Popeye (75th Anniversary Collector's Edition) (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)Attempting to capitalize on Popeye's 75th Anniversary, someone raided the old vaults at King Studios and rushed out this collection of misses.
If there is anyone who loves the 1960's era Popeye cartoons, and doesn't expect any picture/sound quality, then this is the motherlode.
While there are a few fun cartoons on here, they are few and far between. The price is not too high for 8 hours of Popeye. It is just too bad it is not 8 hours of glorious Fleischer Popeye.
Included in this collection are:
- Hits and Missiles
- Plumbers Pipe Dream
- Jeep Tale
- Hoppy Jalopy
- Popeye's Pep-Up Emporium
- Golden-Type Fleece
- Coffee House
- Mueller's Mad Monster
- Popeye and the Spinach Stalk
- After the Ball Went Over
- Popeye's Car Wash
- Muskels Shmuskels
- Interrupted Lullaby
- Goon with the Wind
- Hamburger Fishing
- Childhood Daze
- Jingle Jangle Jungle
- Incident at Missile City
- Fashion Fotography
- Sea No Evil
- Popeye's Junior Headache
- What's News
- Voo-Doo to You Too
- Matinee Idol Popeye
- Popeye and the Giant
- Sheepish Sheep-herder
- Sea Serpent
- Little Olive Riding Hood
- Invisible Popeye
- Track Meet Cheat
- Scardy Cat
- Popeye's Trojan Horse
- Alladin's Lamp
- Crytsal Ball Brawl
- Out of this World
- Swee'pea Soup
- Two-Faced Paleface
- Spare Dat Tree
- Frozen Feuds
- Weight for Me
- Tiger Burger
- Old Salt Tale
- Seer-ring Is Believer-ring
- Popeye Revere
- The Glad Gladiator
- Jeep is Jeep
- Strange Things Are Happening
- Popeye's Testimonial Dinner
- Popeye the Ugly Ducklin
- Giddy Gold
- My Fair Olive
- Kiddie Kapers
- Popeye Thumb
- Barbecue for Two
- Popeye's Used Car
- Popeye's Tea Party
- The Wiffle Bird's Revenge
- Bullfighter Bully
- Fleas a Crowd
- County Fair
- Popeye and Buddy Brutus
- Lighthouse Keeping
- Butler Up
- Popeye's Cool Pool
- Oils Well That Ends Well
- Motor Knocks
- Popeye the Lifeguard
- College of Hard Knocks
- Duel to the Finish
- The Medicine Man
- Egypt Us
- The Big Sneeze
- Wimpy's Lunch Wagon
- Operation Ice-Tickle
- The Mark of Zero
- The Super Duper Market
- Insultin' the Sultan
- Wimpy the Moocher
- Popeye's Double Trouble
- From Rags to Riches to Rags
- Me Quest for Poopdeck Pappy
- The Golden Touch
- Gem Jam
- Popeye's Hypnotic Glance
- Olive Drab and the Seven Sweapeas

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Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Vol. 1 (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is it, Popeye cartoon fans! We have dreamed about it, wished for it, and hoped for it. Warner Brothers Video, by arrangement with King Features Syndicate, is issuing here the first 60 ORIGINAL Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons. Wonderful! These fantastic cartoons are being released in chronological order of their theatrical release, FULLY RESTORED from the original negatives in beautiful black and white, UNCUT, with all Paramount titles restored. Volume 1, 1933-1938, is a 4-disc collector's edition. Also included in this release are the first two Three-Color-Technicolor two-reel specials: "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor", and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves". If that isn't enough, 5 hours worth of bonus materials are included: Audio commentaries from Mark Kausler, Jerry Beck, Mark Evanier, and others. More features include restrospectives on Popeye and Max Fleischer, behind the toons featurettes, and bonus shorts.
So many of us remember seeing many of these vintage Popeye shorts when we were kids, and fondly remember the incredible animation from those early Fleischer Studios Popeye's. In 1933, the original Popeye voice was done by William Costello. Sometime in 1935 he was fired and The Sailor Man's voice was taken over by Jack Mercer, who kept at it for the remaining duration of these great cartoons. Remember that wonderful muttering in those early years by Popeye? That was the great Jack Mercer. Who could forget that fantastic "Is that so?" and all the other regular mutterings that Popeye would utter, more so especially during the Fleischer years. Bluto was fantastic, too, with some great back-and-forth quips between himself and his rival. His voice was delivered by William Pennell from 1933-1935, then Gus Wickie from 1935 until his death in 1938. The voice of Olive Oyl was delivered by Mae Questel.
So, all you Popeye fans... this is what we have been waiting for many a year. Throw out all your other Popeye videos and DVDs. Get rid of your VHS tapes that you made from the Cartoon Network. Destroy (with pleasure) all of those horrible colorized Popeye's made infamous by Mr. Turner. Animation historian Jerry Beck says that "your eyes will POP at the restorations. If you've never seen them you are in for a revelation." At long last...the first official release of the Max Fleischer cartoons on DVD. Without a doubt, you will be absolutely, positively delighted!!!

