Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

My whole reviewing process has kind of gotten out of whack recently. I have a list of movies and music items that I have been itching to publish reviews for. Some of these are labors that have taken the better part of years, because that is the exact time span I've owned the products I've attempted to review. For instance, I am an avid fan of the thematic boxed set compilations Rhino Records usually puts out, in particular One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found, Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly and, of course, the Holy Grail itself: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era. There are also DVD releases sitting on the shelf. For instance, I had almost completed a review of the two-disc unrated edition of Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, but I got sidetracked. A couple of other Apatow-produced films are still gestating in my notebook. And my favorite modern actress, Rosario Dawson, co-produced and starred in a movie called Descent. The notes are still in the pad, and I've yet to listen to the audio commentary.

I plan to write a plethora of reviews, but they just tend to come out whenever the mood strikes me. It's either that, or after every time I take a trip to the library. But you can bet that next month will see the review of Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1

The first officially-released volume of Popeye cartoons created by Max and Dave Fleischer (adapted from the E.C. Segar comics strips, of course) was released in the summer of 2007. Like The Three Stooges' theatrical shorts, Popeye cartoons have had rather poor histories in regards to video releases, often falling prey to worthless compilations of public domain titles, colorizations and made-for-television cartoons that never really gave my generation a chance to experience properly what made the Fleischer Studios-produced endeavors so appealing. I'm not even sure about whether or not these play on the Cartoon Network, as my straight TV viewing has been limited for the better part of five years. Rights issues have been bounced around ever since 1956, when Paramount sold the black-and-white Popeye shorts to Associated Artists Productions for television airings. Finally, in 2006, after Time Warner bought Turner and the rights to Ted's film library were acquired by Warner Home Video, there was an agreement between Warner and King Features/Hearst Entertainment that finally meant the vintage Popeye shorts were finally coming to DVD.

Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1 spanned four discs and 60 theatrically-released shorts. POPEYE THE SAILOR: 1938-1940, VOLUME 2 features a mere 31 shorts on two discs, reportedly due to the difficulty faced in restoring the later shorts (the third volume, which will come out in September, spans up to 1943 and some of the post-Fleischers Feature Studios shorts). 1938 marked a pivotal year for the Fleischers: Popeye had become America's cartoon king, not only more popular than Mickey Mouse, but even the beloved Betty Boop, a previous Fleischer Studios creation who was featured promotionally in the first Popeye short. There was also a labor strike at the studio and competition with Walt Disney, who produced the massive popular Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Fleischer Studios moved from New York City to Miami with money loaned by Paramount in order to work on the feature-length Gulliver's Travels.

Here is a rundown of the 31 episodes, presented as they are in chronological order and each with a one-sentence synopsis about the story being told. The ones with the commentary tracks include parentheses:

DISC ONE:
I Yam Love Sick - Popeye fakes sickness and is tended to by doctors after Olive Oyl leaves him in the lurch.
Plumbing Is a 'Pipe' - Popeye and Olive attempt to deal with leaky pipes whilst the plumber keeps forgetting small things.
The Jeep (commentary by historian Glenn Mitchell) - The transporting, psychic pooch known as "The Jeep" leads Popeye on a wild goose chase to find an AWOL Swee'pea.
Bulldozing the Bull (commentary by writer Paul Dini) - Popeye is mistaken for a toreador and reluctantly fights a bull to impress Senorita Oyl.
Mutiny Ain't Nice (commentary by filmmaker Greg Ford) - Olive accidentally gets stowed away on Popeye's ship and is found by his crew, who then try to send the both of them down the plank.
Goonland (commentary by historian Glenn Mitchell) - Popeye tracks down his long-lost Pappy to an island of Goons who are holding dad as a prisoner.
A Date to Skate (commentary by historian Michael Barrier with audio excerpt from animator Gordon Sheehan) - It doesn't take long for novice roller skater Olive Oyl to end up out of the rink and whizzing down the streets, with Popeye in pursuit.
Cops Is Always Right (commentary by historian Michael Barrier with audio excerpt from animator Dave Tendlar) - Popeye can't catch a break from a persistent patrolman as he offers his help in cleaning up Olive's house.
Customers Wanted (commentary by director Eric Goldberg) - Rival penny arcade vendors Popeye and Bluto vie for the attention of Wimpy.
Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (commentary by filmmaker Greg Ford) - The Technicolor two-reeler with Popeye as Prince Aladdin in a retelling of the genie-in-a-bottle fantasy as written by Olive Oyl, who writes herself in as the princess.
Leave Well Enough Alone - Popeye buys out a pet shop and frees all of the animals, except for the one stubborn bird who sings the titular musical number.
Wotta Nitemare (commentary by historian Jerry Beck) - Popeye tosses, turns and sleepwalks in his bedroom as he is frequently humiliated in a dream by Bluto.
Ghosks Is the Bunk - Bluto tricks fearful Popeye and Olive into coming down to a deserted hotel in order to play some jokes, but the tables turn.
Hello, How Am I? (commentary by animator Mark Kausler) - Popeye is paid a visit by a conniving doppelganger who has a particular craving for hamburgers.
It's the Natural Thing To Do (commentary by historian Michael Barrier with audio excerpt from animator Arnold Gillespie) - At the behest of the Popeye Fan Club, Popeye, Bluto and Olive try to act more "rough fined."

