Popeye - CAN YOU TAKE IT?

AHOY KIDS!
Old Salty here, welcoming you to another episode of CARTOONLAND! The wackiest place in front of your face!

This week we're going to look at one of my favorite cartoons. It's an old one, going way back to 1934; Fleischer Studios' CAN YOU TAKE IT? starring the one and only, POPEYE THE SAILOR!

I've always had a special place in my heart for those early Fleischer cartoons. Bizarre is a good way to describe them, also surreal, violent and just plain funny. The Fleischer brothers (Max and Dave) had a twisted, almost perverse sense of humor where almost everything was allowed. Their east coast studio and way of thinking were an almost 180 degree turn from Disney and other west coast contenders. While Disney was trying to epitomize cuteness, The Fleischer productions were more of a "warts-and-all" way of cartooning.

The dangers always seemed more real, the grit was always there. A typical New York attitude. This is where Popeye came in. A bruiser that the New Yorkers could love.

CARTOONLAND PRESENTS:

POPEYE THE SAILOR IN
CAN YOU TAKE IT?

Fleischer Studios - 1934
b&w
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Animated by Myron Waldman and Thomas Johnson
Running Time: 6:20

Popeye's manhood, challenged once again.

COOL!
Here's a classic Fleischer moment. An innocuous steel door
turns into a menacing claw, dragging a struggling
Popeye to certain doom. The weapons on the wall, a nice touch

Disney never had the imagination to do stuff like this.

Popeye learns the business end of a

double fisted "twisker punch".

A great camera angle here shows perfect setup and action
even from multiple parts of the screen and at least four things
happening at the same exact time. It reads perfectly.

Violence from start to finich, thanks to Popeye and his spinach.

Okay kids! It's cracker time! This is where Old Salty Pete ranks the cartoon of the week. It's based on the tried and true "Cracker Rating System".


Salty rates a cartoon on five aspects:

• Writing
• Music
• Animation
• Character and Background Design
• Direction

Each aspect can receive up to five crackers. Then the crackers get averaged. The more crackers, the better the cartoon. So here we go...

Writing: Fleischer Studios never really bothered much with writing. All these early cartoons were started as storyboards and gags were thrown in along the way. A lack in writing isn't a bad thing when it comes to shorts like these. But still, I can't give a lot of crackers to something that's barely there. Writing: 1 cracker

Music: The music so difficult to rate. Do I focus on Timberg's use of varied songs to punch up the action, or do I focus on the extremely repetitive (and easy to churn out) Popeye theme prevalent in every Popeye toon? Music: 3 crackers

Animation: This is not rubber hose style animation. A definite plus in my book (not that there's anything wrong with rubber hose). The characters are solid, they stick to the floor, and they interact with one another near flawlessly. Animation: 5 crackers

Character and Background Design: A lot of characters in this short, and a lot of that really cool Fleischer automation that I love to see. Dave was a master of the masochistic machine. Popeye, Bluto and Olive were lacking a bit in design quality. This might be because this cartoon was the lead animator's (Myron Waldman) only Popeye cartoon.
Design: 4 crackers

Direction: Incredible pans, pull backs and camera angles make a Fleischer cartoon great. This cartoon is no exception. Direction: 5 crackers

TOTAL CRACKERS - 3.6

Want to learn more about Popeye cartoons?Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleischer_Studios

BYE KIDS! KEEP YER BEAK CLEAN AND I'LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

A Word From Salty Pete

AHOY! And welcome to the maiden voyage of the U.S.S. Cartoonland. Our humble little corner of the blogoshere.
I'm your host, Salty Pete, master of the seven seas and plunderer of the digital deep known to most as the in-ter-nut.

There's two things old Salty Pete loves; that's CARTOONS and CRACKERS! And that leads me to why we're here.

I've collected a LOT of cartoons and I love to share them with everyone. You can also read Old Pete's Squawk Box where I rate each cartoon on five different points: Writing, Design, Music, Animation, and Direction. I'll rate each cartoon with Crackers! The better the toon, the more crackers it deserves. Pretty simple, huh?

<--Pete's Rating Crackers (don't eat 'em)

We'll discuss toons from all over the world, Toons from yesterday and today, from TV and from the big screen. And if there's a specific toon you want to read about, E-mail me a cracker and I'll see what I can do!

Keep your beak clean, kids! I'll see you next week!