POPEYE THE SAILOR: The 1940's Volume 1 - Blu-ray (Paramount, 1943-45) Warner Archive

Strong to the finish, cuz he eats his spinach… one of the most beloved cartoon characters from that golden epoch in hand-drawn animation has remained Popeye the Sailor; quite an achievement, considering his absence from general release and public view. With his bald pate (okay, he had two or three strands of hair), dimpled chin, barrel-sized forearms, and spindly body, intermittently transformed into a muscled-up powerhouse by devouring a can of leafy greens, Popeye epitomized a certain type of lovable ‘can do’ American spirit that, as a young boy, seemed the apex of masculine bravery against oft insurmountable odds. Ah me, if only it took just a can of spinach to set the world right; also, to jack up the bod to super human strength; spinach – the little steroid that could, and usually did save the day. 

Popeye began life as a King Feature comic strip, created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1929.  Segar, who died barely nine years later, would be proud to know her hero has gone on to have a rewarding life in print, film shorts, endlessly revived on TV, and even, recast as a big-budgeted musical, costarring the late Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.  Over the various decades, Popeye has been picked up and embraced by a slew of writers and artists, including Segar's assistant, Bud Sagendorf and Hy Eisman. By the mid-thirties, Segar’s diminutive sailor man was a huge pop icon, read by millions, and destined to achieve even greater notoriety as one of the cartoon ‘movie stars’ in animator, Max Fleischer’s canon of oddities. Under an agreement with Paramount Pictures, Fleischer continued churning out Popeye shorts in B&W, until 1942. Alas, with a shake-up in management, Paramount kept Popeye, but ditched the Fleischers, the studio switching over to Technicolor and continuing the franchise, with decidedly different artistic pursuits in mind. And now, after a period of absence, a handful of these shorts (14 to be exact) have found their way to Blu-ray via the Warner Archive. Exactly how Warner Bros. became the custodians of this highly popular Paramount product will be discussed shortly.

But before this, we should linger a tad longer on the origins of Segar’s enduring creation, who originally acquired ‘luck’ rather than strength, by stroking the head of a Whiffle Hen. Shifting the focus from chance to brawn, and introducing a stock company of reoccurring players – string bean/love interest, Olive Oyl, the lovable con, J. Wellington Wimpy, adopted foundling, Sweet Pea, and finally, arch nemesis, Bluto – helped to anchor Popeye’s world, that otherwise followed no earthly logic, timeline or purpose. Indeed, in all the decades that have since passed, there remains no conjoining, or even linear narrative in the franchise; Popeye and his cohorts turning up in the most unique and unrealistic scenarios and periods from history. In spite of his lack of education and culture, Popeye always made out all right, and, in fact, very often proved the remarkable foil to best and/or outwit scientists, diplomats, and, even the police with his logical approach to terrific situations. Despite the franchise’s emphasis on spinach as a main staple, capable of turning a mouse into a hulking monster of a man, Popeye’s kindly wisdom always superseded his desire for war; unless, of course, the villain was up to no good, or out to ruin one of his close friends. Perpetually clenching a corncob pipe between his teeth, invariably to be transformed into such useful implements as a blow torch, jet engine propeller, periscope or even, musical instrument – producing his trademark toot-toot – Popeye has survived exploits and incidents that would have left most any other sea-faring mariner sucker-punched long ago.

Cartoonist E. C. Segar might never have come to Popeye, had King Features Syndicate owner, William Randolph Hearst not requested a new feature to replace Ed Wheelan’s Midget Movies, after Wheelan’s departure from the newspaper biz.  Popeye’s debut was inauspicious, a minor, but reoccurring character in the strip’s ‘gag a day’ venue, reborn after a narrow scrape and ‘near death’ experience as its star attraction after a reboot to accommodate Hearst’s verve for the more sensational and heartier comedy/adventure style. In its day, the Popeye comic strip was quite unique; its stories involving and intricate, peppered in an ever-evolving roster of subplots and characters, and feathering in a masterful mix of fantasy, satire and suspense. During the Depression-riddled thirties, Popeye reigned as everyone’s ‘second’ favorite comic character, right behind Little Orphan Annie. Apart from appearing in over 500 newspapers, his likeness was also sub-licensed on nearly 600 collectibles.  This made Segar one of the highest paid comic writers in the business, earning a whopping $100,000 a year at the time of his death.

Popeye would outlive his creator, the mantle inherited, first by Tom Sims, Doc Winner and Bela Zaboly, then later, Ralph Stein, until Bud Sagendorf assumed control in 1959. In hindsight, all of these artists were responsible for maintaining Segar’s continuity; the Popeye strip rarely deviating from the formulas first established. Sagendorf established a small contingent of ‘new’ characters that maintained the lovable charm of Segar’s originals, seamlessly brought in to fatten the franchise. Although the character of Popeye fell into public domain in 2009, as Segar had initially been an employee of King Features when he created him, Popeye is still treated as a ‘work for hire’ under U.S. copyright laws; a subscription that will expire in 2025. This is precisely why and how Popeye, throughout the years, and, at least, as a fictional hero in print, has come under various banners of publication throughout his lengthy run; appearing as comic fodder put out by Dell, King, Gold Key, Ocean, and, Charlton Comics; further exploited by clever PR and marketing campaigns to sell – of all things - Quaker Oatmeal.  

