Rating: 
Summary: The best there is until King Features and WB come to terms.
Review: All of the Fleischer/Famous Popeye cartoons which are in the public domain are in this two CD set. This is the best Popeye collection available until King Features (which owns the rights to the Popeye characters) and Warner Bros. (which owns the Fleischer/Famous Popeye cartoons) finally make a deal to release the Fleischer/Famous Popeye cartoons on DVD. Warner has been restoring the cartoons in anticipation of this.
Rating:
Summary: The Classic Shorts
Review: At least someone is trying to get these cartoons to look original. The Paramount logos are on all of them and the ones that didn't haev original complete title cards. they used the later Famous music with the vintage Paramount logo. ON disc two they do have the 1942-43 rarely seen porthole sequence that comes after the Paramount logo [but they used a 1930s logo to open but they retained the 1942 version at the end].
Rating: 
Summary: "The real popeye.......finally"
Review: Could it be true after years of deadend searching and disapointment
that there's finally a release of the famous studio popeye's of the
1950's in watchable condition? If VCI is behind it I guess so.
These were probably the best produced (second next to the Fleisher
brothers eariler efforts) and were the staple to the drive-in crowd
before the main feature. Years later a new generation would find an
equal enjoyment watching them via television in the early 1970's on
after school programs as the "Kevin McCarthy cartoon show"
This disc set is a must for any true fan of old style animation.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the price for Disk #1
Review: I really have no interest in the Famous Studios cartoons from the 1950s that fill Disk #2 in this set, but the 1930s Fleischer cartoons on Disk #1 are worth every penny of the asking price. These are still not "offical" (i.e., remastered) releases, but the three Technicolor cartoons -- "Sinbad", "Alladin" & "Ali Baba" -- look much, much better than any other home video releases I have seen. Finally these color masterpieces can be enjoyed in something close to their original splendor!
Rating:
Summary: "Viewer from Apalachicola" is wrong, wrong, wrong!
Review: I think the fact that there are TWO "75th Anniversary" compilations is confusing people. The other one, from Koch, I have not seen, but I have not seen a single positive word written about it.THIS collection, from VCI, is the real thing! Disc 1 features 9 cartoons from the Max Fleischer era, including the three famous long color features, and they've never looked better. Disc 2 features 25 cartoons from the Famous Studios era of the '50s, and while they can't hold a candle to the earlier Fleischers, they are still worthwhile. Add a commentary by historian Jerry Beck, and you have a package worth every penny of its reasonable price. I hope "Apalachicola" purchases THIS compilation and retracts his/her earlier review.
Rating: 
Summary: But just where is We Aim To Please?
Review: Just wondering if anyone can please possibly tell me if this collection includes We Aim To Please from 1934? If not, then perhaps where I can find it? This was later remade as Spree Lunch. In We Aim To Please, Popeye and Olive run a diner together and Wimpy utters his famous I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today line for the very first time ever in the cartoons. Can anyone please help me to find this neglected classic Popeye cartoon?
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Right about now, there are about four different 75th Anniversary Popeye collections (counting the set of 85 KFS TV cartoons), most of them being Public Domain films of varying quality. (And at least one set being three volumes sold seperately!) This set has perhaps the best looking versions of Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor, Popeye Meets Ali Baba's 40 Theives and the Aladin short that you're going to find anywhere. Most of the black and white films on the first disc look great as well. The second disc is more uneven in terms of picture quality.
The whole set has a few authoring problems: we get a few minutes of "Me Musical Nephews" on disc one, and the picture flickers on some of the shorts on disc two, most notably "Patriotic Popeye" and "Me Musical Nephews". Perhaps VCI may correct this for future pressings of the set, but this is worth it for the great prints of the three color "features".
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware. Wait for the real thing. This is more PD junk.
