Spinach Skrewtny: 1943
Added 2021-07-21 00:00:03 +0000 UTCDidja miss us? We're back, for the conclusion of the black-and-white theatrical Popeye cartoons, now wholly done at Famous Studios. Jim Tyer comes into his own in a set up of wartime propaganda pictures, while the other Famous writers and directors take the wrong lessons from Warners and apply them to some of the hardest-to-see (or hardest-to-watch?) cartoons ever made with the sailor. The Hungry Goat - need we say more?
Cartoons discussed: Spinach Fer Britain, Seein' Red, White N' Blue, Too Weak to Work, A Jolly Good Furlough, Ration Fer the Duration, The Hungry Goat, Happy Birthdaze, Wood-Peckin', and Cartoons Ain't Human.
Comments
I know, right? It’s a shame that films back then were largely viewed as disposable.
2021-08-21 19:13:51 +0000 UTCI'll also break with every other cartoon fan ever by saying not all the Gabby cartoons are totally unsalvageable. The best ones (like IT'S A HAP HAP HAPPY DAY) acknowledge that Gabby is a pest that nobody likes and ruins everything he touches, and it almost works.
Ken Martinez
2021-08-18 01:26:58 +0000 UTCIt crossed my mind to post this in an earlier episode, but I always think about how King Features’ original contract with Fleischer in 1932 stated that every element of the Popeye cartoons be destroyed after a decade. That would have meant all the Popeyes in Fleischer's name would have been discarded. Thank God for the foresight that prevented that from happening. I mean, can you imagine a world without the entirety of the Fleischer Popeyes, even when they were truly at their peak from 1935-38?
Devon Baxter
2021-08-12 20:47:46 +0000 UTCThe Shorty cartoons and the Hungry Goat are interesting to me because they should be unbearable, and would have been in another era, but the timing and gags are on point enough to gloss over their flaws Ditto the shorts with the nephews, Before that, you would have ended up with something like the Gabby shorts, and after that they would have been as dreary and miserable as the worst 50's shorts. Those early Famous shorts perversely mastered how to wring comedy out of deliberately annoying characters.
Ken Martinez
2021-08-11 22:04:50 +0000 UTCI agree with you - THE MARRY-GO-ROUND with its casting of Shorty as a competent casanova is one of my favorite Famous cartoons and we'll be discussing that in our next episode. -Thad
Thad Komorowski
2021-07-22 01:02:57 +0000 UTCfeel like shorty could have been a really, really good supporting character if they had done more with him than just have him act as a screwup. i think my favorite shorty appearance was in the marry-go-round, definitely one of my favorite color popeyes even though its another stooge cartoon also, generally not a fan of cartoons aint human. feels like they absolutely forced it to come out and it just stinks, though i do like the closing act with the crazy projector shit
2021-07-21 22:20:59 +0000 UTCBilly the Kid is no Screwy Squirrel, but it is cool to see a screwball character in a Popeye cartoon. They really took the meta humor trope and ran with it in this one.
2021-07-21 17:02:18 +0000 UTCShorty's such a fuck-up, I'm surprised he wasn't given a 4F.
Devon Baxter
2021-07-21 04:42:01 +0000 UTCThank you for posting something that has nothing to do with Space Jam. I needed that.
Deb Perry
2021-07-21 03:17:30 +0000 UTC