DISC TWO
Never Sock a Baby - Swee'pea runs away from home after some tough discipline from Popeye, who chases after the tot with a guilty conscience.
Shakespearian Spinach - Bluto attempts to sabotage Popeye and Olive's musical reenactment of Romeo and Juliet.
Females Is Fickle - Olive's pet goldfish jumps overboard and she berates Popeye into going after it against all manner of jellyfish and sharks.
Stealin Ain't Honest (commentary by director Bob Jaques) - Bluto the Claim Jumper finds the location of Olive's "secret" gold mine and vies with her and Popeye for the wealth.
Me Feelins Is Hurt - Popeye tries to win back cowboy-crazy Olive after she falls for Bar None Ranch foreman Bluto.
Onion Pacific - Popeye's locomotive (the Onion Pacific) and Bluto's streamliner (the Sudden Pacific) race for a valuable franchise and a kiss from Olive, who ends up going along for the ride.
Wimmin Is a Myskery - Olive sleeps on a proposal from Popeye and has a bizarre nightmare about motherhood (starring, naturally, Pip-Eye, Pep-Eye, Poop-Eye and Pup-Eye).
Nurse-Mates - Olive goes to the beauty parlor and leaves the task of babysitting Swee'pea in the hands of both Popeye and Bluto.
Fightin' Pals - Upon hearing the news that Bluto got lost on an African expedition, Popeye braves the jungle in order to rescue him.
Doing Impossikible Stunts - Popeye prepares a video resume in order to land a job as stuntman, but he shouldn't be so keen to dismiss the talents of lil' Swee'pea.
Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive - Popeye gives Olive a driving instruction which leads to numerous misunderstandings and traffic violations.
Puttin On the Act (commentary by historian Daniel Goldmark) - Popeye and Olive practice all manner of acrobatics, song-and-dance numbers and impersonations after a newspaper headline reads "VAUDEVILLE COMING BACK!"
Popeye Meets William Tell (commentary by filmmaker Greg Ford with audio excerpt from animator Shamus Culhane) - Popeye meets the disgraced archer and poses as his son after Tell defies the king.
My Pop, My Pop - 99-year-old Pappy helps Popeye out in building a boat, with less than smooth results.
With Poopdeck Pappy - Popeye learns the hard way that you can't put Pappy to sleep and you sure can't keep him from irritating all the burly men in the local dive bar.
Popeye Presents Eugene the Jeep - The Jeep is reintroduced as a gift from Olive, but the puppy proves just as mischievous when Popeye tries to put him out for the night.

The second volume of Popeye shorts fails to meet the expectations of the previous set simply due to the fact that the number of features has been cut in half. Furthermore, around this time, William Randolph Hearst was upset with Popeye's image in regards to his fan base of children and demanded less brutal bouts with Bluto. This situation is mocked with relentless glee in "It's the Natural Thing To Do," which squeezes in an old-time musical number (in the same way as "Leave Well Enough Alone" on this set or "Beware of Barnacle Bill" from the older one). Bluto doesn't even figure into the shorts until "Customers Wanted," and that one is what is referred to as a "cheater" because it uses clips from previous episodes. This forced the Fleischer brothers and their team to come up with new ideas and situations for the loveable mariner and his lanky love interest.

A lot of the episodes rely on giddy slapstick and elaborate physicality (an early highlight being "Plumbing Is a 'Pipe'"), but the surreal elements, 3-D design and grittiness of the New York 'toons were traded in eventually for a slicker animation style once the studio relocated to Miami. It's said that "Wotta Nitemare" was the first Miami production, and from this point out, the settings have expanded to a lot more scenic locations, from the Old West to Africa to much more polished outdoor city scenery. This has drawn these later Fleischer cartoons many comparisons to Disney. As a result, I can't help but watch "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" and think that this is blandest of the three lengthy Technicolor shorts released thus far. It's not for the lack of effort, because there are some funny bits, yet they all seem to occur mainly from the ad-libbed dialogue of the great Jack Mercer ("I've never made love in Technicolor before," or "Can you show me the entrance to the exit?"). In fact, it is the voice behind Popeye himself who makes a clip-centered affair such as "Customers Wanted" such a thrill to watch because of a throwaway lines such as his response to Wimpy's promise of a check coming on Tuesday. The Technicolor shorts delved deeper into the realm of established fantasy and had slack pacing all around, so "Aladdin" is likely one of the lesser shorts in this package. Still, it never fails to charm.

