Popeye the Sailor (1933)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Dave Fleischer
(more)

Release Date:

14 July 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Musical | Family | Comedy

Plot:

Popeye introduces himself to us (including a quick live-action shot of newspapers announcing that he's a movie star)...

Plot Keywords:

Popeye | Bluto | Betty Boop | Carnival | Hula Dance

Cast

William Costello	...	Popeye (voice) (uncredited)
William Pennell	...	Bluto (voice) (uncredited)
Bonnie Poe	...	Olive Oyl (voice) (uncredited)
Mae Questel	...	Betty Boop (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Dave Fleischer
Seymour Kneitel		(animation director) (uncredited)

Produced by
Max Fleischer	....	producer (uncredited)

Animation Department
Roland Crandall	....	animator
Seymour Kneitel	....	animator

Music Department
Manny Baer	....	conductor (uncredited)
Lou Fleischer	....	musical director (uncredited)
Sammy Timberg	....	composer: incidental music (uncredited)

Other crew
Max Fleischer	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Fleischer Studios

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures

Also Known As:

Popeye the Sailor with Betty Boop (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Fleischer Studios

Trivia:

Olive Oyl and Wimpy are based on real people, too. Wimpy was based on Segar's former newspaper editor, Bill Schuschert, who was a great hamburger lover, and on an underhanded fight promoter whom Segar used to know. Olive Oyl was based on a schoolteacher named Dora Paskal, who was tall and wore high-bottom boots like Olive's and wore her hair in a bun just like Olive. She appeared in the strip long before Popeye did (her original beau was a cowboy named Ham Gravy), back when it was still called THIMBLE THEATER, long before Popeye came on the scene.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mission Hill: Pilot (The Douchebag Aspect) (#1.1)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man

Fleischer's Popeye the Sailor is great animated start for Elzie Segar's comic strip character

The Popeye character we know and love is already intact in this, his first animated appearance on film. So is Olive Oyl and Bluto. Betty Boop is also in this, in fact, she was put on in order to attract filmgoers already familiar with her but not with Elzie Segar's popular newspaper strip. It's already known that William Costello was the first voice of Popeye but very few know that a woman named Bonnie Poe was the first voice of Olive, in fact when I first saw this cartoon I already noticed how different she sounded from Ms. Oyl's usual voice! Since she was also Betty Boop, Mae Questal probably didn't want to do two voices in the same cartoon or maybe the public would be confused since they both sound the same anyway! Before Jackson Beck, William Pennell did Bluto, though I really can't tell the difference here. Fleischer-type gags abound throughout and, yes, we have the now-famous Popeye theme song and spinach finale introduced here. Well worth seeing for Popeye and animation fans.