Popeye 30's Gem-Can you take it?

I bought the GIGABYTE EAGLE RTX 4080 GPU finally.

(The above announcement was back in November 10 2023)

Just wanted to point that out.

Anyhow, no further sidetracks, lets get on to the main attraction:

POPEYE's "Can you take it?"

Released in April 27 1934, this is another Popeye short that's for sure a gem to us all.

It has all the bells and whistles of cartoony goodness, as well as Masculine Ironies that would seriously impress Dr. Livesey(Evgeniy Papernyy version that is).

But what's most interesting is that this cartoon is recycled. No seriously, it is recycled!!!

I read that this particular Popeye Cartoon took inspiration from the Betty Boop's BIMBO'S INITIATION.

The core idea was that in BIMBO'S INITIATION, Bimbo wants to join a club but in order to do that, he has to endure multiple life-threatening situations.

Pretty basic plotline eh.

Popeye does it a little differently.

Here, he wants to join a Bruiser's Club because he's already a manly sailor who take the pain.

Except, these Bluto copycats fiercely believe that to be manly, you've got to be big, rotund, muscular, and have the voice of a bear just like William Pennell (Bluto's original voice).

The trouble is, these Bluto copycats fail to realize that back in the original POPEYE from 1933, the titular sailor doesn't need a fat stomach or a bear's voice to be manly. You just need to work out from time to time.

And you don't need spinach 24/7 just to have that strength, as a matter of fact, Thimble Theatre didn't use spinach excessively like the cartoons have.

Anyhow, the parts of CAN YOU TAKE IT? that make it so different from 

BIMBO'S INITIATION

is that Popeye can actually fight back with his own methods and this is further exemplified with the both the handshake and cigar scenes right here.

SHAKE!!!

OW!!!!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

SHAKE AGAIN!!!

OWWWWWW!!!!!!

DIRTY POOL POPEYE!!! DIRTY POOL!!!!

NOW THE SMOKE TEST!!!

THANKS FOR PROVIDING A MATCH!!!

NOW I BLOW AT YOUR FACE!!!

I CAN'T STANDS THE SMOKES NO MORE!!!

Now here comes the unexpected. I can hazard a guess that Popeye's gonna bite back back puffing smoke at Bluto's face and he does but instead of his mouth, he becomes creative:

I can pretty much guess people will laugh their ass off with this unexpected smoke gag because you were made to expect that Popeye will huff and puff like Mr. Big Bad Wolf but instead, he lets out smoke out of his good eye. And it works perfectly because you can't puff out smoke from your eye holes in real life.

The smoke gag however is my own personal allegory, especially with all the vapers out there. 

Someone actually vaped on my face back in High School and that was not pretty.

Here are some other Popeye gems to show you that Popeye really can take the pain like a real man.

As usual, I will have to stop here due to risks of spoiling for you guys. If you're wondering where you can find this cartoon? It's in the public domain so the Internet Archive is a great place to find Popeye cartoons to tickle your fancy and in much higher quality MP4 files too.

Maverick Quickie: FINALLY!!!

The SAG-AFTRA strikes have ended….. tentatively. 

I promised I wouldn’t post on this blog until I upgraded to my GIGABYTE EAGLE RTX 4080 graphics but I had a pay snafu the day I was supposed to buy it so why not take this as an opportunity to announce the end of the strike tentatively. How did I know? I just read it on my LinkedIn feed. If I’m wrong by tomorrow, I promise to update this post with accurate information.

Unlike with the September 27 post where I announced the end of the WGA strike, I ain’t got crap to talk about. My mental conscience has been so damaged by the strike that I need at least 3 days for myself to recover. 

Besides, I’ve got a graphics card to install in my machine so there’s that too.

So instead, here’s a sneak peak for next blogpost.

Here’s a hint: CLASSIC FLEISCHER POPEYE

The cartoon in question? 

“Can you take it?”

No seriously, that’s the title. 

We still get titles like this, just in tv shows regardless of its live action, cartoons, or anime.

