Happy Halloween!
ReFrederator is up to it’s old tricks — and treats — with today’s 1954 cartoon “Fright to the Finish.” Popeye tries to celebrate a peaceful, Bluto-free Halloween with Olive Oyl, but STRANGE things are happenin’! Turns out the big hairy jerk is just off camera, pulling some mean spirited, seasonal pranks. Of course, the sailor man eventually sets everything straight — what IS weird, is Popeye’s resolution of the situation without the application of any spinach. A couple of years later in another cartoon, “I Don’t Scare,” the same trio were squabbling over Friday the 13th, and again our squint-eyed hero came out on top without eating his vegetable of choice. Since spinach appears to be the lucky charm in most day-to-day altercations, Popeye may feel it oddly inappropriate as a weapon against mindless superstitions. You tell me!
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On November 1st, 2006 at 12:00 am
Well, the Famous Popeyes were all over the place; instead of being too formulaic, they were often so different from the formula that it didn’t feel like Popeye. What is weird for such a late cartoon is Popeye and Bluto’s thought bubbles, using comics conventions like in very early animation before it developed its own vocabulary. And doesn’t the scene where Bluto drapes the skeleton around Popeye and suggests it’s a suitable “girlfriend” have disturbing undertones? That’s the sort of image more suitable for a “Weird Tales” cover than an otherwise not-very-scary cartoon.
On November 2nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Well, yes, I suppose the skeleton-puppet thing is a little unsettling, but if you’re gonna plumb for odd sexual subtext you might ponder the notion of Popeye making himself invisible in Olive Oyl’s bedroom.