User Reviews

Popeye is a private eye. That's the story. He gets a call from a screaming Olive Oyl. He follows the call to her gun fire in her home. She hires him to guard a precious gem which gets promptly stolen by the butler. He pursues the thieve all over the world.

The story is very simple. They don't rise up to a Scooby-Doo mystery. It's all very simple and random. I'm not sure if I like the color changing moves. I can't figure out their meaning. It seems like Popeye is solving something during the color change. All in all, this is fine. It's a different Popeye which happens sometimes during this era.

Really like to love a good deal of Popeye cartoons and like the character of Popeye. When Bluto appears too their chemistry is really quite magic and utilised very well. Though there are too many instances of Olive Oyl being underused and underwritten. Will admit though to preferring the Popeye cartoons from the Fleischer era in the 30s, especially the 1935-1938 ones, the cartoons in my opinion are funnier and there is more originality and more risk taking in some of them.

'Private Eye Popeye' is a late Popeye cartoon and made in Famous Studios' (a late period for them) roughest and most variable period where budgets were much smaller in particularly the animation and deadlines and time constraints were shorter and tighter. All things considered, while there are infinitely better Popeye cartoons (especially during the Fleischer era) and there are signs of what made this period an inferior one for Famous Studios, 'Private Eye Popeye' is not a bad late Popeye cartoon at all and somewhere in the high middle as far as the late Famous Studios Popeye cartoons go and also as far as Famous Studios' overall late output goes.

It's interesting for not having Bluto, the Popeye series worked surprisingly well actually when he was absent and they went for a change of pace once in a while (do prefer it when he's there though because he is a strong character for Popeye to pit against). There is also a different dynamic to Popeye and Olive's chemistry, instead of being the lovers they typically are this is an example of them having not known each other better, that was interesting and it was done well.

There is nothing really hilarious in 'Private Eye Popeye', though the last portion of the cartoon is entertaining still, and there could have been more gags in general. Also more momentum, the first portion is on the slow side.

Most of the animation is good but there are moments of roughness and that the backgrounds aren't as detailed does show a comparitive lack of care in the visual quality now that the budget was lower.

What is fantastic about 'Private Eye Popeye' however is the music score, the best thing for me and that is the case for all of Famous Studios' latter years output in general. It's beautifully orchestrated, rhythmically it's full of energy and there is so much character and atmosphere, it's also brilliant at adding to the action and enhancing it. As said most of the animation is good enough, especially the colours which are very vibrant and mostly it's drawn with fluidity. The different locations that the crook is chased by Popeye to are fun to spot and not used cheaply.

Nothing may be hilarious here and there could have been more gags, but 'Private Eye Popeye' is still worth seeing for the final third which is wonderfully wild, quite suspenseful and it does make one wish that what came before was on the same level of fun. The story had an intriguing premise and the investigative aspect did intrigue. All three characters are on form, especially Popeye, and the voice acting is without complaint. Jack Mercer was the most prolific Popeye voice for a reason.

All in all, nice enough if not great. 7/10

Popeye is, as you might guess, a private eye in this one. He;s called upon to guard Olive Oyl's precious emerald. The butler promptly steals it and Popeye pursues him around the world.

It's a variation on the classic Tex Avery cartoon DUMB HOUNDED, in which Droopy pursues the escaped wolf around the western hemisphere. The gags are pretty much the same, although Popeye (and the Bluto-voiced thief) make it as far as Switzerland and the Near East). Yes, yes, there is a spinach sequence when Popeye is at the end of his strength, which allows him to recover enough to fulfill his quest.

I suppose it's all right for Famous Studios to steal it, since Avery himself remade it as NORTHWEST HOUNDED POLICE.

Dressed like Sherlock Holmes, Popeye gets a phone which contains only a loud scream. "Garsh, I better trace that call," he says. With a magnifying glass, Popeye walks on the telephone lines across town to a big mansion. Once inside, he's greeted by a woman (Olive Oyl, who he doesn't know in this episode) who is crouched behind a big safe and shooting bullets from a machine gun at him. When she finds out he's the private detective she called, she calms down and tells him she has a job for him. She opens the safe, then a piggy bank and shows him a precious green jewel. "Guard this with your life," she says. Seconds later, a hand comes out of the wall, grabs her and the jewel.

Popeye soon discover "the buckler did it!" However, the crook escapes and Popeye goes after him in some very wild scenes on the ground, in the air, and eventually to France, Switzerland, an unnamed Arab country, to the Philippine Islands to the Hawaii Islands (these guys get around fast!) and finally.....to Alcatraz Island.

Even though in color, this had a '30s type feel to it with the story and some of the reactions. In all, it was so-so: fun, but just mildly amusing.

Private Eye Popeye (1954)

** (out of 4)

Popeye is working as a private eye when he gets a call from Olive Oyl who wants him to protect a priceless jewel. Not long after the bad guy steals the jewel so Popeye must chase him across the world in order to get it back.

PRIVATE EYE POPEYE is a rather routine entry in the series and in the end it's really not a highlight. The film gets a little creative at the very end when Popeye punches the bad guy from one location to the next but everything leading up to this is rather routine and boring. There's no question that a lot more laughs were needed as there just aren't enough to keep the film moving at a nice pace.

A sort of Sherlock Holmes, a precious gem, the bad guy runing across the world and, sure, Olive Oy. The travel itself as main attraction.