Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936)
On an island stocked with monsters, the boastful Sindbad the Sailor — drawn as a bearded version of Bluto — proclaims himself the greatest sailor alive and carries off Olive Oyl. Popeye comes ashore to dispute the title, surviving a giant roc and a two-headed giant before spinach settles the matter.
The first and most celebrated of Fleischer Studios’ three two-reel Popeye Color Specials, Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was shot in Technicolor using the studio’s “Stereoptical” setback process, which placed cel artwork in front of rotating three-dimensional miniature sets. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject, later placed 17th in a 1994 poll of the fifty greatest cartoons, and was added to the National Film Registry in 2004.
Background
This was the first and most celebrated of three lavish Technicolor Popeye specials that Fleischer Studios produced in the late 1930s, loosely adapting the Sindbad the Sailor tales from the Arabian Nights. It was shot using the studio’s distinctive “Stereoptical” process, which placed hand-drawn cel animation in front of rotating three-dimensional miniature sets, giving the backgrounds unusual depth for a cartoon of the period. The short received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon Short Subject.
What to watch for
Watch for the scale of the production compared to a standard Popeye short of the time: a longer runtime, more elaborate sets, and an extended climactic battle between Popeye and Sindbad’s giant creatures after his customary dose of spinach. It was later ranked among the fifty greatest cartoons ever made in a 1994 poll of animation professionals, and it was added to the National Film Registry in 2004, a recognition of how far the format could be stretched within the theatrical-cartoon tradition.
