Popeye cartoons - black and white vs. color (from the 1940's and 1950's)

[Rezny@gmail.com]

Which did you prefer?The black and white ones done in the 1930's and 1940's,or the color ones ,from the mid 1940's to the late 1950's?Although the black and white ones were okay,I liked the color cartoons a little bit better.And a question:In the not-very-good black and white cartoon "I Never Changes My Altitude",Popeye jumped the shark by doing something in the beginning he NEVER did in any other cartoon,black and white,or color.What was it?

[comedyfreak]

The have colorized the black and white eps and they look good. I grew up watching the reruns from the 50's so I prefer those but do like the 30's and 40's ones.

[MrCleveland]

That would be difficult to say, I liked the cartoon where Popeye was Aladdin, but the 1940's and 1950's Popeye cartoons were finely animated.

[tv star collector]

As I see it, the main drawback of the Famous Studio cartoons (i.e., the later
ones) is many of them are simply remakes of some of the earlier Fleischer
cartoons. But the original Famous cartoons are pretty good, largely due to
Jack Mercer (who not only voiced Popeye for several decades but also wrote
some of the scripts for the Famous cartoons). It should also be mentioned
that the redesigned Olive Oyl is more appealing, and so is Mae Questel's voice
over her predecessor's.

[LUNCH]

I like both the black and white and color Popeye cartoons.It's been quite some time since I've seen them,they used to always be on the air,and now no tv station shows them.It's rediculous.

[Rezny@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by rrezny@usnetizen

Which did you prefer?The black and white ones done in the 1930's and 1940's,or the color ones ,from the mid 1940's to the late 1950's?Although the black and white ones were okay,I liked the color cartoons a little bit better.And a question:In the not-very-good black and white cartoon "I Never Changes My Altitude",Popeye jumped the shark by doing something in the beginning he NEVER did in any other cartoon,black and white,or color.What was it?

Answer:He cried.And not onion tears,either,like he,Bluto and Olive Oyl cried in the one (black and white)where they tried to entertain Swee'Pea,whom,at the end laughed hysterically after Popeye got a can of onions by mistake,instead of Spinach.That,plus the finely animated updating of the characters,Olive Oyl was a lot prettier in color,Popeye and Bluto were a lot more handsome in color than in black and white,made the color ones a treat.

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by LUNCH

It's been quite some time since I've seen them,they used to always be on the air,and now no tv station shows them.It's rediculous.

That's because somebody would probably Sue the Station for FALSE ADVERTISING! Someone would say "On TV I see this Sailor Dude eat a Can of Spinach, and he turns into an @$$-Kicker. I do the same thing and NOTHING HAPPENS!

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...the 1933-'42 Max Fleischer black and white cartoons were the superior ones. After Seymour Knietel (Max's son-in-law) and three other key studio members {directors Isadore Sparber, Dan Gordon and business manager Sam Buchwald} took over on Paramount's behalf as it became "Famous Studios" in 1942, the quality started to slip a bit...and slightly accelerated when they "converted" to full color production in 1943...and deteriorated towards the end of the '40s when they temporarily used cheaper color processes other than Technicolor {Cinecolor, Polacolor} to save money. By the early '50s, after Buchwald's death, Famous became a "run of the mill" studio, just grinding out popular cartoons with no artistic aspirations whatsoever. The studio, later known as "Paramount Cartoon Studios", just lingered on until the end of 1967- ten years after their last theatrical Popeye cartoon {"Spooky Swabs"}, and six years after their last Popeye TV cartoon for King Features.