The first Popeye motion picture cartoon was presented as a Betty Boop movie for marketing purposes. It quickly establishes most of the tropes that would sustain the series for the next two dozen years: he sings his song, he and Bluto fight over Olive Oyl, Popeye defeats Bluto by eating spinach, and there's a surfeit of gags in the Fleischer style, both big and little, enough to make it easily watchable many times. True, the character design is unsophisticated, with the characters' designs ornamented on basic shapes, but it's a great start to what would quickly become the Fleischers' best-known franchise.
Betty Boop makes an appearance as a hula dancer, her bosom concealed solely by a lei. Ah, for those pre-code cartoons!
Betty Boop makes an appearance as a hula dancer, her bosom concealed solely by a lei. Ah, for those pre-code cartoons!