Popeye the Sailor Man

Popeye the Sailor Man has become world famous. Whether it be from his addiction to spinach or the lyrics to his song, people of all ages imitate, collect, and aspire to be like Popeye.

This muscle man was not even originally in the comic strip created by Elzie Segar. Elzie Segar, the cartoonist wrote Thimble Theatre in the late teens and early twenties. The first strip consisted of the characters Olive Oyl, Ham Gravy (Olive's first boyfriend), Cole and Nana Oyl (Olive's parents), and Castor Oyl.

Popeye: Over 75 years old and still goin'

By Fred M. Grandinetti
Entertainment Magazine

For 75 years, generations have viewed the comedic actions of a unique figure in film history, Popeye the Sailor man. The spinach-eating swab was created for the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip in 1929 by E.C. Segar.

Despite his success in the funnies, more people know of the character from his appearances in over 500 animated cartoons produced for both motion pictures and television.

The Fleischer Studios, unlike other cartoon studios during the early 1930's, illustrated the darker, meaner streets of New York City. "Betty Boop" was born from that era and Max Fleischer who was a great fan of "Thimble Theatre," plucked Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto from the funny papers putting each into one animated film.

On July 14th, 1933, the comic strip trio appeared in one of the Betty Boop entries titled, "Popeye the Sailor."

Betty was used just briefly on screen as the film was designed to see if the sailor, who was a big hit with depression era audiences in newspapers, could translate that popularity to the big screen. Popeye passed the test and his own series began three months later.

The shadows, texture, the sub-vocal mutterings were staples of the Fleischer cartoons. There was more attention to detail in one Popeye cartoon than even in the best Disney animated production.

The Fleischers made full use of the black and white spectrum, using gray tones more effectively than anyone else in history. Many of the cartoons featured three-dimensional backgrounds, which made for astounding looking backdrops.

For this reason, even the earliest Popeye cartoons remain as fresh and vibrant today. The fact that the black and white "Popeye" series continues to be aired on television, with a huge following, is a testament to the work of the Fleischer Studios.

Mae Questel, one of the actresses who voiced Betty Boop, handled Olive Oyl's vocals.

Gus Wickie was famous for his hearty rendition of Fleischer's Bluto.

William ("Red Pepper Sam") Costello was the original choice for Popeye. When success went to Costello's head he was fired and replaced by the more tender sounding vocals of Jack Mercer. Mercer would go on to voice the character for the next 40 years with his under-the-breath mutterings bringing a greater personality to the character.

The Fleischer Popeyes were one of the most faithful adaptations of characters being transferred to animation from the comic strip.

Segar's other fanciful creations also made the transition to film; J. Wellington Wimpy, the hamburger eater, Eugene the Jeep, the magical creature from the 4th dimension, Swee'pea, Popeye's adopted son, found on the doorstep in 1933 and Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye's ol' goat of a father.

In 1936, Popeye would star in the first of three two-reel color animated cartoons, "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor."

This cartoon, featuring dazzling three dimensional backgrounds, was often billed along with the theatre's main attraction. Popeye's other two-reel cartoons would involve battles with Ali Baba and a Wizard seeking Aladdin's lamp.

When the Fleischer Studios moved to Florida in 1938 and the Popeye films took on a brighter look, they were still Paramount Pictures (who funded the Fleischer Studios) number one short subject series.

However by 1942, the Fleischer Studios was deeply in debt to Paramount Pictures due to the studios mishandling of the Fleischer's second animated feature film, "Mr. Bug Goes To Town."

Paramount closed the studio in Florida, moved it back to New York and renamed it Famous Studios.

Though Famous continued to film the series in black and white the cartoons would switch to color by the end of 1943

Popeye the Sailor Man

Popular children's cartoon movies are often seen on Saturday morning American television programming.

These are the same classic cartoons that were shown just before the feature film in U.S. movie theaters. Cartoon animations were produced by companies like Warner Bros, Looney Tunes and DIsney.

Later, these old cartoon animations were broadcast on Saturday morning television during the 1950s and 1960s as serials.