FYI, I was using my iPhone 13 to make this blogpost and this might be my last made on my phone. The next post will be made on my desktop pc instead.

Peanuts Allegories: Charlie Brown security blanket and acting

I saw this old Peanuts comic strip from the 1950s where Charlie Brown asks Lucy Van Pelt why Linus always carries a blanket with him even as he aged to Charlie's age.

It's rather funny because it's very allegorical to my eyes. Take a look.

As you can see, Charlie Brown feels like an idiot trying to emulate. He even said it himself. 

For sure, this comic was printed way before Linus aged up to the point Lucy gained the brass balls to pick on her little brother.

Of course, try to steal his blanket will elicit this response:

Anyway, the above comic, what allegory can I compare this too?

Acting?

Yeah. That's sounds about right. The allegory is how you look when you see yourself acting like a cartoon character in those reference footage pieces you see so many times on your DVD/Blu-Ray featurettes on your favorite Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Warner Bros animated flicks.

However, I'm not going to get into the further details on my views on reference footage for feature animation as I already have a dedicated blogpost about that which I wrote way back in February 2023:

https://maverickmartinezarchive.blogspot.com/2023/02/acting-101-acting-in-animation.html

I just wanted to point out the allegory of that peanuts comic and at the same time, restrain myself from making biased comparisons to cartoon acting vs real life acting.

I still have many other Peanuts oddities than I wanna analyze but I'll have to dive deeper in the web to find those comics.

Also, this was the Second-to-last post before I upgraded my custom built PC's graphics card on November 9 2023. I got my pay on the 7th of November 2023 and I've saved up for the upgrade. I'll still post more on this blog but in the meantime, I just want to get familiarized with my new graphics card and render a view 3D Animations using RTX rendering on Maya before I get back on making blogposts.

Starting with this sneak peak:

I dub this sneak peak "Translation from previz to final output".

It's been something I wanted to get into but lacked the necessary images and research. I do have the research but I only have these HILDA examples. 

(I do have some images of HILDA in it's original comic book form)

Well, It may be several days before I get into this topic due to researching the topic a little more as well as my RTX GPU upgrade so stay tuned.

Another Color Popeye Gem-Ali Baba's Forty Thieves

 Here's another gem in Fleischer's Popeye filmography.

One that is in color too.

It's Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's forty thieves.

Released on November 26 1937, Approximately one month before the release of Snow White.

oh.... and pretty much released 21 days after the release of THE OLD MILL.

So if you think the competition with your favorite modern cartoon is stupidly fierce? Think twice before thinking like that and imagine finding out Popeye was going up against a Silly Symphony and Disney's feature length spectacle one month later.

Anyway, Back to Ali Baba, this is another personal favorite of any Popeye cartoon, aside from Sinbad, The Paneless Window Washer, Can you take it, Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, etc.

After a beautifully rendered opening sequence...

We find another beautifully rendered scene made with 3d Models, which was created by Fleischer's Patented Setback Camera.

The skull is a dead giveaway that it's a physical 3D Model

Think twice before you say Disney revolutionized animation cameras. The reality is, Fleischer had the better camera which made them ahead of it's time.. and better yet, they've been using this 3D tabletop camera since their BETTY BOOP days.

Again, just like in Sinbad, we have Bluto as another villain. This time as Abu Hassan.

And once again, he sings a self-congratulatory song... sort of. He's singing to the audience about his impending invasion of an undisclosed location.

And look at that, He's managed to get people at his side. What a feet.

Seconds Later, 

Oh my god. I can only imagine how people reacted with awe when they see this closeup of Popeye. There were many closeups of the Sailor early on but compare that to his surly look in his earliest shorts such as CAN YOU TAKE IT?, 

Yeah, it's clear that Fleischer studios was having a field day when they found out Disney was trying to make a feature length Cartoon filled with cute characters but back then, they had the same mentality as all the critics of the 1930s had in which they thought Snow White would be Disney's Folly but when the film became a beloved triumph, that caused the industry and Fleischer to reconsider their remarks.

