Popeye begins his movie career by singing his theme song, demonstrating his strength at a carnival, dancing the hula with Betty Boop, pummeling Bluto, eating his spinach and saving Olive Oyl from certain doom on the railroad tracks.
Director:
Dave Fleischer
Stars:
William Costello,
William Pennell,
Bonnie Poe
We see the various birds, mice, and bats that have moved into an old windmill, followed by the frogs, crickets, and fireflies making their music in an adjacent pond. Then a storm comes, ... See full summary »
Director:
Wilfred Jackson
Stars:
Marie Arbuckle,
Jean MacMurray,
Louise Myers
When a giant threatens the land, the city folk mistake Mickey's boast of killing seven flies with one blow to be giants. He is then forced to fight the giant for real.
Director:
Bill Roberts
Stars:
Walt Disney,
Marcellite Garner,
Eddie Holden
After sending his giant bird, Rokh, to wreck Popeye's boat and kidnap Olive Oyl, Sindbad forces Olive to dance for him by firing buckshot at her feet with a pea-shooter. Popeye attempts to rescue her while J. Wellington Wimpy follows a duck around with a meat-grinder. After Popeye disposes of Rokh and Sindbad's two-headed, Yiddish-accented giant, Boola, it's a battle to the "finich" between the two legendary sailors. Written by
Paul Penna <[email protected]>
This was the first of the "Popeye Color Specials", a trilogy of Technicolor features that were released in the 1930s. These features were over sixteen minutes each (three times as long as a regular Popeye cartoon, and so were considered big-budget adaptations), and were often billed in cinemas alongside/above the main feature. See more »
Goofs
After Sindbad sings to Popeye the line "Who's the most remarkable, extraordinary fellow?", the animals respond "You!", and you can then see some of them mouthing "Sindbad the Sailor", but that line is not heard. This happens again on the very next verse. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
[Sindbad steps out of his island home, and slaps two lions]
Sindbad the Sailor:
I'm Sindbad the Sailor, so hearty and hale / I live on an island on the back of a whale / It's a whale of an island - that's not a bad joke / Its lord and its master is this handsome bloke! Who's the most remarkable extra-ordinary fellow?
[the lions roar]
Sindbad the Sailor:
Sindbad the Sailor!
See more »
Crazy Credits
The credits are as follows:
The Spinach Eating Sailor... POPEYE
The Irresistible Damsel... Olive Oyl
The Hamburger Fiend... J. Wellington Wimpy
The Two Headed Giant... Boola
Rokh... The Mighty Eagle
"The Most Remarkable Fellow"... SINDBAD the Sailor
'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' was the first of three Popeye specials in Technicolor; anticipating Disney's development of the multiplane camera for 'The Old Mill' (1937) by a year by animating its characters on glass in front of actual models lit in vivid colours. The resulting look is quite remarkable - notably a lateral track following Popeye prowling through a cave; which along with the giant Roc and two-headed giant were probably the features that inspired the young Ray Harryhausen - and visually quite different from the results produced by Disney's multiplane camera; which instead separated flat cells into planes rather like a 3D movie.
Due to the trouble and complexity involved the 3D scenes are in fact actually used only sparingly during 'Sindbad'. The exotic setting and Pop Art colours aside, the action itself is the usual scrap between Bluto (here playing Sindbad) and Popeye; and the very occasional medium shots of its characters remind one that animated films of the 30's still tended to follow the framing in long shot favoured by Méliès.
The Fleischers' efforts were rewarded with a nomination for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject; although as usual they lost out to Disney (for the Silly Symphony 'The Country Cousin'), and after two more 'specials' they went back to less technically flamboyant Popeye shorts while instead concentrating their ambitions into their first feature, 'Gulliver's Travels' (1939), in which Popeye didn't appear.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' was the first of three Popeye specials in Technicolor; anticipating Disney's development of the multiplane camera for 'The Old Mill' (1937) by a year by animating its characters on glass in front of actual models lit in vivid colours. The resulting look is quite remarkable - notably a lateral track following Popeye prowling through a cave; which along with the giant Roc and two-headed giant were probably the features that inspired the young Ray Harryhausen - and visually quite different from the results produced by Disney's multiplane camera; which instead separated flat cells into planes rather like a 3D movie.
Due to the trouble and complexity involved the 3D scenes are in fact actually used only sparingly during 'Sindbad'. The exotic setting and Pop Art colours aside, the action itself is the usual scrap between Bluto (here playing Sindbad) and Popeye; and the very occasional medium shots of its characters remind one that animated films of the 30's still tended to follow the framing in long shot favoured by Méliès.
The Fleischers' efforts were rewarded with a nomination for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject; although as usual they lost out to Disney (for the Silly Symphony 'The Country Cousin'), and after two more 'specials' they went back to less technically flamboyant Popeye shorts while instead concentrating their ambitions into their first feature, 'Gulliver's Travels' (1939), in which Popeye didn't appear.