Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad

Independent Films, Film Profiles

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Popeye Color Feature series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Dave Fleischer, with musical supervision by Sammy Timberg. The voice of Popeye is performed by Jack Mercer, with Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Gus Wickie as Sindbad the Sailor.In this short, Sindbad the Sailor (modeled after Bluto) proclaims himself the greatest sailor in the world and "the most remarkable, extraordinary fellow," a claim which is challenged by Popeye's arrival on his island with Olive Oyl and J. Wellington Wimpy in tow. Sindbad orders his huge Roc, Rokh, to kidnap Popeye's girlfriend, Olive Oyl, and challenges the one-eyed sailor to a series of obstacles to prove his greatness, including fighting Rokh, a two-headed giant named Boola, and Sindbad himself. Popeye makes short work of the bird and the giant, but Sindbad almost gets the best of him until Popeye produces his can of spinach, which gives him the power to soundly defeat Sindbad and proclaim himself "the most remarkable, extraordinary fella."A subtly dark running gag features Wimpy chasing after a duck on the island with a meat grinder, intending to grind the duck's flesh so that he can fry it into a hamburger. Many of the scenes in this short feature use of the Fleischer's Tabletop process, which used modeled sets to create 3D backgrounds for the cartoon.