Baby Preacher

Here's one for all my children's ministry friends who are workin' in the nursery...

Cartoon a Day: Sock-a-Bye Baby

Sock-a-Bye Baby
1934
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Available on: Popeye the Sailor Vol. 1

“Sock-a-Bye Baby” features a pretty ruthless Popeye. He’s put in charge of watching a napping “infink,” and he does anything to keep the baby from waking up.

It’s that classic cartoon premise we’ve talked about before where one character is sleeping and another tries to keep him from waking up.

The baby in this short is not Swee'Pea, who had only just been introduced into the Popeye comic strip shortly before this short was made. Olive Oyl and Bluto don’t even appear in this one, it’s just Popeye and the baby. He still manages to do a great bit of damage, though. There are some classic bits of Popeye violence in this one, including him swinging from a flag pole to knock out people in the windows of a building and punching a radio and sending an electronic fist through the air waves to sock the person at the other end of the microphone. Another great example of that warped Fleischer sense of humor.

Cartoon a Day: Wild Elephinks

Wild Elephinks
1933
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Available on: Popeye the Sailor Vol. 1

“Wild Elephinks” is another very memorable early Popeye short. I remember this one being in the regular rotation on Channel 32 in Chicago when I was a kid. It’s another one in which Bluto does not appear, but don’t worry, Popeye has his hands full with a bunch of nasty animals. In other words, this short is PETA’s worst nightmare.

Popeye and Olive Oyl end up on a jungle island in this one. As Popeye is doing battle with a giant elephant, a gorilla takes the opportunity to run off with Olive. This leads to one of my favorite moments in this short, and a perfect example of the Fleischer sense of humor, when the gorilla picks coconuts as he carries Olive and uses her head to crack them open.

Eventually, Popeye must battle a snake, a moose, a lion, and all sorts of other creatures. These animals have a great look. There is a lot of character, not just the generic look-as-much-like-Mickey-Mouse-as-you-can style that was so prevalent during this era. The great look of the animal characters is all the more important when Popeye beats them to pulp, and we get some great reaction shots.

Cartoon a Day: I Eats My Spinach

I Eats My Spinach
1933
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Available on: Popeye the Sailor Vol. 1

The last four days were pretty wild. Everything from snow storms, to sci-fi conventions, to jigsaw puzzles with the kids. I have been watching my daily cartoons, so it will take a little time to catch up. Normally I might just skip the blogging, but I'm loving these Popeye cartoons so much, I just can't.

In "I Eats My Spinach," Popeye joins the ranks of many cartoon characters by participating in a bull fight. I did a whole week of bull fight cartoons awhile ago, this one begins with a simple visit to the rodeo only to have Popeye get roped into competing against the star of the event, Bluto. Eventually he must do battle with both Bluto and a bull. It's fun to watch Popeye show up Bluto in every way, shape and form. You've gotta wonder why the guy keeps on trying.

One of my favorite parts of this particular cartoon is fight where Popeye, Bluto and Olive all end up socking it out. I call this thing a "fight cloud," you see them in many Popeye cartoons. With the magic of DVD, it's fun to freeze frame these sequence and watch all the unique animation poses the characters end up in. I won't waste any more words...just check out this great sequence of images...

Before Oprah

I'm pretty sporatic when it comes to my Twitter account, but at least I can claim that I was there before Oprah. Now that the queen of the universe is "tweeting," the world may just colapse upon itself. But some geniuses have come up with herebeforeoprah.com, where you can type in someone's twitter name and find out if they were a twit before Oprah was.

Here's my proof straight from the site.

Space Invaders

This is one cool video. That is all...


Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Songs with a Girls' Name in the Title #23

23. Veronica - Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello |MTV Music

Elvis Costello is a great songwriter. His lyrics can create such great images, and this song is no exception. “Veronica” is about an old woman slowly loosing her memory as she lives out her life in an old folks home. The song was inspired by Costello’s own grandmother who battled Alzheimer’s disease and was co-written by Paul McCartney.