Popeye’s theatrical rights are quite another matter. The ink on a deal between King Features and the Fleischer Studios had barely dried in 1932 when grumblings were heard, chiefly about the way the character was being depicted on screen. Voice actor, William Costello provided the voice of Popeye – so popular, it would later be replicated by several actors, including Jack Mercer and Mae Questel. Originally, the character of Olive Oyl did not appear in this filmed franchise. Even so, and thanks to an ever-evolving line-up of calamities requiring our hero’s intervention to make them right, Popeye The Sailor became a Paramount sensation. Well, blow me down! Regardless of this success, Paramount elected to oust the Fleischers in 1942, re-branding Popeye under their Famous Studios banner, our diminutive hero now embroiled in WWII-themed adventures, fighting Nazis and the Japanese. A year later, Popeye made the leap to Technicolor with a rather coy entry – ‘Her Honor the Mare’ in which the sailor man’s quartet of pint-sized nephews (all of whom rather bizarrely are the spitting image of him) attempt to smuggle a lazy nag into his home.  In all, Paramount would produce a whopping 125 Popeye shorts before selling their entire back catalog to Associated Artists Productions (A.A.P.). This production house was eventually bought out by United Artists (UA) in 1958. And therein, the changing of corporate identities with UA’s demise in the early 80’s, left the custodianship of Popeye The Sailor to Turner Entertainment; its assets, later absorbed by Warner Media.

While the Paramount Popeye’s were largely unavailable on home video for decades, a trickle of these shorts, fallen into pubic domain, did resurface on poorly mastered VHS and bootlegged DVD. With Turner’s acquisition in 1986 there arose an arduous legal battle with King Features to finally resurrect the original Popeye franchise from mothballs. King never relinquished ownership of the trademark, you see.  But instead of listening to reason, King opted for a DVD boxed set of only the 1960's made-for-television Popeye the Sailor cartoons to which they still owned the copyright. In the meantime, in yet another purge and acquisitions merger, the home video rights for the A.A.P. shorts were transferred from CBS/Fox Video to MGM/UA Home Video in 1986; then, finally, with that defunct entity’s demise, to Warner Home Video (WHV) in 1999. It would take another seven years before WHV began releasing original Popeye shorts from 1933 to 1957 on DVD, restored and uncut. Three complete volumes premiered between 2007 and 2008. And now, ten years later, we finally have Popeye the Sailor: The 1940’s Volume 1 on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection (WAC). While ostensibly, I would have wished for WAC to begin anew, remastering the B&W’s first (as most historians will concur, the Fleischer shorts remain superior to those sanctioned by Paramount without their input), I really cannot argue with WAC’s efforts or their results achieved.  

Over the decades, the Popeye shorts were mercilessly butchered, their opening credits cut to reflect the newer – and ever-evolving - ‘ownership’ of the franchise. Then, in 2001, rescue came from animation historian/archivist, Jerry Beck, piecing together ‘original’ edits, borrowed from various source materials, and launching an in-depth investigative search to re-insert footage that, for reasons as inane as time allotment and political correctness, had found its way to the cutting room floor in the intervening decades. It is mostly due to Beck’s due diligence that we have Popeye the Sailor ‘restored’ for posterity today. The official debut of Popeye the Sailor – in glorious Technicolor has been a very long time coming; the kudos owed to WAC and their new 4K scans, derived from Paramount’s original nitrate camera negatives. The shorts, beginning with ‘Her Honor The Mare’ are presented, uncut and in their original chronology; the remaining 13 shorts housed herein: The Marry-Go-Round, the delightfully wacky homage to Carmen Miranda - We’re On Our Way To Rio, The Anvil Chorus Girl, Spinach Packin’ Popeye, Puppet Love, Pitchin’ Woo At The Zoo, Moving Aweigh, She-Sick Sailors, Pop-Pie A La Mode, Tops In The Big Top, Shape Ahoy, For Better Or Nurse, and finally, Mess Production. To say that these have never looked better is a grotesque understatement. The utmost care has been afforded to each; the results, immaculate and stunning, easily belying the fact some of them are nearly 80 years old.

Remastered in 1080p on standard Blu-ray and perfectly preserved in their original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, with DTS 2.0 audio, Popeye The Sailor sails into port as never before. The Technicolor positively glows. Colors are crisp and eye-popping. WAC has also perfectly preserved the delicate grain structure of vintage cell animation, while dust-busting virtually all age-related dirt, grit and other damage to create an image that is smooth, with exceptional color fidelity and excellent contrast to boot. These cartoon shorts look and sound as though they were made yesterday; yet, another testament to WAC’s continued investment in delivering ‘quality plus’ to the home video market. Animation lovers everywhere owe WAC an immeasurable thanks for this release. My one regret is that WAC did not invest in providing audio commentaries to at least some of these shorts, or a brief featurette to promote its ‘restoration’ efforts to fans. Nevertheless, as one ardent fan of Popeye, I offer up my sincere thanks to those involved in this superior Blu-ray release, with a profound request for more to come. Can it be long before WAC gets around to remastering other vintage animated fare from their own back catalog and beyond? So, more - please. Scooby Doo, and Bugs Bunny too, and Tom and Jerry, and, The Flintstones, The Jetsons…  Oh, hell. You get the point. As for Popeye the Sailor: the 1940’s Volume 1. It’s a no brainer. Just buy it today and be prepared for a wonderful trip down memory lane. Very – very – highly recommended!  

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

0