The one that started it all-Popeye the Sailor Man (1934)

 As promised, I'll take a you on a magnificent tour through nostalgia lane towards the most influential short of all time: POPEYE THE SAILOR. 

The original 1934 short made by Fleischer Studios.

Funny thing was that this film was not originally Popeye short. It was created as a Betty Boop short.

Why was that? Well if you remember back in my Hays Office post, Betty Boop's career was killed off due to the Hays Office clamping down on lewd subject matter and the office took offense to Betty's flapper girl characterization.

So no, it was not a result of Cartoons going to THREE-STRIP technicolor but rather it was the restrictions by a censorship bureau created by Hollywood themselves.

Knowing that Betty was pretty much done, Fleischer studios decided to create a new series by acquiring the license to E.C Segar's Thimble Theater comic series.

But they billed this short as a Betty Boop short because the Fleischer Brothers anticipated the demise of Betty Boop's popularity and were hopping the bandwagons hoping Popeye would take the reigns of being a popular character to which he did.

After an intro song, a newspaper article labeling Popeye as the Sailor with the Sock accepts his movie contract with Paramount ensues. 

And then Popeye sings a little self congratulatory song about why he's the best.

"I'm Popeye the sailor man! *Blows Pipe*"

During the song, He demonstrates his supernatural strength,

 and his creative side.

And reveals his girdle.

Well Blow me down. Also, back then, he wasn't performed by Jack Mercer but rather by Billy Costello, which explains his raspier and deeper voice in this short compared to the other Popeyes.

Also the Debut of his Girlfriend Olive Oyl.

 Funny thing was, Olive is much older than Popeye, debuting way back in 1919 and originally was the girlfriend of Ham Gravy

Yes, that Ham Gravy. And his presence always pissed off Olive's Diminutive brother Castor Oyl.

I have a crackpot theory that the reason why Max Fleischer chose Popeye instead of Ham Gravy is because Ham Gravy is so goddamn lame and Castor Oyl too much a curmudgeon that they don't work as characters in the eyes of Fleischer because it's formula and Fleischer hates formula. So Popeye worked out better.

Of course the reality is when Popeye showed up in the comics back in 1929 after being hired by Ham Gravy himself to hunt for treasure, the sailor man proved to be more successful than this lounge lizard would ever be. For Ham Gravy, it was all over for him but so was Castor Oyl since he no longer had someone to hurl insults at so he got the boot too.

Anyway back to Olive.

Also, just like Popeye, her voice was much deeper and had a noticeable Accent.

That was because she was performed by Bonnie Poe, not Mae Questel.

Also noticeable was the fact that in this short, Humans and anthropomorphic animals co-existed with each other. That's because Popeye originally was a Betty Boop Short which had anthropomorphic animals as well. This however was dropped when Popeye became it's own series and all the anthropomorphic animals were replaced with Cartoon humans.

"You're not Popeye. Get the hell out of here you stupid dog!"

And yes, this was also the debut of Popeye's nemesis Bluto.

(He actually debuted in the comics a good 2 years prior to this short.)

But as always, Popeye prevails and gets the girl.

OH SHIT. It looks as if Popeye has inadvertently pissed off Bluto.

To the point he'll do anything nasty to get his way.

Such as using an animal as an extra handle for a mallet.

Is Bluto trying to be friendly to Popeye?

Nope. In fact, he's demonstrating he doesn't need no stinking mallet.

"Let me show you how a real man plays this game!"

Ouch. That Hurts.

Angry sun from Super Mario Bros 3, eat your heart out 54 years from now.

Just to drive the point that this was originally a Betty Boop Short, the gal herself shows up in a scantily clad outfit and is about to perform a dance.

Of course, Popeye can't pass up the chance to dance with his colleague.

And Mess with snakes

Olive seems to be enjoying the performance but unbeknownst to her....

Bluto has the chance to grab the girl by force.

Betty, having had experience with film, notices Bluto's crime and points out to what's going on.

And my oh my, Popeye looks absolutely pissed off.

"Nobody steals my girl and lives!!!"

"I will defy the laws of physics just to save my Girl!"

"Even if it means to defy the laws of Cartoon Physics such as moving animation cels with both a rope and my muscles."

Also the debut of Popeye's famous spinach.

Funny thing is, his debut of his spinach wasn't because Popeye gets overpowered but rather, he was getting bored.

...

What a wonderful way to start a franchise in the 1930s.

If you can believe it, this cartoon would eventually get color but that wasn't until the 1980s.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend the color version. The colors used by Ted Turner are a misunderstanding of what 3 strip technicolor is. Nothing but Pastels and I can hazard a guess that Ted also demanded the line art be traced.

So yeah, I prefer the Black & White Original due to the original qualities of the original line art.

