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Popeye (75th Anniversary Collector's Edition)

Popeye (75th Anniversary Collector's Edition)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Misleading title
Review: The title "75th Anniversary Collection" implies that these discs have selections spanning the 75 years. In fact, all the cartoons are from the early 1960s, and were made for TV. Nothing at all of Popeye's cartoons from the 30s, 40s, or 50s. But my six year old loves this set, and that's what matters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Misleading title
Review: The title "75th Anniversary Collection" implies that these discs have selections spanning the 75 years. In fact, all the cartoons are from the early 1960s, and were made for TV. Nothing at all of Popeye's cartoons from the 30s, 40s, or 50s. But my six year old loves this set, and that's what matters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Learn to Fast Forward
Review: The title of this DVD collection featuring 86 of the 1960-61
POPEYE TV-cartoons is an insult to millions of people still
waiting for a DVD release of the classic Fleischer cartoons.
Having said that, this COULD HAVE BEEN an entertaining collection of the best of the 220 TV-cartoons, produced by
various animation studios. Instead, cartoons where body parts
vanish during a scene, Olive Oyl grows an extra eye and characters speak with the wrong voices abound! The best cartoons on this DVD are the ones produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios (watch for the name WINSTON SHARPLES on the credits)
and fast forward through the ones with the name HUGH FRASIER.
Apparently an animation historian wasn't consulted in the selection of these cartoons and it shows. If you really want to waste your money, just keep your finger on the fast forward button.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I Yam What I Yam? Or Yam I?
Review: There is this interesting tendency on this site to rate products before they are even released. Thus, certain people who only have a very vague idea about the product they are rating, tend to give their opinion that is based on their distant and very subjective memories or some very questionable reasoning. Having said that, most of us who are rating this product have no idea about the actual audio-visual quality of this Popeye release. Good picture/sound, correct title cards, etc. will certainly mean an extra star for this product. However, since this DVD collection has not been released yet, all we can do is rate the actual content. And, that's where the trouble begins, because all of us approach these cartoons from a different perspective.

Sure enough, it is nice to see an 8-hour Popeye collection being released on DVD. And, sure enough, it is great to see that the cartoons that are being presented here are NOT a handful of the public-domain 1950s Famous Studios shorts that have been released over and over and over again throughout the years. Having said that, it is important to realize that the King Features Syndicate shorts on this DVD collection, in terms of the quality of drawings, gags, and animation in general, are incomparable to the theatrically-released Famous Studios animated films from the 1940s, let alone the glorious black and white Popeye shorts produced by the now-legendary Fleischer Studios from 1933 until 1942.

Fleischer Studios output from the 1930s could be compared to the best of Disney's work from the era. The quality of the animated detail, the energetic humour, the whimsical plasticity, the unprecedented self-consciousness (accomplished through the irreverently zany New York-style of animation + improvisations in the dialogue) and the shocking splendor of three-dimensionality achieved through the innovative Stereoptical process, made Fleischer Popeye shorts from the 1930s some of the BEST animated cartoons ever made. Comparing them to King Features shorts is like comparing Leonardo da Vinci's paintings to an averagely talented first-grader's sketches drawn on a low-quality piece of paper during a boring biology lesson.

Still, some King Features shorts were OK, since they introduced some of Elzie Segar's original characters not seen in the Fleischer/Famous shorts. Some of these films also used interesting plot devices (dir: G. Ray). Most of the 220 cheaply-produced TV shorts, however, were simply horrendous (i.e. cartoons by J. Kinney). The best from the bunch were produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios and featured music by Winston Sharples. Unfortunately, this collection is NOT a compilation of the best of King Features shorts.

I cannot end this review without referring to the astonishingly ignorant review by the user keithf222. Since he chose to quote (and often misquote and de-contextualize) other users' comments, let's see how we can comment on his fascinating observations.

He says: "OK, maybe the title of this DVD is a little misleading"

Nope, not a little misleading. The 75th Anniversary Collection is supposed to celebrate 75 years of Popeye (the sailorman's best and, if you want, his worst). Instead of 75 years of Popeye, we get 1 year of Popeye. Instead of the best, we get some of the worst.

"But give us a break, will you? I doubt there are even a thousand people around the country that know the difference between Fleischer and King Studios Popeye cartoons, let alone care enough to differentiate."

That is like saying: Since most people today don't know much about Godard's "Breathless," let's instead release the inferior American remake with Richard Gere. Who cares? There isn't enough people around the country who care enough to differentiate..."Ignorance is the bliss" is what this user is telling us.

