During the late 1930's, the Fleischers' Popeye the Sailor cartoons rivaled even Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse shorts in popularity, and this second collection makes it easy to understand why. In contrast to the realistically animated characters in Disney's lavishly beautiful shorts, Popeye, Olive and Bluto were rubber-limbed and broadly comic. These cartoons aren't badly animated: notice the fun the artists have with Olive's precarious balance in "A Date To Skate" (1938) or the way the trio struggles to act refined in "It's The Natural Thing To Do" (1939). The Fleischers' approach to animation was just broader and cartoon-ier than Disney's. But the period of 1938-1940 represented the last hurrah of the Popeye shorts. To accommodate the large staff needed for the studio's first feature, Gulliver's Travels (1939), producer Max Fleischer moved the studio from New York to Miami. The run-down apartment houses and gritty streets of the early Popeye cartoons gave way to suburban houses and gardens. The backgrounds and supporting characters in "Popeye Meets William Tell" (1940) look like leftovers from Gulliver, and the film lacks the élan of the shorts made just a year earlier. The studio would close and be re-organized under new management after the failure of Hoppity Goes to Town in 1941. Like the cartoons in the previous set, Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938, these transfers were made from beautiful masters with only minimal dust and scratches. In addition to four "Popumentaries," the extras include a rare, partial pencil test from "Females Is Fickle" (1940) and a 1938 "Popular Science" short showcasing the animation process at the Miami Studio. A must-have for cartoon lovers.(Unrated, suitable for ages 8 and older: cartoon violence, tobacco use, a few ethnic stereotypes) --Charles Solomon (1. I Yam Love Sick, 2. Plumbing Is A Pipe, 3. The Jeep, 4. Bulldozing The Bull, 5. Mutiny Ain't Nice, 6. Goonland, 7. A Date To Skate, 8. Cops Is Always Right, 9. Customers Wanted, 10. Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, 11. Leave Well Enough Alone, 12. Wotta Nitemare, 13. Ghosks Is The Bunk, 14. Hello How Am I, 15. It's The Natural Thing To Do, 16. Never Sock A Baby, 17. Shakespearian Spinach, 18. Females Is Fickle, 19. Stealin Ain't Honest, 20. Me Feelins Is Hurt, 21. Onion Pacific, 22. Wimmin Is A Myskery, 23. Nurse-Mates, 24. Fightin Pals, 25. Doin Impossikible Stunts, 26. Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive, 27. Puttin On The Act, 28. Popeye Meets William Tell, 29. My Pop, My Pop, 30. With Poopdeck Pappy, 31. Popeye Presents Eugene The Jeep)
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