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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: 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.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cheese is Strong to the Finich, When Mixed with some Spinach
Review: This Popeye cartoon collection may not be everyone's idea of a perfect (or even good) 75th anniversary "Collector's Edition", especially fans of Max Fleisher's Popeye and as a "Collector's set", this doesn't quite work. What is here is just the 60's TV Popeye cartoons. They were produced on a lower budget than the theatrical series, and written with children in mind, unlike the thearical shorts, which were aimed at a more general audience. This is not to say that the cartoons aren't enjoyable. The best cartoons in this set are the shorts produced by the Paramount cartoon studios, who would send Popeye off on adventures to the north pole and the moon, and introduce more characters from the E.C. Segar strip, like Rough House, Geezil and King Blozo, as well as the more typical Popeye vs. Brutus cartoons. Many of the other shorts, particularly those produced by Larry Harmon, have a spirit to them that makes up for their odd character design and stiff animation. The shorts produced by Jack Kinney are the most uneven of the entire collection, including some odd "Popeye Fairy Tale" shorts. I enjoyed most of the cartoons in this set. It's a nice look at a relatively forgotten part of Popeye's cartoon career, but Popeye deseves a better retrospective than this, so I've taken a star off of my review.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: These are the unique mini Popeye toons from the early '60s.
Review: This was a great 3-CD set. It has about 85 different mini Popeye cartoons from the early 1960s. These were the cartoons you saw as a kid in the early morning or after school...not the ones you saw on Sundays with Tom Hattan. They usually showed these on t.v. with three episodes per half hour. I loved these cartoons..and with 85 cartoons on 3 CDs..it was a great buy. I really wish Koch will come out with the rest of the 220+ mini episodes in the near future as well. Personally, I liked these Popeye cartoons better than the older "classic" ones as these are more comical and cartoon-y (simple animation) than those older ones. I was waiting a long time for these to come out on DVD and now I hope the rest of them will be out soon too. But if you're looking for those older Fleisher Popeye toons..go get the other DVDs and don't complain about this DVD set because there are many Popeye fans out there who like to watch these versions!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Fleischer is King; the rest is silence
Review: To the reviewer with ISSUES about purists: I feel heartily sorry for you, that you would neither "know nor care" about the difference between the Fleischer-produced (1933-1942) Popeyes and the garbage that ran on TV in the sixties. In response to your witty commment, "they're only cartoons, get a life", I can only say that for this hopeless geek, those little works of art (indeed, all of Fleischer's output) are indeed some of the things that make life worth living. Good luck.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cartoons almost as funny as the reviews
Review: Well, I'm not terribly sure about Popeye as high art, until seeing these reviews I assumed they were children's entertainment! Silly me. Anyway, I'm not getting wrapped up in any comparisons of Popeye to Jean Luc Godard (although that one did have me laughing so hard I almost spit tea all over my keyboard), I'm just going to re-assure people looking to buy a set of clean, inoffensive cartoons for their kids, that they can do no wrong here. My kids have been eating these up with more sheer delight than almost anything I ever got them and that's what matters to me; and the value for the price is unbeatable. Perhaps we have lost touch a bit with what it's like to be children you think?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not the authentic Popeye
Review: When I first played this Dvd I nearly cried. I really think the deception was deliberate. If the old Popeye is what you're looking for STAY AWAY from this DVD set! This set consists of the CRAP that was produced in 60's.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A 60's Cartoon Lover!
Review: Who would ever think that a release of a cartoon box release would create such a riot! I think that some of you who had very ugly and heated comments over this cartoon series would shoot each other if you had semi-automatic pistols! Which (by the way) is a "DUMB" way to express how you feel about something! In short, you can disagree without being ugly in your comments! While I have seen a few of the earlier 1930-1950's Popeye Cartoons, I was a Baby Boomer born in the late 1950's, and when I was making an effort say the word "Television", Mom would turn on the set everyday, and I'd see that blue background with that man on a horse with a banner that read: "King Features "TV" Syndicate on the header! I jumped at the music, and as I grew older, even if I turned on the Television in the middle of the program, I knew what animation team that did the artwork and the story. Some of the stories were good, others maybe not as such, but I loved them...and I still do! They were only 5 minutes long, and many cities that had live interactive shows with kiddie audiences showed these 1960-61 Popeye Cartoons, and other cartoons of that period. Today, animation is called anime'(my teenagers love this stuff) and while Cartoon Network was a great idea at the time it premiered, it gave way to cartoons that in the 1960's would have been debated over in Congress! Even Cartoon Network's "Boomerang" is now history, at least where I live anyway! Back to the this release, I can only hope (PRAY) that they will release the other remaining KFS 1960-61 cartoons, because some of my favorites weren't in this collection! Cartoons that were done by Gerald Ray (yes!), Seymour Kneitel (yes!), and Larry Harmon (of the Bozo fame). And a lot of the animators who worked on these cartoons went on to great careers in other studios! I liked only a few of the ones done by Jack Kinney; but he and his brother, Dick made their fame at Disney! So, buy it if you enjoyed the 1960-61 cartoons, and yes...they are only cartoons! And eventually, they will come out with the cartoons that were in Black & White. I hope so...because there is a long history behind Popeye, and it well deserves to be on DVD!


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