Popeye is a character that thanks to now officially entering the public domain has seen a surge in popularity not due to him being in anything good but due to the fact that now horror film producers can now make horror film with him as the main character. With three of them being released just a few months ago and such it was only right that I take a look one of the original cartoons that made the character so popular to being with and so then join me as I review the cartoon that sees Popeye fight a bull with the cartoon in question being called simply just "I Eats My Spinach" enjoy.
The plot of this cartoon is when Popeye takes Olive Oyl on a date to the rodeo they get more then they bargained for when the rodeo's lead star The Great Bluto kidnaps her and so it's up to Popeye to get Olive back before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty not that bad as even tho this cartoon was rather thin on plot that's something that's to be expected from alot of cartoons from this same time period as alot of them where only around seven minuets in length and because of that there plots weren't as fully developed as they could have bee with the same thing also being true for this cartoon as well as things just seem to happen for no reason or are only happening because pf the fact that the plot needs to happen like for example there's no need for Popeye to get jealous of Bluto early on in the cartoon but it only happens so that Popeye can start showing off thus making Bluto mad enough to kidnap Olive in the first place and alot of the plot for this cartoon is like which is by no means a bad thing as that's just how things where done back in those days but at the same time tho it would have helped this cartoon alot if the plot did get alot more focused and wasn't just used as an excuse for the jokes to happen with the plot of this cartoon also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this cartoon is William Costello as Popeye , William Pennell as Bluto and Mae Questel as Olive Oyl. While this cartoon does only have three actors in it that is pretty much the norm for these theatrical cartoons as alot of them for one reason or another only had a very small handful of actors appearing in them and even then unless your name was Mel Blanc they nearly always went uncredited which is something that just doesn't work as if you want to follow a certain actor then surely you want to name is so that you can follow there career and watch them grow as a performer with this cartoon really making use of it's three actors as even tho the character of Wimpy appears he never talks with the three characters that do speak being the only ones that are actually important to the plot of the cartoon but at the same time tho it would have made alot of the crowd scenes feel less empty if they did have actors speaking as that would make the stadium feel more alive but then again due to the fact that alot of cartoon only had very minimal casts heck Tom And Jerry is famous for not having either of it's main characters talk it would there for feel odd for this cartoon to break that mold as they had only just worked out how to make sound cartoons in the first place and so there therefor most likely wasn't alot of voice actors available and the actors that were available more then likely saw cartoons as being a lesser form of entertainment and so alot of cartoons much like this one would have had to make do with what little talent that they could most likely find at the time as cartoon were still a new thing let alone ones with sound in them as well.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. With this cartoons acting being alot more better then what it really had any right to be as alot of these very early cartoon did nine times out of ten have some really bad acting in them and therefor nobody back then would have blamed this cartoons actors if they chose to phone in there performances but they all manage to turn in some really good performances so much so that for a ling while these where the voices that people thought off when they thought of these characters and heck this cartoon even sees the debut of Mae Questel who was also the voice of Betty Boop debut as the new voice of Olive Oyl with her being really good for what this role was meant to do interms of the plots of these cartoons and while the voice of Popeye would get more better of the years William Costello does make for a good Popeye with the voice of Bluto being pretty much perfect right from the word go with all three of this cartoon actors turning in some really good and at times funny performances inn this very cartoon as well with it really being helped by the fact that this cartoons script is just so good that all this cartoons actors have to do is just the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very cartoon.
Doing the animation for this cartoon is the regular Popeye animators Seymour Kneitel and Roland Crandall. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good and was more then up to the already high standard of animation that animation studio Fleischer Studios later renamed to Famous Studios were already known for and while yes this cartoon does have the one thing that I personally hate in alot of these early cartoons which is the fact that you see the characters bouncing up and down for no reason whatsoever there's no denying the fact that this cartoons animation was really good with it being so good infact that it could have been the animation for a feature length film and it wouldn't look out of place as that's just good that it looks with all of the characters even having this nice smooth and fluid movements to them with it being made crystal clear that all of the animators and crew that worked on not only this cartoon but alot of the Popeye cartoons as a whole where not only fans of the characters but were also really good at what they did as there putting in alot of there best effort into giving Popeye some truly good animation with this cartoons animation being so good that it could rival some of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons as it's just that good.
While the Popeye character did indeed start out life as a comic book character with him appearing in Thimble Theater. He now has found life as a slasher horror film villains thanks to the rights for him expiring and boy oh boy did horror film producers act quick as we've already had three Popeye themed horror films with Popeye's Revenge , Popeye The Slayer Man and Shiver Me Timbers all being released within the first few months of this year alone and yet Sony who did actually have the rights to make a Popeye movie at one point chose not to do so with both of these choices being baffling to say the least as surely if anything Bluto would be the horror villain and not Popeye this is something that the makers of these Popeye themed horror movies need to understand as while yes granted having Popeye be the villain is great for internet clicks and it does put more eyes on your movie but so does the fact that your making a Popeye themed horror movie regardless of he's the villain or not and as for Sony they straight up cancelled there animated Popeye movie despite it's test footage not only being fully animated and cast but also getting alot of positive responses from the audience with them instead choosing to make The Emoji Movie a movie which no one liked where as with the Popeye movie you could tell that there was some effort to make it like these more early Popeye cartoons as it had that exact same zany energy to it that these early cartoons had and is also something that the Popeye themed horror movies also don't have as there all playing it far to safe with even the best one Popeye The Slayer Man still not being as good as it really could have been either.