As most baby boomers grew up in the late 1950's through 1960s, these Saturday morning cartoons were a regular TV event. Now, they are part of the public domain and free from copyrights.

Cartoons, usually directed to children, often held hidden adult or political messages that were about issues of the day. During World War II, many cartoons took a nationalistic focus against enemies overseas as a way to pump up patriotic spirit.

While cartoons have been targeted mainly to children, cartoon series like "The Simpsons" brought back the baby boomers (U.S. citizens born after World War II through 1962) to the cartoon format.

Now, cable television, DVDs, the Internet and syndicated reruns (including a separate cable channel for cartoons only called The Cartoon Network), fuels the baby boomers' taste for nostalgia and an excuse to watch animated characters instead of celluloid humans.

People around the world are dazzled by 20th Century cartoon animations. They are not only classics in film animation, but an icon of American culture.

Japanese anime and cartoon characters are popular among Japanese male adults, and a growing number of Japanese females who discovered the enjoyment of playing video games of animated characters.

Our Internet cartoon movie collection continues to grow with new titles and serial installments being added often. These classic cartoons and animated movies can be downloaded, edited and freely distributed since they are in the public domain. For more information, read our Free Movie FAQ.

If you spelled cartoon as cartune or cartun, catune, cartoone, cartnoon, amnination, amination, annimation, amatation, you have found the correct website. The correct spellings are cartoon and animation.

Entertainment Magazine is more than free movies and cartoon animations! Hundreds of pages on celebrities, new films, music and travel

Cartoons on TV throughout American History

Noveltoon: Caspar (Casper)

Casper the Friendly Ghost makes friends with a little fox. Animation by Myron Waldman, Morey Reden and Nick Tafuri. Scenics by Anto Loeb.

Story by Bill Turner and Larry Reilly. Music by Winston Sharples.

Narrator is Frank Gallop.

Director: I. Sparber

Production Company: Paramount Pictures & Famous Studios Productions
Audio/Visual: sound, color

Produced in 1948.

Run time: 8:00

According to the 1995 feature film Casper, his family name is McFadden, making his "full" name Casper McFadden.

More from wikipedia: Casper the Friendly Ghost

Casper The Friendly Ghost in "There's Good Boos Tonight"

Now here's a truly weird cartoon even by Tex Avery's standards. "Half-Pint Pygmy" (release date: 8/17/1948) is one of Avery's less known and rarely seen works, and it marks the fourth and final appearance of George and Junior.
These characters inspired by George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's depression-era novel "Of Mice and Men" have previously appeared in three very good and entertaining cartoons:

• Henpecked Hoboes (1946)

• Hound Hunters (1947)

• Red Hot Rangers (1947)


Then for some unknown reason, Avery decided to take away nearly all of George and Junior's specific traits. The relationship between characters in "Mice and Men" style has almost completely vanished. The voices were changed too. Most significantly, Irv Spence's excellent and very funny character design was scraped in favor of a new design by Louie Schmitt that depicts George and Junior as relatively bland and generic cartoon bears.

Tex Avery's best cartoons are brilliantly structured and constructed, but "Half-Pint Pygmy" plays almost as an abstract collection of random crazy gags that barely have a connection with each other. There's an odd and somewhat detached feeling about it that I don't have when watching any other Avery's MGM cartoon. However, there are many positive things to recommend about "Half-Pint Pygmy". The animation is top notch, with some especially nice and clear examples of anticipation (if there's interest, I'll post a more complete series of screenshots for some of these scenes). Also, many of the gags are very inventive, unusual and bizarre. In a way, this might be one of the ultimate chase cartoons.

Due to heavy racial stereotypes, this cartoon has been banned from TV for the last few decades, and it was also omitted from French Tex Avery DVD box set (together with "Uncle Tom's Cabana").

Here's a selection of screenshots, taken from "The Compleat Tex Avery" laserdisc box set:





























Does this fugitive from Wackyland look familiar to you? Yup, that's the bartender from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".


















































And that's the end of George & Junior. They joined Screwy Squirrell in cartoon Heaven (or Hell). A moment of silence, please... :)

Half-Pint Pygmy (1948)