Songs with a Girls' Name in the Title #24

24. Lola - The Kinks



Ok…um…so…uh…alright, if you don’t know by now that Lola is a man then you don’t know much about music. A controversial song for sure, but it revived the career of The Kinks and inspired one of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s greatest parodies, “Yoda.” You gotta give it some points for that.

Songs with a Girls' Name in the Title #25

25. Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys



Now I’m no great musical expert, but The Beach Boys’s version of this simple little song seems to consist of a guitar, a tambourine, and several clapping singers who are just inebriated enough that they can’t quite remember all the lyrics. Supposedly Capital records released this recording without informing the band. Wonder why?

Cartoon a Day: Blow Me Down

Blow Me Down
1933
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Available on: Popeye the Sailor Vol. 1

Popeye's third big screen adventure takes our hero south of the border and steps up the action and the entertainment in many ways.

In some ways, you can see the animators realizing what they had in the character of Olive Oyl. If ever there was a character made for animation, it's Olive. At this point she's pretty much a clothes pin with rubber band arms and legs. Throughout her dance sequence we see the artists explore the range of her movements.

This short also steps up the level of violence...big time! Barely a minute into the short a bandito takes a shot at Popeye from behind! Of course it bounces off of his skull and nails the shooter who falls several stories to the street below. Kids stuff, right?

The bar room brawl that follows between Popeye and Bluto's gang is even more violent. The commentators on the DVD actually compare it to the House of Blue Leaves fight sequence from Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol. 1." To be honest, I can see it. Some of the elements of the setting and angles used are similar. Not to mention the fact that one person manages to fend off a slew of attackers. I wouldn't put it past Tarantino to have looked to Popeye for inspiration, let's put it that way.

It is strange to see this level of violence in a cartoon today, but I guess the fighting is part of what gives Popeye cartoons their charm.

Cartoon a Day: I Yam What I Yam

I Yam What I Yam
1933
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Available on: Popeye The Sailor Vol. 1

Popeye's second screen appearance is quite different from his first. It actually strays from the Popeye vs. Bluto formula but is still a great cartoon. Bluto doesn't even appear in this one, but another famous character, Wimpy, makes his debut (though without any hamburgers).

As the short opens, Popeye, Olive and Wimpy are rowing across the sea through a storm. Actually, Olive is doing all the rowing, which makes for a very funny opening sequence. Popeye stands at the front of the boat like Washington crossing the Delaware, Wimpy sits back and eat fish pulled right from the water, meanwhile Olive is rowing like mad.

The action gets started after the trio have arrived on land and are attacked by a group of indians. The sequence where the indians close in on the cabin is a classic example of the Fleischer style. The indians actually morph into bushes and trees as they move in for the attack. It's certainly not politicly correct by today's standards, but a fun cartoon none the less.

Cartoon a Day: Popeye the Sailor

Popeye the Sailor
1933
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Available on: Popeye the Sailor Vol. 1

I had a great Easter weekend, but busy. My parents were in town and we did four puppet shows at four Easter services, thus the break in blogging. However, with my birthday just a few weeks away, my parents gave me some early gifts. One was the first DVD set of Popeye cartoons, so I think we'll focus on the one-eyed sailor this week.

This is the very first short to feature Popeye, it is technically a part of the Betty Boop series even though she only makes a cameo. The basic premise that would direct most of the Popeye films for years to come is in place right from the beginning. Popeye and Bluto compete for the affections of Olive Oyl, a fight ensues, Popeye eats some spinach and wins Olive.

Popeye is a unique character in animation history. He wasn't born on film, but came from comic strips. But his film career only added to the popularity of the character. One of the commentators on this DVD set describes him as being the first superhero, and I suppose that 's true.


He's also a somewhat absurd character that perfectly fits the outlandish style of the Fleischer studio. It's interesting note in this first cartoon that Popeye, Olive, and Bluto are the only human characters. The other characters are anthropomorphic animals, which is something that would not continue as the series progressed.

It has been so long since I really watched the Popeye shorts. They were daily viewing as a kid, but I must admit I have avoided them as an adult as many of the showings on Cartoon Network in recent years have been colorized abominations (curse you Ted Turner). It's going to be fun looking at these shorts again!