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The plot lines in the animated cartoons tended to be simple. A villain, usually Bluto, makes a move on Popeye's "sweetie", Olive Oyl. The bad guy then clobbers Popeye until Popeye eats spinach, which gives him superhuman strength. The fundamental character of Popeye, paralleling that of another 1930's icon, Superman, also invokes traditional values possessing uncompromising moral standards and resorting to force only when threatened, or when he "can't stands no more"! The first volume includes 58 (7-10 min) theatrical blk & white shorts from 1933 to 1938 and 2 two-reeler 20 minute color cartoons. (Notable shorts: * POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR was an Academy Award� Nominee. Betty Boop appears in a cameo as a hula dancer in the 1st short "Popeye The Sailor")DVD Features:DocumentariesFeaturetteMusic Only TrackOther

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Casper the Friendly Ghost Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this DVD for my kids. They love it!
GoodTimes Video is doing a good job bringing people good classic cartoons at a very affordable price. For [$], you got 9 short movies and 66 minutes of entertainment.
Here is what you can find, the first 5 episodes are all about Caspers the Friendly Ghost(All Color, not black and white).

1) The Friendly Ghost(aka Casper the Friendly Ghost), This is Casper's debut by Izzy Sparber, 1945
2) A haunting We Will Go, by Seymour Kneitel
3) There's Good Boos To-Night, Sparber's followup, 1948
4) Boo Moon, Sparber, Kneitel
5) Spooking about Africa, Kneitel
Now, the next 4 short movies are not Casper, but equally "ghostly-sweet". Two of the episodes are from "Popeye", one "Felix the Cat" and one "Betty Boop" by Max Fleischer.
6) Fright to Finish, Kneitel's Popeye
7) I don't scare, Kneitel's Popeye
8) Bold King Cole, Felix the Cat
9) Is My Palm Read(aka Professor Bimbo), Max Fleischer's Betty Boop. This is the only black and white episode but probably is the best cartoon collected here. The wave scene after Betty Boop escaped from a wrecked ship is probably worth half of the price alone!

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Popeye: The Sailor Man (75th Anniversary Collectors Edition) restored. Review

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(More customer reviews)This "75th Anniversary Collector's Edition" 2-disc set of POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN classic cartoons is well worth having, at least for the first disc.
Casual fans may not know that there has never been an "official" release of the classic Popeye cartoons, on VHS or DVD, in the history of home video. The best the one-eyed sailor's fans could ever get were either iffy bootleg collections or a handful of murky public-domain short subjects.
VCI's set is also comprised of PD shorts, but some work has been done to them and the package has been treated with the respect it deserves (except for the simple and rather disappointing cover, which belies the quality within. Too bad Leslie Cabarga - a cartoonist and author of "The Fleischer Story" - wasn't brought in to do a better one).
The stars of the package are the three Technicolor 2-reelers created by Max and Dave Fleischer in the later 1930s, POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR, POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS ALI BABA's FORTY THIEVES, and ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP. These are three of the grandest, most colorful, and most imaginative cartoons of the golden era, and they've been restored and color-corrected and look - while not perfect - at least better than they have in a long while. As usual, ALADDIN is in somewhat worse shape than the first two, but it still looks better than I've ever seen it before. These cartoons feature some of the Fleischers' finest animation and deepest and most creative backgrounds (including 3D effects). SINDBAD in particular is a favorite.
In addition, six other Fleischer Popeyes are included, all from the late `30s B&W series. Titles include I'M IN THE ARMY NOW, LITTLE SWEE' PEA (another favorite), I NEVER CHANGES MY ALTITUDE, PANELESS WINDOW WASHER, DATE TO SKATE, and CUSTOMERS WANTED. They look varying degrees of good, but again, better than they have in many years.
The second disc contains 25 Popeye adventures from the Famous Studios years; ME MUSICAL NEPHEWS (1942) is in B&W, while the rest are in Technicolor and represent the years 1952-1957. Frankly, I have no interest in these things. They look fine, though (the B&W one is the worst), but they make my skin crawl. BIG BAD SINBAD (1952) gets most of its footage from the earlier Fleischer 2-reeler (without credit), and even worse, POPEYE'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY (1954) uses footage from later, and lesser, Famous Studios offerings (although it does have a cartoon Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, and Martin & Lewis offering tributes to Popeye). I don't see any reason to list (or watch) these cartoons, but they are there if you want them.
Cartoon fan supreme Jerry Beck contributed to the package, and provides commentary on the 3 Technicolor Fleischers, and the package liner notes. Frankly, I didn't find his commentary all that fascinating (sorry, Mr. Beck), but casual fans might.
The SRP is $19.99 and it's worth it. On the other hand, there's another 75th Anniversary Popeye DVD set out there, this one from Koch. It's got 3 discs and 85 cartoons, all from the TV era of the 1960s. It's $30, and I wouldn't buy it for a tenth of that, so there ya are.