While there is action to be found in this cartoon they do put more of an effort in the cartoons comedy aspect. With this short cartoon being painfully funny with it having alot of jokes that have aged really well like the fact that when Olive should for Popeye at the start of the cartoon he then blushes and a heart with an anchor appears which is just so cute and of course there the usual jokes like Bluto using a horses tail as some stairs and even the fact that she's calling out for help Olive is still beating up Bluto and while granted that last one really isn't all that funny as it just goes to show you that these shorts can be badly written at times it is still a joke that works some of the time like in this cartoon for example as she's quite clearly not going to be beat up Bluto and so just kicking him will have to do for her and the cartoon is filled to the brim with jokes like this with nearly all of the cartoons jokes and sight gags working with them working nit because they mentioned a popular product or a meme but because of the fact that they are timeless jokes that when there done right are going to be making generations of people laugh with the best one of these jokes being the Popeye heart joke as it's noy only a really well done joke but it's also one that you don't really see coming and because of that it catches you off guard which is something that does make it all the more funnier then what it really had any right to be and it's something that makes you wonder why the makers of this cartoon didn't put more effort into these creative jokes instead of just relying on what worked as while the joke of someone using an animal as stairs will always work the one with Olive asking for help when she quite clearly doesn't need it doesn't always work alot of the time.
For some strange reason the makers of this cartoon thought that i'd be a good idea for Popeye to get jealous of Bluto. Which is something that just doesn't make alot of sense for either character as Bluto is meant the stereotypical bully character and Popeye is meant to be the one that over comes him at every turn and yet by having Popeye be jealous of Bluto all that does is make Popeye seem like the type of character who would get jealous if you had something that he didn't have and that's not true to his character and heck it's even him being jealous of Bluto that gets Olive kidnapped in the first place as Popeye is to busy showing off that Bluto decides to get even by taking one f the two things that Popeye loves the most in the world his girlfriend Olive Oyl when if the makers of this film wanted to have that kind of thing happen anyway all they had to do was have Bluto get jealous of Popeye and since he's meant to be a bully anyway they could have had him beat up Popeye and then take Olive Oyl just because he can do as that would something that's true to both of their characters and then they could have the big showdown with Popeye and Bluto and eventually have Popeye win the day and the girl but because they went the opposite route it makes everything that happens to Olive Oyl in this cartoon Popeye's fault as Bluto really wasn't doing anything other then his job when he first appeared in this cartoon and that was really it and yet Popeye was the one that got jealous of him and because of it Olive Oyl got kidnaped when if he hadn't done that she wouldn't have done and the whole idea of Popeye getting jealous of Bluto would be OK if it played into the characters arc for this cartoon but it doesn't as it's never brought up ever again.
Now then this cartoon has / had an exact grad total running time of exactly six minuets ad fifty three seconds. Which is not only the bogstanderd running time for alot of these early Popeye cartoons but also alot of these early theatrical cartoons as well with this cartoon really having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time as this is a cartoon that really doesn't need a long running time in order to tell it's story as all it needs is enough time to get across what the basic setup for the cartoon is and that's really it and while this cartoon doesn't really use it's running tome all that wisely as nothing from the plot to the characters are as fully developed as they really could have been in this cartoons defense however they don't really need to be as these cartoons aren't meant to be something that requires you to think whilst your watching them as you don't really go to cartoon like the Popeye cartoons or really even the Looney Tunes and Tom And Jerry ones to have fully developed plots and characters as all you want to see is either the jokes and the action and that's really it with the Disney ones being the ones that you go to for fully developed plots and characters and as such while it would yes have been nice if both the plot and the characters were fully developed characters there not something that's needed in order to make this cartoon enjoyable as for that all you really need is the characters and the wonderful animation and that's something that this cartoon already has going for it in the first place but I really will admit that this very cartoon really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this an action cartoon that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon and well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty not that bad. However at the same time it wasn't all that good either as we don't get to see alot of zany action in this cartoon with Popeye only beating Bluto with ONE punch at the very end and that's really it with the rest of the cartoon being spent with Popeye showing of at the rodeo which is screen time what would gave been much more better served by having a longer fight scene as then both of the characters could really go at each other and while this cartoons action was by no means bad as it is serviceable but at the same time tho it's something that could have been so much more better like you could have had the characters use the animals as weapons or just something that takes full advantage of the fact that it's a cartoon with this cartoons action being something that could have been done in live action but with that being said the best and only action scene in this movie being the third act fight between Popeye and Bluto as even tho it gives us a much more shorter version of what a fight between these two characters should be with Bluto first beating up Popeye until Popeye eats some spinach before winning the day it was something that does still work enough in this cartoon for the action as a whole to be a really passable piece of action in this very cartoon in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while cheaply made horror movies might be what keeps Popeye in the public conscious for at the very least a little while it's these early cartoons that really did bring him to the main stream audience with this cartoon being a really very good example of that even if this cartoon isn't the best Popeye cartoon out there in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very cartoon in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very cartoon really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Popeye The Sailor Man fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very cartoon that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.