User Reviews

Popeye is lovingly taking care of his little "hi-bred" spinach plants, taking them for a walk in the stroller, then giving them a shower, drying them carefully ("so you're iron won't rust) and sprinkling them with insect powder. He even puts diapers on them!

Then, we see his big garden: "a peaceful, contended nursery," he calls it.....until plants start suddenly disappearing! Popeye has a gopher problem.

The two battle it out for most of the cartoon but at the end, the two suddenly become allies against a raging bull - an odd ending, but a nice one.

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.

'Gopher Spinach' is a quite 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, 'Gopher Spinach' 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 up there with one of the more interesting, if not quite one of the best, funny animal Popeye cartoons because the "funny animal" in question is far from potentially irritating comic relief and is actually amusing and identifiable.

As to be expected, the story is nothing special despite a different conflict and not having the usual supporting characters, two of the biggest interest points about 'Gopher Spinach'. It does feel predictable too if one, like me, is familiar with Popeye's battles with animals.

Similarly the animation quality is uneven, 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.

What is fantastic about 'Gopher Spinach' 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, ranging from very amusing to hilarious and creative for late Famous Studios/Popeye, are executed very well, the interplay between Popeye and the gopher is lively and witty if in need of more variety at times and the pace is never dull.

Popeye is very likeable and amusing as the only human in 'Shuteye Popeye', while the gopher in a change of pace to Popeye's usual adversary in Bluto, though not much different to his "cute animal" adversaries, is fun. Jack Mercer does a great job as Popeye and the Popeye voice that has always in my mind the most.

Concluding, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A humorous but forgettable part of the POPEYE franchise...which by the Fifties had totally forgotten its Segar/sailing roots. The gopher looks like Paramount/Famous Studios were leaning towards Disney in regards to characterization. Worth a look, but no real challenger for 'epic' status.

Since I was a child I have loved Popeye the Sailor, due to his Cartoon Violence but not as Exaggerated as in Tom and Jerry, Violence in Popeye was always something that had to be in all his shorts and here there is not too much Violence, but there are good Scenes that replace the blows.

I saw this short on television as a child along with other Popeye shorts, I always liked the Popeye Character and the Others that were there, they were funny characters, but this short is a massive Degradation of the Original Shorts of the 40s.

The Animation at this Point is a Disgrace, it is noted that the Budget Low in Paramount forced to make Slower Animations with strange Movements and Inferior Drawings, but the Backgrounds and the Designs of the Characters are Quite Passable and resemble a little to the Originals and it is Easy to Ignore this point since at first glance the Animation is Quite Passable.

The Music doesn't Stand Out in Anything but it's still just as Lively and Good as in the Original Shorts.

The voice acting is pretty decent with the great Jack Mercer giving an excellent voice to Popeye.

Sound Effects are Simple and very Forgettable they make the Short feel boring.

In itself it is not the best short of the series, but it is a decent and enjoyable one to watch with your family and remember the old days!.

For everything I said before, I give this short a 7.

Popeye carefully plants his beloved spinach in his garden. A gopher steals his plants and Popeye gives chase. Soon there's a bull and a super gopher. This is fine. Popeye has a gopher as a costar. It's small in scale. The Famous Studios animation is still not my favorite but this one is fine. It's a lot of fine.

Gopher Spinach (1954)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye is out planting baby spinach's in his garden when suddenly they begin to disappear. It doesn't take long for him to realize that a gopher is stealing them.

Fans of Popeye should enjoy this short, which has a fairly good story but also plenty of action to go along with the laughs. Obviously Bluto will always be the greatest villain but the gopher here managed to make for a lot of fun and especially during a prank involving a lawn mower. As you'd expect the animation itself is quite impressive and with such a short running time there's no downtime in regards to entertainment.

When you expect Bluto, a gopher can not be enough. But it is a nice portrait of beginning of friendship and seductive chain of adventures. And, sure, a story about rivalry. For pinach.