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Popeye: Original Classics from the Fleischer Studio (1933) Review

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(More customer reviews)As we all impatiently wait for King Features Syndicate and Time Warner Corp. to strike a deal and finally release classic Fleischer (and Famous Studios) "Popeye" cartoons on DVD, Steve Stanchfield and his Thunderbean Animation studio have decided to give the one-eyed sailorman the treatment he truly deserves. In colaboration with his new distributor (Mackinac Media), Mr. Stanchfield has compiled all of the public domain Fleischer "Popeyes" and released a magnificent collector's edition DVD, which looks better than many "official" studios' cartoon DVD releases. This DVD set includes the following B&W "Popeye" episodes:
Little Swee'Pea (1936)
I'm In the Army Now (1936)
The Paneless Window Washer (1937)
I Never Changes My Altitude (1937)
A Date to Skate (1938)
Customers Wanted (1939)
Me Musical Nephews (1942)
"I Never Changes My Altitude" and "The Paneless Window Washer", animated by Willard Bowsky and Orestes Calpini, count among the best "Popeye" cartoons ever made. They feature superb character designs, astounding animation, beautiful use of perspectives, voice actors' witty under-the-breath mumblings, and, of course, hilarious and energetic fistfights between Popeye and Bluto. Seymour Kneitel's "Little Swee'Pea" is also a great Fleischer short. The cartoon displays some amazing three-dimensional backgrounds, an illusion achieved through the Fleischers' innovative Stereoptical Process. "A Date to Skate", although "Bluto-less," is a true Fleischer gem (according to many fans, the best Fleischer "Popeye" film), which contains Jack Mercer's (Popeye) and Mae Questel's (Olive) funny and intelligent under-the-breath puns and an interesting example of the Fleischeresque self-reflexive approach to animation. "Me Musical Nephews" is a fast-paced and fun musical cartoon, featuring wild animation gags and a very original "cartoony" ending. Even though the short was made by the Fleischers' successors - Famous Studios, it retained the frantic rhythm, upbeat energy, and the visual aura of the late Fleischer output. All black and white cartoons on this DVD set have an excellent, crystal-clear visual quality, fantastic sound, and restored original Paramount Studios opening and closing logos.
The DVD also contains all three well-known two-reel Three-Color-Technicolor "Popeye" specials, based on The Arabian Nights:
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936)
Popeye Meets Ali Baba and His 40 Thieves (1937)
Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939)
Prior to the Thunderbean/Mackinac DVD release, these three cartoons had been issued on countless poor-quality, cheap-transfer public domain video tapes. But, on this DVD set, the Fleischers' two-reel specials look better than they ever did on the home video market. The first two films, animated by Willard Bowsky's unit at the Fleischer Studios, display beautiful Stereoptical (3D) backgrounds. Compiled from some of the best existing 35mm and 16mm material, they are breathtaking eye-candies that give us viscerally powerful viewing experience. Not only are these films visually astonishing, they also have great adventurous stories, fantastic animation, lots of fast-paced action, and voice-actors' incessantly humorous ad-libbing.
As if all this is not enough, this DVD set is loaded with rare bonus material, which includes:
*Rare Interviews with Jack Mercer (voice of Popeye), Mae Questel (Voice of Olive Oyl), Jackson Beck (Bluto/Brutus), animators Shamus Culhane, Gordon Sheehan and Rosalie Waldman
* A Number of Still Galleries: Original animation art, Storyboards, Posters and rare behind the scenes photos and Stills from the Popeye Picnic
*A visit to Chester, Illinois- home of Popeye
*Original Fleischers' "Sing Along with Popeye" (1933)
*A documentary: Tour of the Fleischer Studios from 1939
*Soaky TV commercial
*Pencil tests
*A rare recording by the first voice of Popeye (William "Red Pepper Sam" Costello)
I would buy this DVD even if Warner Bros and King Features Syndicate came to an agreement to finally release the copyrighted Fleischer/Famous "Popeye" library on DVD. This set is, by far, the BEST compilation of public domain Fleischer "Popeyes" and is worth every cent of its price (actually, $9 is a bit too cheap for the set of this quality). Thank you Thunderbean Animation and Steve Stanchfield for giving Popeye the respect he deserves (when his official companies seem unwilling to do so).
Gordan Calma
Fleischer Popeye Tribute
[...]