But yeah, Popeye was made to look much more cuter and pleasing to the eyes. They already had to tone down his surly design from when they translated his appearance from Thimble Theatre into something more cartoon friendly.

But at least Popeye kept his Beady eyes which is something that he'd drop once FAMOUS Studios took over in the 40s.

But here's Olive and her emergence of Sclera eyes.

Granted, this was only a closeup as she retained her beady eyes in the rest of the cartoon.

Poor, Poor Wimpy. Even in full 3-Strip technicolor, he still can't enjoy a nice burger.

He'll have to pay the McDonalds brothers next Tuesday before he can have his burger before the restaurant chain's opening in 1940.

I won't indulge further in these next screenshots before the next paragraph but I will say, this is one of my favorite gags in this cartoon.     heheheheh, malfunctioning seaplanes.,...

Another beautifully rendered 3D Setback Camera scene. 

With an added night shot.

Food gags anyone?

"FOOD!!!"

"ARGH!!!. The laws of the desert be a harsh mistress."

HEY!!! THIS IS NO TIME TO REST. 

AND WHO PUT THAT TRAFFIC LIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF AN EMPTY DESERT?

YEAH. YOU HEARD THE LIGHT! GO. NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG.

And that's where I'll have to end this post since If I show off screenshots in chronological order, I wind up spoiling the rest of the cartoon for you.

One thing I'm happy about is the fact that I showed off a copy of Ali Baba that actually has accurate colors when compared to Sinbad where one had very minor vinegar colors while the other had gawdy RAINBOW BRITE-like colors.

Aside from a color restoration screwup in the cave sequence, which had a 3d background of all things, 

"Hey! What's with the purple rock formations here?"

This print is well restored...

Though I did see a few bits of smearing on the video. It's not the bitrate but rather it may have been AI upscaled but the upscaling is so minor and the film runs at 24 frames per second that you really can't tell the difference, unlike what happened with Fleischer's Superman Cartoons.

If you want to see the last Color Popeye made by Fleischer in this blog, whoop-dee-doo. I'm saving that for December.

But at least I will do my analysis on the other Black and White Popeyes out there.

Mechanical Keyboards-The different switch types and why I prefer mechanical over membrane.

For those curious about my previous post on character construction, I mentioned that I use a Razer Blackwidow V3 mechanical Keyboard.

For those who are wondering, mechanical keyboards are computer keyboards that use individual mechanical switches. 

They consist of the switch, housing, springs, and metal contacts.

As well as the bottom pins for those switches that can be swapped out and replaced with a desired switch for the end-user.

Many gamers and typists prefer this style of keyboard because to them, it feels more natural when the keycap goes down when compared to a rubber-dome membrane board to which a lot of people find gummy to the fingertips.

I've had my share of dome keyboards and a lot of times, they too felt gummy.

Once I made the switch to mechanical switches with my Razer Board, I never looked back.

But for those who are curious, there are actually 3 type of switches I know.

There's linear, tactile, and clicky.

Linear is basically, there's no tactile feel. The switch just goes all the way down. The only sound you hear is the keycap making contact with the outer shell.

Many gamers prefer linear switches, especially ones with a lighter actuation, because they can do things like double tap.

Such as making CJ cycle faster on a bike in GTA SAN ANDREAS.

Next is tactile. It's very similar to linear switches but if you were to take apart a tactile switch, you will see that the stick end has an indentation. This registers as a tactile bump to the key switch.

The feel of the switch is more noticeable when you type as you do indeed feel a slight tactile bump on the switches.

Don't know what most gamers think of this but I hear it's popular with typists who want a linear switch but at least want some tactility.

Then there's clicky. The switch part actually has two components. As the name suggests, they make an audible click sound. Gamers have mixed feelings with the switch due to the slightly heavy actuation but typists love this switch since it's not only tactile, it's also audibly clicky and I've heard that the more audible the click, the more confident the typist is.

