Title: Seein' Red, White 'n' Blue
Studio: Famous
Date: 02/19/43
Credits:
Direction
Dan Gordon
Animation:
Jim Tyer
Ben Solomon
Story:
Joe Stultz
Series: Popeye
Running time (of viewed version): 6:50
Commercial DVD Availability: Popeye v3
Synopsis: As it turns out, Bluto and Popeye are actual friends, as they will help each other personally in war time...
Comments: Abnormally high level of foot humor in the opening. Bluto delivers a fey "nosey". Bluto's voice track seems terribly recorded (it might be all the audio. Then there's the way he doesn't sound like Bluto at all. Devil also has the fey voice. Weird inexplicable things like the angel. And the Japanese orphan spies (I guess we're going to need to put all those American kids in camps). Weirdly limited and ugly animation. Weird fog horn sound coming from Hitler (Mark Kausler's commentary says it's the Life Buoy soap ad). Weird barbershop singing of Bluto's name at the end by the Japanese spies. The horse's human foot has a nipple on the back of it (Mark K say's it's a riff on the Jell-O tag, which I should have noticed on my own). How did Popeye get to be on the draft board? Anyone know who Ed Fay was?
The first cartoon that really lets Jim Tyer be Jim Tyer, which means there's absolutely nothing subtle about it (Tyer's scenes in cartoons helmed by Dan Gordon or Izzy Sparber do look incredibly sloppy, but as with Clampett using Rod Scribner over at Warners for the wildest action scenes, Tyer gave himself the scenes where the most action was, and the character distortion made the most sense).
ReplyDeleteThe story and pacing show that Famous had learned a lot from the west coast studios - other than an Avery or Clampett cartoon circa Feb. 1943, nobody else was doing anything this fast right now. Which is why it was so disappointing that Famous' cartoons started to slow down again when the studio moved back to New York and were dully paced by default by the end of the 1940s.