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150 Cartoon Classics Review

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(More customer reviews)For the price you really can't complain too much. There are about 2/3 of the set that I rate as good cartoons that I'd watch again. Obviously some real clunkers, like THREE STOOGES, the HOFFNUNG & the MR PIPER ones which don't appeal to me liking the bizarre 1930s ones, fortunately there are lots of those on here! Many are typical public domain quality, the worst one is the wonderful COBWEB HOTEL Fleisher Toon which is rough at the start. Some have extra noise too from worn films. 5 stars for 2/3 being good toons & the price.
There are loads of Popeye (23 of them, almost all the post Fleischer ones), just one Casper & Woody Woodpecker, which may disappoint, but the Woody one is a great early 40s one.
BEWARE buying this set if you own the 100 Cartoon collection (with the dog pen drawing on the front) and the 101 Set (from Australia) as these duplicate most of this set. The 101 set copies 75% of this set in the same order!
Here's the full track listing on 4x DVDs...
1Tuba Tooter
2Plane Dumb
3Redskin Blues
4Jolly Fish
5Barnyard Bunk
6Spanish Twist
7Piano Tooners
8Pencil Mania
9Mendelssohn's Spring Song
10In The Museum
11Snow Man
12Goofy Goat Antics
13Let's Sing With Popeye
14Circus Capers
15Sultan Pepper
16Red Riding Hood
17Nursery Scandal
18Boy Meets Dog
19Westward Whoa
20Molly Moo Cow Indians
21Talking Magpies
22Jerky Turkey
23Doggone Tired
24Trolley Ahoy
25Toonerville Picnic
26Inki and Mynah Bird
27Fresh Vegetable Mystery
28Have You Got Any Castles?
29Hamateur Night
30Tale Of Two Kitties
31Case Of Missing Hare
32Enchanted Square
33Private Eye Popeye
34Porky's Midnight Matinee
35Tarts and Flowers
36Flycycle Built For Two
37Wolf wolf!
38Bargain Counter Attack
1Little Hawk
2Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra
3Uncle Tom and Little Eva
4Hoffnung Vacuum Cleaner
5April Maze
6Hoffnung Music Academy
7Hoffnung's Professor Yaya's Memoirs
8Along Came Duck
9Story Of Ali Baba
10Magic Horn
11Brave Molly
12Hasty and Princess
13Kindhearted Girl
14Three Sisters
15Proud Princess
16Sunshine Makers
17You Can't Shoe Horsefly
18It's Greek Life
19Picnic Panic
20Cupid Gets His Man
21Molly Moo Cow Robinson Crusoe
22Scotty Finds Home
23ParroTVille Post Office
24Spinning Mice
25ParroTVille Old Folks
26Les Escargots
27Henpecked Rooster
28Mutt In A Rut
29Story Of Time
30Notes To You
31Mechanical Monsters
32Fresh Hare
33There's Good Boos Tonight
34All's Well
35Flat Heads
36Shuteye Popeye
37Cheese Burglar
38Stupidstitious Cat
1Time For Love
2Little Stranger
3Hawaiian Birds
4Peeping Penguins
5Car-tune Portrait
6Play Safe
7All's Fair At Fair (1938)
8Ants In Plants
9Cobweb Hotel
10Day At Zoo
11Jungle Jitters
12Nearlyweds
13Fire Cheese
14My Friend Monkey
15On With New
16Pudgy Takes Bow-wow
17Rhythm On Reservation
18Hairbrained Barbers
19Sock-a-bye Kitty
20Comin' Round Mountain
21Crazytown
22Golden State
23Winter Draws On
24Shortnin' Bread
25Once Upon Time
26Lost Dream
27Cad and Caddy
28Quack-a-doodle-doo
29Marriage Wows
30Hector's Hectic Life
31Falling Hare
32Gabby Goes Fishing
33Goofy Goofy Gander
34I Don't SCare
35Noisy Silent Movie
36Littlest Martian
37Naughty But Mice
38Early Worm Gets Bird
1Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp
2Ancient Fistory
3Taxi-turvey
4Popeye For President
5Assault and Flattery
6Fright To Finish
7Bride and Gloom
8Gopher Spinach
9Customers Wanted
10Out To Punch
11Popeye Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves
12Spree Lunch
13Greek Mirthology
14Parlez Vous Woo
15Haul In One
16Insect To Injury
17Cookin' With Gags
18Floor Flusher
19Little Brown Jug
20Corny Concerto
21Wabbit Who Came To Supper
22Timid Toreador
23Impatient Patient
24Casper Friendly Ghost
25Goose That Laid Golden Egg
26Pantry Panic
27Electric Earthquake
28Pigs In Polka
29Yankee Doodle Daffy
30Wacky Wabbit
31Get That Snack Shack Off Track
32Boo Moon
33Patriotic Popeye
34Big Bad Sindbad
35Eleventh Hour
36Queen Of Hearts


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