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00:00Hi, this is Paul Dini, and today we are going to be watching a really terrific Fleischer
00:09Popeye cartoon from 1938, Bulldozing the Bull.
00:14At this point in Popeye's history, I guess we're about five years into his screen career,
00:19and a lot of the early cartoons had been content to put him in settings that were fairly reminiscent
00:25of the Seager comic strip, Thimble Theatre, where he appeared in daily papers.
00:31I think at this point they were looking at ways to shake things up a little bit, still
00:35take Popeye and his recognizable character and characteristics and put him in different
00:40settings and locations.
00:42He's still Popeye, he's still Sailor, but they had started getting a little bit into
00:46role-playing, at least for some of the other characters.
00:49I ain't going in to see no bullfight because it's in kindness to Aminals, and besides it's
00:54Here we have Popeye in, I would guess, Spain, possibly Mexico, and he is infatuated with
01:02the beautiful Senorita Olive Oil, who is, again, kind of a slightly different role for
01:07her, more of a glamour-type role for her.
01:12You'll notice that her powder puff keeps shrinking the more she dolls herself up there.
01:25Popeye had kind of evolved from this point, from the early 30s cartoons, he was pretty
01:29much what he was in the comic strip, and that is an out-and-out ruffian, and a lot of the
01:33humor came from his fights with Bluto, who does not appear in this cartoon.
01:38In this one, Popeye is more of a leading man type and kind of a role model in that he really
01:44is a foe of bullfighting.
01:46He doesn't want to be put in a position where he has to hurt or be cruel to an animal, which
01:52is kind of odd that they would take that tact with him, because in a lot of other
01:57cartoons, like if he's trying to be a cowboy or something, he would take a swing at a bull
02:01and suddenly there'd be a string of sausages and a pot roast hanging on a rack or something.
02:07But in this one, Popeye really is very pro-animal, and despite all the punishment he takes from
02:12the bull, he really is determined to stick to his principles and not hurt any poor dumb
02:19animals, even if he gets knocked around by them.
02:34The animation in this cartoon is absolutely flawlessly beautiful.
02:38It's a terrific example of some of the very best Fleischer cartoons, Fleischer Popeyes
02:42at least.
02:44The animation is smooth, Popeye's acting is very fluid throughout.
02:48It does not quite have the same surreal quality that some of the Betty Boop cartoons have,
02:54but then again, they're really not going for that same feel here.
02:57This is Popeye having a little more of an action-filled adventure.
03:08That said, the design on the bull is very classically Fleischer.
03:12It does look like it could have come out of Old Man of the Mountain or something.
03:19Here we have Jack Mercer doing an absolutely spectacular job on Popeye's voice.
03:24The dialogue in these cartoons is very minimal, and Mercer would just go through them as watching
03:29the finished film and just add things, you know, whatever occurred to him that was happening
03:34between Popeye's actual animated lip flaps there.
03:38In some cases, that's the funniest part of these cartoons, is just listening to him ad-lib.
03:48Like I said, there's no Bluto in this cartoon, but the bull does an admirable job of taking
04:10over his role, because a Popeye cartoon without at least one big tough guy to beat up on,
04:16just ain't a Popeye cartoon.
04:36The bull has his own cheering section, which is a very nice touch.
04:40Olive takes a very strong role in this cartoon, too, as she comes out on Popeye's side trying
04:46to defend him.
04:48Mae Questel does a terrific job of doing Olive's voice here as well, adding a slight
04:53Spanish inflection to Olive's usual whine.
04:56Kind of odd that they didn't put Spanish lettering on the can, but what the heck.
05:26And even though Popeye is coming out as a friend of animals in this cartoon, ostensibly,
05:32and doesn't really want to hurt the bull, that doesn't stop him from putting the guy
05:40in his place and sticking up for himself.
05:42I guess a twister punch is preferable than a sword through the neck.
05:56And here we get kind of a sweet moment, or as sweet as Popeye gets at the end of the
06:00cartoon, as Popeye and the bull become pals.
06:14And there's a lesson for us all in there.
06:16See you next time, Popeye pals!
06:26You