Episode 5: Popeye - The 2-Reelers

Play Now -->

DATE : Wed, 3 May 2006 07:00:00 GMT
Entered in Database : 2006-05-03 07:00:00
length : 14611537
Link to the Show / Show Notes

Popeye the Sailor was created be Elzie Segar for the comic strip Thimble Theatre and intro introduced in 1929, eventually he proved so popular that the main character, Ham Gravy, was written out.

Popeye's first theatrical appearance was in a Fleischer Studio's 1993 Betty Boop cartoon. Fleischer Studios went on to produce 108 Popeye shorts between 1933 and 1942. Famous Studios took over production in 1942 and produced 125 Popeye shorts until 1957.

Fleischer Studio's produced three 2-reel Popeye shorts between 1936 and 1939. Besides being 2-3 times the length of a standard Popeye short, they were the first appearance of Popeye in color. Fleischer Studio's answer to the multi-plane camera, the Tabletop or Setback camera, was used in two of the shorts. Their apparatus used three-dimensional miniature sets built to the scale of the animation artwork. The animation cels were placed so that various objects could pass in front of and behind them, and the entire scene was shot using a horizontal camera.