Thank goodness the characters are still as endearing now as they were before. Popeye certainly came a long way from the belligerent palooka of the comic strip, as the episodes in this package certainly put his salty charm to a more well-rounded use. Many of the cartoons find the pipe-puffing Popeye questioning the notion of spanking children ("Never Sock a Baby"), getting serious about his love for Olive ("Wimmin Is a Myskery"), defending animal rights ("Bulldozing the Bull") and going through an existential dilemma all because of hamburgers ("Hello, How Am I?"). We even get the chance to probe what it must be like to see inside Popeye's head (the hilariously bizarre "Wotta Nitemare") as well as have genuine emotional ties to friends, family and even enemies alike.

Popeye and Bluto make for the greatest rivals in the history of cartoon, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the surprising yin-and-yang poignancy of "Fightin' Pals." Leave it to Popeye to develop feelings for his sparring partner, his so-called "friendly enemy." The switcheroo that occurs during the short is one of many examples of a brilliant pay-off that happens frequently throughout a handful of these cartoons. Some of them are implied in the titles of some shorts. "Females Is Fickle," for instance, requires Popeye to go under the sea and into the mouth of an exaggeratedly-drawn jellyfish before we learn just how much the title fits into the short. Others arrive there through bold bits of left-field humor, as in the final confrontation between Popeye, Pappy and an army of monstrous island denizens ("Goonland").

The shorts from 1938-1940 also provide us with a couple of fine additions to the Popeye cast of characters in the form of the Jeep and Pappy. An orchid-eating rapscallion spawned from "a fourth dimension," the Jeep provides wish-fulfillment majesty and boundless comic potential, especially on the final short in the set, as close a precursor to Fred Flintstone's own troubles with putting out the cat as you'll find. Pappy, meanwhile, was conceived with the sort of salt-and-vinegar attitude that people say Popeye ended up lacking, and watching the old and younger generation sailors spar is also a treat well outside the formula established involving Bluto and Popeye, on full display here in cartoons such as "Shakespearian Spinach" and "Onion Pacific." "Nurse-Mates" even reframes their warring affections for Olive into a setting where they war over who's more fit to care for the precocious Swee'Pea.

Say what you will about Olive Oyl, but there are also moments on this package which prove she’s just as endearingly funny a creation as any of the guys and dolls and dogs. "It's the Natural Thing To Do" is definitely one of Olive's most charming moments in the canon of Popeye cartoons, and she also provides spunk and good humor to the Vaudeville nostalgia of "Puttin on the Act" (which also boasts hilarious Durante and Groucho mimics from Popeye), the Ghost Breakers-style fun of "Ghosks Is the Bunk" and even a potentially cliché-trafficking diversion such as "Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive."

Throughout it all, the Fleischer Studios team of animators continued to develop fast-paced, constantly entertaining adventures for a beloved bunch of characters. They also eschewed many traditional methods of animated storytelling and displayed a more leisured, quirky sense of humor. Pencil tests were rarely used and scripts more frowned upon, with any pre-conceived bits of dialogue merely in the service of the story and thus allowing for the boundless bits of spur-of-the-moment comic gold from the voice actors. The fourth wall is broken a couple of times during these cartoons, but they are in the most clever and entertaining of ways, such as in the opening cartoon, "I Yam Love Sick," in which characters also walk around rooms without the constraints of gravity. In short, one sit-down viewing of all 31 Popeye shorts in this set will have you hankering for a can of spinach yourself.

Okay, maybe not, but even a Spinach Alfredo pizza sounds tempting thanks to Popeye.

Warner Home Video has issued the 31 Popeye shorts in full frame digital transfers that present improved if not immaculate picture quality. Although consistent and clean, you will notice instances of specks, lines, fuzziness, grain, flickering, shaking frames, jumps, and other such defects without even so much as a close inspection. They are NOT highly problematic, though, which makes me happy and more understanding of the age elements not all being able to be scrubbed clean. The restoration is a success, with whole images that pass the test of being so good, you could snapshot a single frame and then make a canvas out of it. There were no digital flaws to speak of, and the one Technicolor-filmed feature of the entire package looks warmer and more believably vivid than any computerized coloring job. The Dolby 1.0 mono mix (also available dubbed in French) also boasts remarkable fidelity considering its age, with discernible dialogue, audible music and properly-cued, mostly presence-packed sound effects. I was slightly less impressed than with the quality of the previous restorations, but know that audio and video quality is strong enough throughout to each merit four stars.

