outstanding job in producing a very high quality release with an equally staggering amount of main and supplemental content for Popeye and classic film and animation fans alike, and they have reset the bar to a higher level than ever for preserving a major slice of film history. Other studios, take notice - this is how the game is played. Don't be surprised that this set walks away with a slew of major DVD awards next year from different review boards and web sites! To everyone at Warner Home Video, take a bow, ladies and gentlement, for a DVD well done - you deserve it!