Title: Spinach Fer Britain
Studio: Famous
Date: 01/22/33
Credits:
Direction
I. Sparber
Animation:
Jim Tyer
Abner Kneitel
Story:
Carl Meyer
Series: Popeye
Running time (of viewed version): 6:17
Commercial DVD Availability: Popeye v3
Synopsis: Popeye is taking spinach to Britain on a wooden vessel, and encounters a u-boat problem.
Comments: That's a bold, memorable, Ed Roth-will-steal-it set of lettering on the word Popeye. Too bad the enemy isn't always Bluto; a uboat full of Blutos would be funny; that would have torched the character for their ability to use him in the future, or to ever make him not the worst possible guy for the duration of the war tho. Significant reuse of animation. simplified backgrounds, objects and characters. Lots of short musical phrases, mostly very similar, too much on the nose. This has none of the benefits of Famous or Fleischer cartoons; I think this is the first time in my blogging that I've actually been disappointed with a cartoon. Popeye looks terrible, the explosions look terrible, it doesn't feel very effective as propaganda.
"Terrible"? No way ... it's Jim Tyer! I love every character the man touches.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second of Tyer's three WWII propaganda Popeyes, as well as the second cartoon where you really start to see the Tyer style that would flower at Terrytoons show up. The problem here (and in the earlier "You're A Sap, Mr. Jap") is that they couldn't come up with an action scene that was fast enough to really work with Tyer's wild character distortions. That would change with the fight scene in the final cartoon, "Seein' Red White 'N Blue", where mangling the characters almost beyond recognition fit with the chaos being depicted in the battle on-screen.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best Famous Popeyes, IMHO.
ReplyDelete