Fourteen of the shorts contain audio commentaries by a variety of authors, historians, animators and filmmakers. They are all fairly informative, replete with vintage tape recordings of several animators who help to establish a point the commentator brings up. They are much like the tracks you'd find on any of the Looney Tunes DVD boxes. The commentators discuss character origins, point out recurring jokes/references, compare and detail animation choices, provide historical context, discuss their favorite elements of the shorts, and offer biographical information on some of the actors and animators. A few of these participants have certain personalities apparent when they speak; Greg Ford is gushing and defensive of the cartoons he's discussing, whilst Glenn Mitchell offers up dry wit when he explains the conception(?) of Swee'Pea. Bob Jaques’ track for "Stealin Ain't Honest" is my favorite for the way in which Bob describes the pacing of the cartoon as symphonic. Although some tracks offer minor lapses and pauses for dialogue, the commentaries on a whole are very enlightening.

Four "Popumentaries" are included with this package, short featurettes that focus on one single character or person. Disc two, for instance, has only "Men of Spinach and Steel" (6:17), which compares and contrasts the Fleischers' two greatest cartoon superheroes. At times the participants stretch too hard to link Popeye with Superman (as is Eric Goldberg's case when he brings up kryptonite vs. spinach), but some of the observations hit the proverbial nail in the head, especially the way in which people look up to Popeye and Superman as images of pure adolescent fantasy. I personally tend to agree with Mitchell in that there need not be any overt comparisons because they are separate entities. Disc one houses the remaining three: "Eugene the Jeep: A Breed of his Own" (3:14), "Poopdeck Pappy: The Nasty Old Man and the Sea" (5:07) and "O-Re-Mi: Mae Questel and the Voices of Olive Oyl" (8:36). The first two, naturally, discuss the origins and the appeal of the particular characters; the last of the "Popumentaries" shines a light on the talents of the former Vaudeville star who voiced both Betty Boop and Olive Oyl (at least until the move to Miami, when she was replaced with Margie Hines, who got married to Jack Mercer himself around the time of "Aladdin"), with comments many of the same commentators/interviewees as well as the likes of Leonard Maltin and noted voice actors June Foray and Maurice LaMarche.

Disc one includes a lengthier documentary called "Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story" (47:17). Narrated by Carl Reiner and featuring many of the previous talkers from before, with the added participation of Max Fleischer’s son, Richard, and two grandchildren, Mark and Ginny, this is a very detailed portrait of the rise and bitter crumble of Fleischer Studio’s animated empire. When compared to Disney, Dave and Max Fleischer’s cartoons tended to reflect the attitude of first-generation immigrants ("Main Street vs. Manhattan"), and yet it was old Walt who helped to boost the latter brother’s morale by reuniting him with several of his old studio animators turned Disney employees. We learn plenty about the sibling and business rivalries, as well as their achievements in animation.

Disc two also features five "From the Vault" special features: a 1938 edition of “Paramount Presents: Popular Science” (6:32) which takes a behind-the-scenes tour of Fleischer Studios during the animation process for "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp"; the impeccably-animated Superman cartoon "The Mechanical Monsters" (11:02) from Fleischer studios; a very brief pencil test (or animatic) from the "Females is Fickle" short; a storyboard comparison feature for the complete "Stealin Ain't Honest" cartoon; "Early Max Fleischer Art Gallery" (3:04), which contains 19 various notebook-drawn animations back from when Max was only fourteen years old; a vintage audio recording of William "Red Pepper Sam" Costello performing "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" (2:24); and a classic audio-only interview with Jack Mercer by Michael Sporn (6:10). The second disc is capped off with three trailers for Tiny Toons and Freakazoid, Journey to the Center of the Earth and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Disc one opens with an anti-piracy ad and disc two with a preview for The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show.

Movie grade: 4.5 stars
Video grade: 4 stars.
Audio grade: 4 stars.
Extras grade: 4.5 stars.
Final grade: I'm going to average this out to five stars from 4.25. The quality of the various shorts and the extra materials are near-perfect, with only the 21-minute "Aladdin” cartoon showing some weakness, but still undoubtedly entertaining. Even the clip-related episodes are a gas (I didn't even mention the Swee'Pea stunt sequence). And I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt in regards to the video and audio grade. You don't have to own the first volume to get a kick out of POPEYE THE SAILOR: 1938-1940, VOLUME 2, but you can rest assured knowing that there's an existing set out there with 60 more reasons to sing the praises of spinach. And you can also bet that there'll be a review for that one coming soon...

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4