First Impressions

My son, who didn't grow up with Popeye and had only seen a few cartoons in his time, recently started watching them.  I asked him to give me his initial impressions,seeing each film fresh and only once from the perspective of a 14 year old of today.  He hadn't read all my web pages about the cartoons either.  He rated them from Bomb! to * * * * and made some comments.  He did laugh out loud several times during each cartoon.

 
Page last updated 11-23-2002.  See Whats New page for details.

 
Part 1



 
 
 
 
 
 

Cartoons Comments and Ratings
Vacation With Play Olive Oyl is kind of weird.  "I love you!  Oops, don't kiss me!  Help Popeye!"  If I was Popeye, I would have let her be kissed.  She was asking for it.  Rating: * * * 3/4
Klondike Casanova I liked the little guy and the fact that Popeye and Olive had to do everything in the bar.  Olive Oyl was asking for it again.  A funny cartoon.  Popeye shaking and making ice cubes was good. Rating: * * * 1/4
Cops Is Tops I thought the role reversals were interesting. Rating: * * * 
Floor Flusher Olive always sounds like "a blonde" when she talks, if you know what I mean.  The water faucet war!  It was funny where the leaks occurred.  It's a nice change to have Olive Oyl not coming on to Bluto.  She has the right to yell, "Help, Popeye," in this one.  The cartoons were a lot better animated back then than they are today. Rating: * * * *
Farmer And The Belle The simplest things, like getting a job, become a war when Olive and guys are involved.  Popeye and Bluto make everything into a contest.  "Hey, let's see who can breathe the best!"  I don't know why Olive didn't just hire them both, seeing as how she had a big farm.  It was great when the hen smashed Bluto with the egg.  I liked the fact that Popeye actually did something in this cartoon to earn the animal's respect and help.   Rating: * * * *
Popeye Meets Hercules It was great seeing all the mythological creatures.  Why did Olive want to be saved from Hercules?  She was flirting with him!   Rating:  * * * 1/2
Egypt Us A KFS cartoon.  Funny, but had no heart and soul.  Just kinda there.   Rating:  * * 1/2 
The Mighty Navy A Fleischer cartoon.  Boring!  Not as funny as the other ones.  Kinda pointless.  Just gags strung together.  No story.   Rating:  * 
You're A Sap, Mr. Jap I can see why Japanese people would be offended nowadays, but back then such a cartoon was understandalbe.  The Japanese were our enemies.   Rating:  * * 
Spinach For Britain It was funny how the Germans kept jumping out of their subs to yell, "Heil, Hitler!"   Rating: * * * 
The Island Fling Turner-edited version.  In this one it certainly seems that Olive wants to kiss Crusoe.  It's funny, but you root for Crusoe in this picture.  It sort of seems like he should get Olive.  The extra half star is for Olive.  She's pretty hot looking in this cartoon.  Popeye was kind of a brat, always interrupting Crusoe and Olive's date.   Rating:  * * 1/2
Jitterbug Jive Olive's mean to Popeye in this cartoon.  She wants her way instead of being considerate of her guest.   Rating: * * * 
The Royal Four-Flusher Bluto is such an idiot!  He could have had Olive for sure in this cartoon.  Why tie her up in a straight jacket and get her mad?  They drew Olive's face really pretty in the one part of the cartoon.  The extra 3/4 is for the music, the good animation, and the way Olive was drawn.   Rating: * * 3/4
Snow Place Like Home Olive is really cute in some scenes in this cartoon.  The music is great again.  Another seal helps Popeye out.  Pierre's really asking to be beat up in this cartoon.  Since when does Olive consider Popeye, "her Popeye"?  I thought is was funny when the seal chased Popeye trying to get a kiss.  It was a sort of role reversal.  Now he knows how Olive feels in every cartoon.   Rating: * * * 
Parlez Vous Woo Olive's pretty in this cartoon.  I didn't know who to root for in this one.  Bluto and Olive are having fun together, more fun than she had with Popeye, yet Bluto pulled a dirty trick to be with her.  I thought it was stupid at the end when Olive said, "Oh, Popeye, you're wonderful," because for the rest of the cartoon, she'd rather date a celebrity.  I thought it was cool that spinach was used for a non-violent purpose, turning Popeye into a gentleman.  The sword fighting was well done.   Rating: * * * 1/4