Getting a mechanical keyboard depends whether you buy a prebuilt keyboard from a vendor like Razer or SteelSeries or if you buy from a vendor that sells kits like GMMK or EPOMAKER.

Oh, I almost forgot to say this: All wired modern mechanical keyboards use USB. I don't know any new boards that still use PS/2 even though I do see modern motherboards that still have PS/2 ports on the back.

Update as of February 2024:

When I typed this blogpost, I was using a Razer Blackwidow V3 clicky keyboard but I've since switched to a linear switch keyboard. Still by razer but using linear switches.

Another update as of December 6 2024:

I've now switched to a new Keyboard from EPOMAKER. 

What I have now is an EPOMAKER DYNATAB Gasket-Mounted Tactile Keyboard.

Character Construction-The Importance+My own from college

I can't fathom enough on how important character construction is. 

It burns me up when I see these modern western cartoons being churned out left and right but somewhere along the line, the design potential is lost just because some schmuck at higher brass decides that said cartoon should be all puppet-rigs no-ifs-ands-or-buts.

If showrunners or executives are going to have the mentality for modern 2D cartoons in North America, what's the point of teaching life drawing in art schools?

Ok. They still teach life drawing in art schools because it's used for other ventures such as illustration, 3DCG modeling, rigging, etc. 

To really understand construction, look back to your previous work on construction or look at books dedicated to construction and life drawing.

Though admittingly, most of my Life Drawing examples leave much to be desired.

You can blame it all on the Wacom Intuos Tablet I was using at the time. 

I now use a Wacom One Creative Pen Display.

Here's an attempt on drawing faces without resorting to my own art style.

However, my art style kept creeping up... except for the eyes. 

Thank god I drew half decent looking eyes that more or less looked like real life.

Ok. So not all my examples are bad. The ten feet drawings below are actually pretty good.

One of the reasons I'm ribbing on character construction lately is because I actually did teach an art class where it's dedicated to actual character construction but unfortunately, my participants just can't get the feel right. I had a few that were exceptional well taught artists but then they withdrew so now I have students who barely have the patience. I won't get into further details however.

Just imagine if I started an mainstream animation project and after fighting with showrunners and executives, I finally convinced them to use my art style with no puppet rigs and just plain hand-drawn purity? 

Well winning the fight is one thing but convincing animators to break convention is going to be hard since they were trained to use puppet rigs or CalArts style from the getgo.

Speaking of that, I've seen fanart of modern shows that use that CalArts puppet rigged style and I've got to say, even those that retain the art of the original cartoon, the fanart looks 10 times better than the actual product. Maybe it's because fanart is not constrained by deadlines or showrunner mandates.

Just look at how beautifully drawn this fanart of Luz and Amity is.

It's clear whoever drew this wasn't going to let his/her LIFE DRAWING knowledge go to waste.

(Probably because he/she was just a fan of the show but wasn't hired by Disney.)

I still haven't seen THE OWL HOUSE yet(even though I have access to it via Disney+) but I hear it's pretty good even for a modern 2D animated show. 

It's clear Dana Terrace got sick of the CalArts mandates, knew that people love anime, and decided to emulate that both in art and execution.

While the CalArts style sort of creeps up still with the acting and Luz's facial construction, a majority of characters such as Amity break the mold and really provide a shoutout to anime.

Funny thing is, on Disney+ the show was for some reason categorized as anime and as of this writing, still is.

I wonder how it's going for Avatar on Paramount+? Let me know.

And yes, I'm typing this in my custom built Maverick PC. 

The truth is I usually don't type on my blog because I think there's something funny going on with my Razer Mechanical Keyboard's polling rate. I ran into this issue where one of the keys accidentally registers as a key-bounce. 

So after I upgrade my GPU from a Zotac 12GB RTX 3060 to an RTX 4080, I'm going to invest on a new mechanical keyboard from either Steelseries, Corsair, or Asus. 

And one with linear switches. I feel that the more you use a clicky or tactile switch, the more worn out the key switch becomes.

So stay tuned.