Review: Someday, we will see a wonderful DVD collection of the great Max Fleischer and Famous Studios POPEYE cartoons released by their rightful owner, Warner Bros., as soon as the studio is given the blessing of the character's owner, King Features Syndicate. Meanwhile, opportunistic companies ready to profit from other entities' properties without paying royalties market these cartoons under the guise that they are "public domain". The loser is the unknowing consumer that innocently buys this garbage. That's exactly what this latest Popeye compilation is, and it's bad. Plain and simple. Cobbled together from inferior prints, anyone can do better recording these cartoons off television than buying this trash. Don't waste your money. Wait for the real deal. It'll be worth its weight in spinach!
Rating:
Summary: Waaal, blow me down! A worthy Popeye DVD at latsk!
Review: This "75th Anniversary Collector's Edition" 2-disc set of POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN classic cartoons is well worth having, at least for the first disc. Casual fans may not know that there has never been an "official" release of the classic Popeye cartoons, on VHS or DVD, in the history of home video. The best the one-eyed sailor's fans could ever get were either iffy bootleg collections or a handful of murky public-domain short subjects. VCI's set is also comprised of PD shorts, but some work has been done to them and the package has been treated with the respect it deserves (except for the simple and rather disappointing cover, which belies the quality within. Too bad Leslie Cabarga - a cartoonist and author of "The Fleischer Story" - wasn't brought in to do a better one). The stars of the package are the three Technicolor 2-reelers created by Max and Dave Fleischer in the later 1930s, POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR, POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS ALI BABA's FORTY THIEVES, and ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP. These are three of the grandest, most colorful, and most imaginative cartoons of the golden era, and they've been restored and color-corrected and look - while not perfect - at least better than they have in a long while. As usual, ALADDIN is in somewhat worse shape than the first two, but it still looks better than I've ever seen it before. These cartoons feature some of the Fleischers' finest animation and deepest and most creative backgrounds (including 3D effects). SINDBAD in particular is a favorite. In addition, six other Fleischer Popeyes are included, all from the late '30s B&W series. Titles include I'M IN THE ARMY NOW, LITTLE SWEE' PEA (another favorite), I NEVER CHANGES MY ALTITUDE, PANELESS WINDOW WASHER, DATE TO SKATE, and CUSTOMERS WANTED. They look varying degrees of good, but again, better than they have in many years. The second disc contains 25 Popeye adventures from the Famous Studios years; ME MUSICAL NEPHEWS (1942) is in B&W, while the rest are in Technicolor and represent the years 1952-1957. Frankly, I have no interest in these things. They look fine, though (the B&W one is the worst), but they make my skin crawl. BIG BAD SINBAD (1952) gets most of its footage from the earlier Fleischer 2-reeler (without credit), and even worse, POPEYE'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY (1954) uses footage from later, and lesser, Famous Studios offerings (although it does have a cartoon Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, and Martin & Lewis offering tributes to Popeye). I don't see any reason to list (or watch) these cartoons, but they are there if you want them. Cartoon fan supreme Jerry Beck contributed to the package, and provides commentary on the 3 Technicolor Fleischers, and the package liner notes. Frankly, I didn't find his commentary all that fascinating (sorry, Mr. Beck), but casual fans might. The SRP is $19.99 and it's worth it. On the other hand, there's another 75th Anniversary Popeye DVD set out there, this one from Koch. It's got 3 discs and 85 cartoons, all from the TV era of the 1960s. It's $30, and I wouldn't buy it for a tenth of that, so there ya are.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the best Popeye DVD material available.
Review: This 2 DVD set is released by VCI with help from animation historian Jerry Beck (he also helped with VCI's release of Fleischer's Somewhere in Dreamland DVD and the WB Gold Collection DVDs I think.) The prints used on the Fleischer DVD set were top notch. Im sure the older fleischer prints used on this set will totally blow away the 'public domain' versions that have been making the rounds on VHS & DVD. I look foreward to seeing Ali Baba, Sinbad, and Aladdin with the correct intro screens and intro music for a change!! Many thanks to VCI and Mr. Beck. !!!!!
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