I. "Popeye the Sailor" (1933)
[The first ever Popeye cartoon]
II. "Parlez Vous Woo" (1956)
III. "Popeye's Hypnotic Glance" (circa 1961)
IV. "Ain't Mythbehavin'" (circa 1987)
V. Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy (2004)
The trailer can be found here.
Two questions: 1. Which of the above is your favorite, and why? 2. How are each of these cartoons indicative of the era in which they were created?
My favorite would have to be either the first popeye cartoon or the Parlez vous woo one. The first one it the classic popeye. It represents its era because it is still black and white, the quality isn't that great, but it is a detailed cartoon. The 1930s cartoon is funny and its the traditional popeye that I love. Parlez Vous Woo from the 1950s represents its era because the background is very simple, it is a little fuzzy, but i still think it is pretty classic, and I like it. It is entertaining. The 1960s Hypnotic Glance cartoon is a bit annoying (I hat that the women keeps saying I love so and so. The background is very plain... at times its completely gray. There is constant talking to make up for what is missing and keep it funny. But i don't think this cartoon is that funny, as much a i like popeye, this cartoon isn't that classic popeye. Finally you can tell that the last cartoon is from the 80s because it has bright colors, better quality, more detail, and it had that modern feel to the cartoon. This is definitely not the traditional popeye--- he has a son, and everything looks modern. I think its cute, but i don't really like it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the 2004 cartoon looks like a video game (which sort of makes it obvious that its from the 2000s). I actually like the way it looks, but the oldest popeye cartoons are the best
ReplyDeleteStephanie - Good point about the video-game look of the last one. One thing I hate about it are the character designs for the non-classic Popeye characters (that mermaid, etc.). They don't look like they exist in the Popeye universe. More like Shark Tale rejects.
ReplyDeleteAlso, good point about simply lookig at a cartoon and asking yourself how funny you think it is. This is a pretty good criteia.
After watching all of these cartoons of popeye I have to say that my favorite episode of popeye was the first one from the 1930's. I felt that it was the most true to popeye and contained more of a popeye feel than any other film about popeye. All the other ones seemed kinda fake and weird at times and really didn't really interest me like the original one did. Besides when I think of popeye I don't think of dancing, hypnotizing and especially not hip hop but I think of what was portrayed in the first film which was a sailor who defends his girl from evil by eating his spinach. For the second question after reviewing the films and the years they were made I found that each did have elements of the time period they were made in. For the first one ethical and family values were really strong during the 1930's and so was the idea of the hero saving the damsel in distress like in the 1930's popeye film. The second film of popeye which was made in the 1950's show a lot about romantics dancing and being a gentleman like which was really big during the 1950's with all the balls and tuxedos that came out of the 1950's. The third one had new ideas in it like with the evil sailor not even wearing a sailor suit and using hypnosis to try to win over olive. These new elements represent the new styles of thinking and living that came from the 1960's era. The fourth one was just at a-whole-nother crazy with popeye having a son and popeye wearing a Hawaiian shirt, seriously popeye would never wear a hawaiian shirt. These elements really relate to the 1980's because it resembles the same crazy and outrageous animation that was present in many other shows during the 1980's. Lastly the last popeye film from like 2004 also really does contain elements that a animation film in the 2000's would have. For example the popeye preview has weird looking 3D computer animation that other films would have had in the 200's and also has hip hop music, seriously though why did they ever think popeye should have hip hop music, it just ruins the film. I agree with stephanie when she said how popeye looked like a video game in the newest one because he does and its terrible. I think that if anyone is going to try to make a new popeye film they should look at the first ones ever made and try to make it look like that but it can obviously look a lot newer but the same style and themes.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Stark
ReplyDeleteFor me i'd have to say the 1930's popeye was my favorite. For me it was a classic. It had humor, great detail on the cartoons and it felt like a popeye cartoon. It showed the true essential to a popeye cartoon. The 1950's popeye was alright. It had good coloring on the characters and everything. But the backrounds weren't that great. It still had a little popeye touch and felt like a good tribute cartoon to the original popeye cartoons. For the 1960's popeye i did not like it at all. I thought it was to dull. After learning about 60/70s cartoon it truly showed me how cheap and bad it really was. It felt like the took characters based on the original popeye and put them in a whole new story. The animation wasn't that good and it didn't amuse me. For the 1980's popeye that was the worst one of them all. I kinda hoping for the dragon to catch the kid and burn him up. It wasnt clever or anything, it was a typical 80's cartoon. The colors were very bright and it didn't make any sense. The plot made no sense and the kid had nothing to do with popeye. I'm guessing the boy was adopted or something. He looked like a kid they had in that show called "a pup named scooby doo". For the popeye movie made in 2004, i agree with what stephanie said how it looked like a video game. It just represented how cartoons made in this era have nothing to do with story. Its all about making money and nobody really cares if it's good or not as long as they have some money in their pockets after its done. It truly shows how pathetic cartoons have gotten these days.
I pretty much wanted to vomit when I saw the 2004 Popeye. That's just absurd in every way possible. My favourite is certainly the 1960s Popeye. This has vibrant colours, decent graphics, and it's not over-done or disgustingly 3D. Although Popeye doesn't look quite like himself.
ReplyDeleteThe other cartoons do correspond with their decade. For the 2000's Popeye, it has all of the "graphic advancement" of this new century. The 1980's Popeye obviously fits that decade! NOTHING MAKES SENSE!! Popeye never had a kid and suddenly does? Sounds like the 80's to me. Not only that, but all of the crazy nonsensical hawaiian clothing fits just perfectly. I'm not sure what to say about the 1960's Popeye, except for how it has a decent storyline and graphics, but not overdone or absurd. Everything makes sense for then. The 1950's Popeye fits well, having that magical colour touch that came only once in a while for when shown in theatres. It has a good storyline and the detail is phenomenal. You can tell it was made for theatres. Last but not least, the 1930's Popeye is just epic. Being the first of its kind, the detail is attractive to the eye, despite being black and white. In fact, the black and white adds all the more to it for being around that time. I'm almost horrified to see what they'll do next with the poor guy in the upcoming years.