"The Fleischer cartoons are fine, well animated shorts and sure, they're 'classic.' But we all know that they'll be released eventually, so all the cartoon geeks out there will be satisfied in time."

The Fleischer Popeye cartoons have never been released on VHS and/or DVD. How do you know that they will be released eventually? King Features Syndicate has been blocking the release of these shorts for years now (they own the copyright for the "Thimble Theater" characters). There is a hope (since Warner Bros and KFS are negotiating and restoring the films), but the big studios + KFS have been unfair to the Fleischers' cartoons featuring our favourite one-eyed, pipe-tooting swab for years and years now...We have all become very skeptical when it comes to this issue...

"These cartoons are all fun, and the supposedly unforgivable mistakes are hardly noticeable unless you are really wasting your time looking for them. A kid will be unlikely to notice or care if they do... and who were these made for anyway? For Pete's sake guys, they're only cartoons after all! Can we get a life, or what?"

Of course, a kid will not care about the quality of drawing, animation, or mistakes...A kid won't even care much about differences between a public-domain, unrestored VHS tape and a remastered DVD compilation. But, you, my friend, obviously have no idea what words "75th Anniversary Collector's Edition" connote, do you?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great for what it is, and nothing more.
Review: This DVD set is great for what it is. A fairly huge collection of not-so-circulated Popeye cartoons. Sure, they arent the Fleischer versions, but its better than nothing at all. (...)

Have fun. And dont leave home without yer spinach!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 85 Popeye cartoons. Whats not to like?
Review: This is a collection of the well made 1960's Popeye cartoons. Its not the older B&W Popeye but its still Popeye. The cartoons you REALLY want to avoid are the Popeye cartoons from the 1970's. Those are the only bad ones.

These cartoons are great. I grew up watching them, I'm not some obsessed fan that likes only the original old B&W cartoons. I want what was good, and these were good. Great collection, highly recommended.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Why not the ORIGINAL B & W Popeye?
Review: This is a great collection of the boring, flat(but colorful!) Popeye cartoons that were to come with the advent of television (and the corresponding notion that cartoons are only for kids and only for Saturday mornings). They are completely lacking the energy, imagination and eccentricity that made the early black and white cartoons so entertaining. Like the early Betty Boop cartoons of the same time period (though not quite so surreal), there seems to be a hidden beat that runs the length of each film: the characters, objects and backrounds are never actually static. You can actually run just about any pop music instead of the soundtrack and the films just about dance. I must admit that I also find Popeye's constant mumblings much more charming in these early toons: although he is much less intelligible, he is funnier and his whole nature seems more improvised rather than scripted. I wish some studio would shell out the bucks and buy the early stuff and remaster it. I have about 4 hours of these films on a bootleg VHS and they are AMAZING. Popeye deserves the treatment that Republic gave Betty Boop a few years back (although sadly, this same BB collection has yet to come out on DVD).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Can't please all of the people all of the time...
Review: This is a great collection, 85 cartoons and 8 hours worth of viewing. They look great! Some people have complained about it being the 1960-1961 King Features cartoons and say they were fooled by the fact that it said "75th Anniversary Celebration" on the cover, but the copy I bought says right on the front of the box that it is the 1960-1961 cartoons. Maybe they changed the cover after complaints or something, I don't know. I knew what I was buying though. Sure, I love the great animation in the earlier cartoons but these cartoons are just as funny and the voices are good.

On these cartoons Popeye's nemesis is named Brutus instead of Bluto due to the fact that either King Features thought the 'Bluto' name was copyrighted or because Walt Disney sued because the name was too similar to their 'Pluto' character. Bluto or Brutus, he's a brute either way. Buy this fine collection today and laugh your troubles away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Strong to the finish!
Review: This is a super, must-have collection for any and all Popeye fans. It's unbelievably extensive, and the price is super duper. Consisting of over 80 King Feature's shorts, there is not a collection out there to rival it. I have read that these are PD cartoon, but they're not. These are the real deal!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not the Real Popeye
Review: This is not the classic Popeye, but rather a collection of poorly-written, poorly-animated television cartoons from the 1960s. This does nothing but disgrace Popeye's 75th birthday.

Of more interest is the "Popeye: 75th Anniversary" Collector's Edition 2-disc set that contains 34 theatrical cartoons from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Although it is indeed a public domain collection, it may be the only public domain collection that does Popeye any justice: the cartoons have their titles restored, they are presented uncut and in their original color form, and there are no added sound effects.


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