I'll get more into other Popeye shorts when I get the chance.

The Hays Code-Hollywood's most infamous censorship policy. However, it shaped the industry

 Movies from the Mid 1930's to the Late 1960's, there's something magical about the aforementioned Golden Age of Hollywood that a lot of old timers or critics like about that's better than the commercialized bastardization they're forced to rib on.

(Think Roger Ebert who preferred Golden Age era films.)

But did you know that the Golden Age of Hollywood was kind of dictated by one of the most infamous censorship systems of the time?

Yeah that's right. I'm talking about the infamous Hays Code. Those two words that will make modern generations cringe as well as bring back bad memories for old directors who are still alive.

So what the hell was the Hays Code?

It was a censorship code that mandated certain things that can or cannot be on film.

If you think the rise of woke culture has been damaging Hollywood? Take a moment to stop and think about what the Hays Office was doing to movies from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Imagine being told by the Hays Office you can't have gratuitous violence, let alone blood and gore.

Or any sexual innuendos or explicit content,

or any swearing, aside from Clark Gable's use of the word DAMN.

You also weren't allowed to voice your own opinions on politics or religion even if it was thinly veiled and if it's political, it had to be kept in American values.

Drug and alcohol abuse was also forbidden.

Criminal Activity was also forbidden in movies. Something Howard Hughes did not take kindly to.

This list goes on but you get the gist of the issues with the censorship code.

The funny thing was, the Hays Code wasn't enforced due to moral guardians or by Hollywood saying so but the reality was, it was formed due to fearing the U.S Government wanting to censor films themselves. We can blame Fatty Arbuckle for making Hollywood do the deed of Censorship so the Government doesn't do it so.

What I can say is that the Hays Code did have an effect on the industry, and one that has done it's fair share of damage. 

For example, it killed the Betty Boop cartoons by rewriting her character to be less of a sex symbol and more of a housewife, which actually diminished her appeal. 

Not that it mattered since she started to get overshadowed by Popeye by 1935.

The image above is from Popeye meets Sinbad which is from 1936 but you get the gist of it.

Gone with the Wind was hit with this multiple times. One example was having to hide a majority of childbirth but the most memorable was the fight to keep Clark Gable's famous

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give damn" line uncensored.

The thing about criminal activity being forbidden contributed to Disney rewriting Mr. Toad into being framed for hijacking a car instead of literally hijacking like he did in the original novel and later subsequent BBC adaptations of Wind in the Willows.

So before you ask, it's not a Disney thing but rather the man begrudgingly adhering to the code.

Speaking about cartoons vs censorship, I can only imagine how openly disdainful many people were about the Hays Code, to the point that they want to make fun of it.

You know the 1942 short "A tale of two Kitties" right?

Well if you do, then you all know the famous:

"If the Hays Office would only let me I'd give him the bird alright." 

You can imagine Bob Clampett and the rest of his animators at Termite Terrace did not thing kindly to the Hays Office which would explain the joke. The joke was actually based on flipping the bird on people but in context, the line was actually meant to be Catstello giving Babbitt Tweety Bird and eating him but the whole "Give me the bird" line would be misinterpreted as something vulgar. 

I have a theory that maybe the Hays Office joke was the inspiration for the writers of Animaniacs and where they got the idea for making fun of the FOX censors, by watching "A Tale of Two Kitties" just for the Hays Office Joke.

But yeah,  nobody liked the Hays Code, in fact, they outright hated it. You can tell that by the 1960's every film maker was growing very weary of the Hays Code and so they decided to subvert it the best they could.

The last nail in the coffin for the Hays Code was in 1966 when MGM released BLOW UP without the Hays Office's approval due to explicit content and due to the critical success of that film, the jig was up, the Hays Office was no more. Two years later, The MPAA rating system we now use today was created and that opened more doors for more mature content such as Easy Rider, A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, The Shining, etc.

And that's mostly for Live-Action films. Cartoons however were unaffected by the new change due to moral guardians, tv executives, etc. but that didn't stop Ralph Bakshi from releasing Fritz the Cat in 1972.

The executives, AKA the F***ing intellectuals, couldn't stop Ralph from making my movie in 1972. Aside from being killed off by my creator Robert Crumb.

I had more to talk about but I felt so frustrated with the current atmosphere that my brain can't concentrate what to rant about and I subsequently forget but of course I wouldn't forget all I know about the Hays Office.

Given the frustrations I get will all impede my attempts to rant and give me headaches, I think it's about time to start thinking in new topics such as analysis's about classic cartoons such as Popeye.

Speaking about Popeye, here's a sneak peak of what's to come in my Popeye Posts:

For the record, I will only focus on the original Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons. 

