Really like to love a good deal of Popeye cartoons and like the character of Popeye. Will admit though to preferring the Popeye cartoons from the Dave Fleischer era, the cartoons tend to be funnier and there is more originality and more risk taking in some of them.
'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' is a late Popeye cartoon and made in Famous Studios' roughest and most variable period where budgets were much smaller in particularly the animation and deadlines and time constraints were shorter and tighter. All things considered, while there are infinitely better Popeye cartoons (especially during the Fleischer era) and there are signs of what made this period an inferior one for Famous Studios, 'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' is not a bad late Popeye cartoon at all, actually really very enjoyable and one of the better cartoons in Famous Studios' late output. It is interesting and well done if not the most necessary of all Popeye's cartoons.
As to be expected, the story is nothing special and merely an excuse to string along gags, feature celebrity caricatures and feature a couple of cartoons to honour Popeye with. The latter two are fun, very nostalgic and elevate 'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' to a better level, but with not an awful amount of originality and something that can be classed as a "cheat" one slightly questions the point of the cartoon.
Similarly the animation quality is uneven in the honorary/present scenes, never terrible but never fantastic. The colours are fine and there is smoothness and nice detail but there are many moments where the backgrounds are sparse and the drawing rough. It does fare quite a bit better in the cartoons featured.
What is fantastic about 'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' is the music score, the best thing for me. It's beautifully orchestrated, rhythmically it's full of energy and there is so much character and atmosphere, it's also brilliant at adding to the action and enhancing it. The gags are never hilarious but are at least amusing and well timed. With celebrity caricatures there is always the worry as to whether the caricatures are familiar to the viewer, something that is somewhat essential for the gag in question to work (otherwise it goes over the viewer's heads). This wasn't a problem here, being somebody who was familiar and appreciates all of those caricatured.
Popeye is very likeable and amusing and Bluto as always is great fun. The two always did work wonders together and it's the same here. The voice acting is fine, Jack Mercer being my personal favourite of Popeye's voice actors.
In summary, nicely done. 7/10 Bethany Cox
'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' is a late Popeye cartoon and made in Famous Studios' roughest and most variable period where budgets were much smaller in particularly the animation and deadlines and time constraints were shorter and tighter. All things considered, while there are infinitely better Popeye cartoons (especially during the Fleischer era) and there are signs of what made this period an inferior one for Famous Studios, 'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' is not a bad late Popeye cartoon at all, actually really very enjoyable and one of the better cartoons in Famous Studios' late output. It is interesting and well done if not the most necessary of all Popeye's cartoons.
As to be expected, the story is nothing special and merely an excuse to string along gags, feature celebrity caricatures and feature a couple of cartoons to honour Popeye with. The latter two are fun, very nostalgic and elevate 'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' to a better level, but with not an awful amount of originality and something that can be classed as a "cheat" one slightly questions the point of the cartoon.
Similarly the animation quality is uneven in the honorary/present scenes, never terrible but never fantastic. The colours are fine and there is smoothness and nice detail but there are many moments where the backgrounds are sparse and the drawing rough. It does fare quite a bit better in the cartoons featured.
What is fantastic about 'Popeye's 20th Anniversary' is the music score, the best thing for me. It's beautifully orchestrated, rhythmically it's full of energy and there is so much character and atmosphere, it's also brilliant at adding to the action and enhancing it. The gags are never hilarious but are at least amusing and well timed. With celebrity caricatures there is always the worry as to whether the caricatures are familiar to the viewer, something that is somewhat essential for the gag in question to work (otherwise it goes over the viewer's heads). This wasn't a problem here, being somebody who was familiar and appreciates all of those caricatured.
Popeye is very likeable and amusing and Bluto as always is great fun. The two always did work wonders together and it's the same here. The voice acting is fine, Jack Mercer being my personal favourite of Popeye's voice actors.
In summary, nicely done. 7/10 Bethany Cox