Title: Wotta Nitemare
Studio: Fleischer
Date: 5/19/39
Credits:
Directed by
Dave Fleischer
Animated by
Aillard Bowsky
George Germanetti
Series: Popeye
Running time (of viewed version): 7:21
Synopsis: Popeye dreams Olive prefers Bluto, and then unreasonably beats up Bluto in the real world.
Comments: Sleeping Popeye looks like a skin demon, but it's because it turns out it's his feet. This Popeye looks redder than usual in the first sequence (he's still black and white, but I get the impression he's red. Lucky Pierre Bluto is the great god Pan (I'd say the Krampus except he doesn't have a switch or a sack), fooling around with winged Victory Olive. OK, maybe I'm overthinking it, but isn't that what people do to dreams? The cartoon is cheapened by spending more than bookend times in the real (to Popeye) world instead of the interesting dream land (even if it is reminiscent of the sixth season of Lost). Air heads are cool. For some reason, Wimpy eats a big bowl of slop instead of the big plate of hamburgers. There are a couple of shots of Bluto with his eyes wide open, which explains why characters in the cartoon don't tend to show much of the whites of their eyes. Popeye's tongue is out while being strangled as if he were in one of the Lantz Mello Dramas (or a Thai closet). Popeye is pulling some sort of short, curly, black hair from his mattress and is eating it like spinach in his sleep. When eating handfuls of pubic hair, Popeye does not need spinach, he just needs to suckerpunch Bluto when he is caught unaware.
(Jerry Beck's commentary mentions this is the first Popeye cartoon without a Seegar credit, and that it's one of four 1939 Popeyes with non ship titles.)
Addition: Wotta Nitemare poster:
Segar was already dead by the time the studio moved to Miami and this cartoon was made, but kept receiving credit on the cartoons until the end of 1939. Also whoever they had running the camera on this one botched photographing the iris out, with a transparent closing circle mixed in with a fade. Hard to find good help in South Florida at that time, I guess.
ReplyDeletePopeye is pulling some sort of short, curly, black hair from his mattress and is eating it like spinach in his sleep. When eating handfuls of pubic hair, Popeye does not need spinach, he just needs to suckerpunch Bluto when he is caught unaware.
He's strong when he's at-rest/
'cause he eats his mattress/
He's Popeye the Sailor Man!/
One of my all time favorites! I'm afraid I strongly disagree about the frequent cutaways from the Popeye-nightmare to the Popeye-real life; I think that's just one of the elements that raises this one way above the usual "It was all dream" formula. The counterpoint of parallel realities is consistently funny (Popeye turns out to be just about the most animated sleeper in cartoon history, a real candidate for some heavy duty sleep study tests!) This unique story structure (zipping back and forth between Popeye in his bedroom and Popeye in his head) also allows for some fancy continuity-ignoring on the fantasy side, adding to a true dream like quality usually lacking in films like this. Man, this one is a real winner!
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