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We officially reach the Spinach Skrewtny crossroads! One can't help but see the Fleischer studio up and moving from New York to Miami was what wrapped the Golden Age of the Popeye series. But as we discuss, even while still up north, gags take precedence over character and cartoons are miscast, with even kingpin Willard Bowsky turning out a few duds. Just before Popeye creator E.C. Segar passes, the animated cartoons see a mass import from the comic strip with the characters Eugene the Jeep, the Goons, and Poopdeck Pappy, who's front and center in arguably the greatest of the one-reeler cartoons—and the one that should have been a two-reeler!

Cartoons discussed:
- Let's Celebrake
- Learn Polikeness
- The House Builder-Upper
- Big Chief Ugh-Amugh-Ugh
- I Yam Love Sick
- Plumping is a "Pipe"
- With the Jeep
- Bulldozing the Bull
- Mutiny Ain't Nice
- Goonland
- A Date to Skate
- Cops is Always Right

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Anonymous

Another great episode! I personally feel like the year1940 was a mixed bag for Popeye. I have no problems with Willard Bowsky's shorts this year; some of the shorts of the new directors like Roland Crandall and Tom Johnson were surprisingly good (Shakespearan Spinach and Stealin' ain't Honest, respectively) I agree that there was a dip in quality during the Orlando years but I don't get the same feeling of displeasure watching the Orlando shorts that I do watch the Famous 1950s shorts. At worst, I think the Orlando shorts are boring, and at worst I think the 50s Famous shorts are depressing.

Anonymous

I’ve had this thought on my mind for quite a while: LET’S CELEBRAKE is a perfect counterpart to the Leo McCarey-directed feature MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW. These both use the theme of treating your elders with dignity and respect. Most importantly, both pictures also share ballroom dance sequences where the old become young again—in McCarey’s picture, the old couple played by Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi dance and embrace to “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” reminiscing about their younger days. Seeing as how McCarey’s film was released May 1937 and LET’S CELEBRAKE was released in January 1938—both through Paramount— I can’t help but think that the writers took some cues from MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW. It could be just a coincidence, but I thought I should weigh in. The Fleischer team managed to touch the heart in just 7 minutes at a much grander level than any of the Disney features, I’d say.

Anonymous

a lot of my favourite Fleischer Popeyes are the gag oriented ones, so, although loving this episode, I disagree quite heavily about The House Builder Upper and Plumbing is A pipe Olive getting stuck under the wallpaper always makes me laugh HARD and the sound of Wimpy eating followed closely by the sound of his saw always kills me. Didn't know that was Margie Hines voicing Olive tin I Yam Love Sick, she obviously started out the series sounding more like Questel than she later became. As the Sitter Downers is my all time favourite Stooge short, perhaps I'm biased. I actually wish they did more cartoons that feel like two reel comedies, which is why Cops is Always Right is a guilty pleasure. Also, I have ill advisedly taken to referring to every cop as Ossifer! Relieved that no one has understood what the hell I'm on about there.

Anonymous

Love the fact that in I Yam Love Sick, Popeye says “sounds like he had a cold” after the picture of Bluto laughs, almost like it’s a self-aware jab at the fact that his voice is different. On that note, I think that the identification of Margie Hines voicing Olive in that cartoon is inaccurate; it sounds more like Bonnie Poe is voicing her. There’s a clip on YouTube of Bonnie Poe singing in a movie from 1934, and the voice as well as the vocal mannerisms are identical to Olive’s in I Yam Love Sick (likewise for the Betty Boop cartoons Out of the Inkwell and The Swing School from the same year). For whatever reason, it seems that Poe was brought back in to do some voice work during that year, having voiced both Betty Boop and Olive Oyl years earlier. Out of all the original Betty/Olive voices, Bonnie Poe’s voice was closest to Mae Questel’s, which may explain why Olive’s performance in I Yam Love Sick is more tolerable than in cartoons from the following few years where she’s voiced by Margie Hines.