Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Popeye Color Feature series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936 by Paramount Pictures.[2] It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Dave Fleischer, with the title song by Sammy Timberg. The voice cast includes Jack Mercer as Popeye, Mae Questel as Olive Oyl, Gus Wickie as Sindbad the Sailor, and Lou Fleischer as J. Wellington Wimpy

Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor
Theatrical poster
Directed byDave Fleischer
Produced byMax Fleischer
Adolph Zukor
StarringJack Mercer
Mae Questel
Gus Wickie
Lou Fleischer[1]
Music bySammy Timberg
Bob Rothberg
Sammy Lerner
Animation byWillard Bowsky
George Germanetti
Edward Nolan
Orestes Calpini
Lillian Friedman
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
November 27, 1936
Running time
16:33 (two reels)
LanguageEnglish

Plot

In this short, Sindbad the Sailor (who is intended to be an alternate version of Popeye's old nemesis Bluto) proclaims himself, in song, to be the greatest sailor, adventurer, and lover in the world and "the most remarkable, extraordinary fellow," a claim that is inadvertently challenged by Popeye as he innocently sings his usual song while sailing by within earshot of Sindbad's island with Olive Oyl and J. Wellington Wimpy on board.

Sindbad orders his huge roc to kidnap Popeye's girlfriend, Olive Oyl, and wreck Popeye's ship, forcing him and Wimpy to swim to shore. Sindbad relishes making Olive his trophy wife, which is interrupted by Popeye's arrival. Sindbad then challenges the one-eyed sailor to a series of obstacles to prove his greatness, including fighting the roc, a two-headed giant named Boola (an apparent parody reference to The Three Stooges), and Sindbad himself. Popeye makes short work of the bird and the giant, but Sindbad almost gets the best of him until Popeye produces his can of spinach, which gives him the power to soundly defeat Sindbad and proclaim himself "the most remarkable, extraordinary fella."

A subtly dark running gag features the hamburger-loving Wimpy chasing after a duck on the island with a meat grinder, with the intention of grinding it up so that he can fry it into his favorite dish, but the duck not only escapes, but also snatches away Wimpy's last burger in retaliation when he gives up. Many of the scenes in this short feature make use of the Fleischer's "Steroptical Process", or "Setback Tabletop" process, which used modeled sets to create 3D backgrounds for the cartoon.[3]

Release and reception

This short was the first of the three Popeye Color Specials, which, at over sixteen minutes each, were billed as "A Popeye Feature." Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was nominated for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, but lost to Walt Disney's Silly Symphony The Country Cousin. Footage from this short was later used in the 1952 Famous Studios Popeye cartoon Big Bad Sindbad, in which Popeye relates the story of his encounter with Sindbad to his 3 nephews.

The Popeye Color Specials, Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (both of which were also adapted from a story featured in One Thousand and One Nights) are in the public domain, and are widely available on home video and DVD, often transferred from poor quality, old, faded prints. A fully restored version with the original Paramount mountain logo opening and closing titles is available on the Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1 DVD set from Warner Bros.

Producer and special effects artist, Ray Harryhausen stated in his Fantasy Film Scrapbook that Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was a major influence on his production of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1994, the film was voted #17 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked Fleischer Studios cartoon in the book.[4]

References
  1. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor at the Big Cartoon Database
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 122–123. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  3. Vilas-Boas, Eric; Maher, John, eds. (October 5, 2020). "The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation". Vulture. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was the first Popeye cartoon made in Technicolor as well as the first American animated film to be billed as a feature (running over 16 minutes, it took up two reels), and it is where the Fleischer brothers’ “setback process” was showcased to its full potential. [...] First used in the 1936 Popeye short, For Better or Worser, the process gave off the illusion that two-dimensional characters were able to maneuver in a three-dimensional space.
  4. Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1878685490.
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