The Famous Studios era is a complete misunderstanding of what makes Popeye so Iconic. And considering that the Famous era Popeyes started during WWII, it makes them a bit dated.

Sure, Fleischer's Popeyes are set during the great depression but that's what makes Fleischer's Popeyes more enjoyable than any modern take on the franchise. It's also what I got exposed to when I first started watching the Popeye Cartoons back in my childhood.

And unlike a certain former animator who I still read his blog, I get better captures thanks to my software of Choice: VLC Player so I get cleaner captures... well cleaner as in there are no cursor grabs.

The screen captures will still get a bit hampered by the various video resolutions I'm dealt with but at least I'll give you best treats there will be in my blog.

See you in the next posts... coming very soon.

Animation Paints-Animation Cels on bright lights vs HD/4K Color Palettes. AKA Maintaining color

One of the things that fascinates me is how dark a lot of the colors looked like in many Disney Movies released 1985 to 2004 where they use a darker color palette compared to those bright colors I see in today's 2D animations.

The first time I used the eyedropper tool in paint software, I discovered the darker shades that were used compared to the brighter colors used in today's animation.

From then on, whenever I do my art, I always like to use a darker palette. It's not that my eyes can't take the brighter colors,(I still have perfect 20/20 vision).

It's just that I don't get why the industry is so obsessed with brighter colors or pastel palettes to begin with.

Anyway, the reason for Disney's usage of darker colors in their digital ink and paint era of animated films is probably because it's a holdover of the photography of the previous overhead camera system they were using until 1989(When Little Mermaid was released and when Rescuers Down Under was in production.)

The photography and color palettes is actually based on the production process of Snow White during the majority of the 1930s.

You see, during production of Snow White, it was demanded by Walt that 3-strip technicolor should be used and that his first cartoon feature should have color.

This scared the bejesus out of his artists because if you looked at the previous shorts that were in color, the colors were sort of brightened up and many people at the time thought those palettes were going to be used and therefore blind the audience due to how bright the bulbs were in film projectors at the time. This was before the age of Xenon and LED Bulbs.

Walt knew this so he decided that for features, a specialized palette would be used where the colors weren't all the bright to begin with which meant using duller colors on the acrylic paint.

well sort of. The reason I brought the dull color reference is because I saw this post on Andreas Deja's blog DEJA VIEW where he talked about the how dull the colors were on the actual cels for Robin Hood but he later iterated that the reason for the duller colors is because when these cels are photographed under the camera, the overhead bright lights in the overhead or multiplane camera punch up the colors so they look bright and colorful.

Plus, due to the nature of how 35MM Film is when projected on a screen or when restored on archives such as the YouTube channel FT DEPOT, the colors and contrasts get dialed up due to the light source used to project the image on the screen.

During the digital ink and paint era, the artists decide to darken the palette due to how 35MM film stock likes to brighten up those colors. If you seen a restored Trailer for many a Disney film from the 90s, you'll get an idea how different the Digital Colors are when you compare 35MM film to the original digital masters.

So why do modern shows whether it be western or anime always have to punch the colors to nearly the highest?

Because nowadays, artists are obsessed with experimenting with the tools and it's also to give the best clarity of picture quality on today's HD and 4K HDR displays. The fact that everything in animation is now done on the computer means you can just have the art completely stored on a hard drive or SSD.

But considering Western Animation has ditched painterly backgrounds for simple shaded backgrounds or faux-UPA era backgrounds, anime seems to be the only other medium to stick to the traditional basics for art.

And even then, anime has always punched up the colors to nearly the highest. Just look at the image below from REBUILD OF EVANGELION.

This trend of high brightness in the colors probably is because a lot of these anime are set in the Summer, where the sun is bright, so that explains punching up the brightness.

I can tolerate the bright colors in anime due to the summer setting 

But what I can't tolerate is bright pastel colors that I often see in modern Western Cartoons.

If it were up to me, I'd stick to a 58% brightness color palette similar to DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE

(Which isn't a fair comparison since that film uses traditional acetate cels.)

Even the colors I use in Toon Boom are set to one where the colors aren't bright to begin with.

But for some reason, my renders somehow adjusts the colors so they either look dull or slightly brightened up compared to my work space.

Due to issues ongoing with the industry, what with the ongoing actor's strike, executives yanking control away from creators, politics, etc., I find myself not watching any modern stuff except maybe once in a blue moon(metaphorically speaking).

And even if it's modern stuff, It's mostly just anime since the Japanese refuse to touch puppet rigs and stay fully committed to hand drawn, frame-by-frame animation

It's either that or maybe it's because I was sick for the first 3 weeks of October 2023 due to the changing weather. 

Trust me, getting sick is no laughing matter but this sickness is probably why I didn't post for 2 weeks on my blog.