Something I've always thought so odd that I'm reluctant to admit, is that Warner cartoons rarely make me laugh. I might like them or admire them, but except for some of the earlier ridiculous ones, they don't appeal to my sense of humour. So why do Popeye cartoons make me laugh, as an adult?

I think part of the reason is the largely embellished or improvised dialogue, which in Jack Mercer's case is so extreme that it's a sort of a relentless commentary on the film, almost like he's MSTing the cartoon. Hearing him continually muttering and sometimes cracking what seem like improvised gags under his breath is genuinely funny in itself to me. The really bizarre thing is, when I heard him interviwed, he sounded like he was reading from a script!

Anyway, this is one of the classic, original b/w Fleischer shorts, with Mercer, Questel, and singer Gus Wickie's fabulous baritone voice as Bluto (Questel would remain except for a short gap in the early 40's, but Wickie would be gone by the time Fleischer became Famous Studios). It's also one of the classic love triangle set-ups. The three of them are walking along when they notice Olive has gone gooey over a recruitment poster, because she just loves men in uniform. Naturally Popeye and Bluto burst in to get signed up, but the recruitment officer says there's only one space left (which sounds a bit unlikely, but nevermind).

Popeye and Bluto then try to prove that they're the more suitable candidate by showing the guy their old photo albums, which turn into segments from old Popeye cartoons when he looks at them ( a similar idea was used in 'Customers Wanted' a few years later, except with machines in a penny arcade). Each scene contains some evidence of the character's physical prowess. For some reason the recruiting officer finds them increasingly hilarious, which neither Popeye or Bluto seem to notice.

This may seem a bit of a cop-out, as it recycles old material, but it works, and besides, there's nowhere else I know of where you're going to see digitally remastered scenes from these early Fleischer shorts nowadays (I understand there is a deal to finally put Popeye on DVD, but the Fleischer period comprises only the first 8 years, and nearly 200 cartoons, so it's highly unlikely all of these are going to make the cut).

For me the funniest gag in the whole short is from 'Shoein' Hosses' where Popeye arranges four horseshoes on the ground, picks up a horse and hurls him across the barn onto them.

This isn't quite a masterpiece, and does cop a slight penalty for the re-used material, but lots of the old Popeye shorts are this good and some are better. Even some of the Famous Studios ones are this good.

The other odd thing - when I was a kid I never found Popeye very funny OR interesting (though we were getting the much later cartoons on TV). It's only been as an adult that they've gotten under my skin.