His General Comments: "The musical scores are great, matching what's going on in the scenes.  And they were done with an orchestra!  Not like so many made-for-TV cartoons today!  Now, they just have heavy metal theme songs playing endlessly in the background.  Olive doesn't really seem all that interested in Popeye, other than as a bodyguard.  She pays him with a kiss at the end of the cartoon.  But it does seem like payment, not that she wants him for a boyfriend or anything.  But, to be fair, Popeye's kind of out of it, not real interested in Olive either.  Bluto and Olive are users, only thinking about themselves, not how the other person feels.  Bluto actually could have Olive.  She's interested in him.  But he's always violent and blows it."

(To be continued as he sees more cartoons.)


Check out my son's Star Wars Role Playing Game website!

 
 
 
 
First Impressions - Part 2


Cartoons Comments and Ratings
Quick On The Vigor No comment. 
Rating: * * * *
Pre-Hysterical Man The action aspects of this cartoon are good. 
Rating: * * 1/2
Olive Oyl For President I liked the music, the depiction of the donkeys and the elephants in Congress, Cupid machine-gunning everyone, and the fact that Olive's laws have to do with women getting married.
Rating: * * *
Silly Hillbilly No comment.
Rating: * * * * 
Tots Of Fun I like the animation and the gags, but the story was lacking.
Rating: * * 1/2
Mess Production It's funny how Popeye and Bluto are competing for who can save Olive while meanwhile, she's about to die!  Great animation of the plant and backgrounds.
Rating: * * * * 
Wotta Knight No comment.
Rating: * * 1/2
Mister And Mistletoe Popeye's always happy and innocent while being tricked.  I liked the way the water solidified around Popeye because it was so cold outside.
Rating: * * * 1/2
A Wolf In Sheik's Clothing Olive was willing to be kissed in this one.  She even paid the sheik money for it.  It was hard to know who to root for, Popeye or the sheik.
Rating: * * * 3/4
Abusement Park Good title for the cartoon.  It certainly fit.
Rating: * * * 1/2
Alpine For You I liked it that even the dog reads Popeye comics.
Rating: * * * *
Lumberjack And Jill All Popeye wants to do is eat.  Bluto wants Olive.  This cartoon made me hate Bluto.  He didn't even need to act nasty with Popeye over Olive, yet he did.  Popeye wasn't interested.
Rating: * * * *
Insect To Injury I liked the termites' full bellies.
Rating: * * * *
Symphony In Spinach Their mouths don't move when they talk in this one. If they did, I would have rated it higher.
Rating: * *
All's Fair At The Fair Popeye wants to give Olive Oyl the parachute showing that he's the hero.
Rating: * * *
Beach Peach I liked the waves washing the people away and then bringing them back as though nothing had happened.
Rating: * * * * 
Gym Jam I thought it was hilarious and interesting that Bluto showed his true colors right off the bat.  I also liked how Popeye turned his bike around and the "Don't! Stop!" bit at the end.
Rating: * * * * 
Popeye And The Pirates I loved it all, especially the rendition of "15 Men On A Dead Man's Chest" at the beginning, the sailor versus pirates theme, and the animal reading Popeye comic books again.  The music at the end combined Popeye's theme song with the pirate music.
Rating: * * * * 
Toreadorable I love the way that before he fought the bull each time he ate his spinach instead of waiting until the end of the cartoon.
Rating: * * * * 
Beaus Will Be Beaus The way Bluto was so sneaky was a very good portrait of evil. 
Rating: * * * *
The Fistic Mystic I loved all the visuals they did in connection with the magic.
Rating: * * * * 
A Balmy Swami See comments for The Fistic Mystic.
Rating: * * * *

 
 
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