Watch Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor For Free

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At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

CAST: Popeye (the spinach-eating sailor), Olive Oyl (the irresistible damsel), J. Wellington Wimpy (the hamburger fiend), Boola (the two-headed giant), Rokh (the mighty eagle), and Sindbad the Sailor (the most remarkable fellow).Voices: Jack Mercer (Popeye), Mae Questel (Olive Oyl), Gus Wickie (Bluto as Sindbad).Director: DAVE FLEISCHER. Screenplay: Jack Mercer, Dan Gordon, Cal Howard, Tedd Pierce, Isidore Sparber. Adapted from a tale in The Arabian Nights. Popeye, Bluto, J. Wellington Wimpy and Olive Oyl based on characters created by Elzie Segar. Photographed in Color by Technicolor by Charles Schettler. Head animator: Willard Bowsky. Animators: George Germanetti, Edward Nolan. Music: Sammy Timberg. Song: "Sindbad the Sailor" (Wickie) by Sammy Timberg, Bob Rothberg, Sammy Lerner. Song: "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" (Mercer) by Sammy Lerner. Producer: Max Fleischer. Copyright 27 November 1936 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. Presented by Adolph Zukor. U.S. release: 27 November 1936. 2 reels. 16 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Sindbad (ingratiatingly enacted by Gus Wickie's Bluto) is the heavy in this one. Spying Olive Oyl basking on the deck of a passing yacht, he sends his giant eagle to wreck the boat and carry her off to his island stronghold. NOTES: Fleischer's first two-reel cartoon and also his first in color, was nominated for Best Cartoon, but lost out to Walt Disney's Country Cousin.COMMENT: The first reel, laying the groundwork for all the obligatory fisticuff action in the second, is the best. More lively, more imaginative, more entertaining. Some really memorable material here confirms Flesicher's repoutation as the crown prince of animators. Elaborate multi-celled action, breathtaking tracking shots, wonderful background settings and inventive directorial touches like the eagle's wings blocking the screen, lend credence to Fleischer's claim to rival Disney.

'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' was the first of three Popeye specials in Technicolor; anticipating Disney's development of the multiplane camera for 'The Old Mill' (1937) by a year by animating its characters on glass in front of actual models lit in vivid colours. The resulting look is quite remarkable, notably during a lateral track following Popeye prowling through a cave - which along with the giant Roc and two-headed giant were probably the features that inspired the young Ray Harryhausen - and visually quite different from the results produced by Disney's multiplane camera; which instead separated flat cells into planes rather like a 3D movie.Due to the trouble and complexity involved the 3D scenes are in fact actually used only sparingly during 'Sindbad'. The exotic setting and Pop Art colours aside, the action itself is the usual scrap between Bluto (here playing Sindbad) and Popeye; and the very occasional medium shots of its characters remind one that animated films of the 30's still tended to follow the framing in long shot favoured by Méliès.The Fleischers' efforts were rewarded with a nomination for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject; although as usual they lost out to Disney (for the Silly Symphony 'The Country Cousin'), and after two more 'specials' they went back to less technically flamboyant Popeye shorts while instead concentrating their artistic aspirations into their first feature, 'Gulliver's Travels' (1939), in which Popeye didn't appear.

Of course, most of the Fleischer Popeye cartoons were pretty much the same. In this one, a setting is created where Bluto can hold forth as Sindbad the Sailor. He is the master of a bunch of creatures from the Arabian Nights mythology, lions, the Roc, a fire breathing dragon, and some others. Of course, sometimes lust gets you in trouble. When he spots Olive Oyl, he can't resist her. If he had not intervened, he would have been fine. But, then, it wouldn't be a Popeye cartoon. One of the odd sidelights is Wimpy, chasing a duck with a meat grinder (the duck had stolen his last hamburger). There are a host of special punches used by our sailor. Anyway, lot's of interesting characters for us to enjoy.

This cartoon is visually astounding even after 65 years. Longer than the typical Popeye being done at the time (by quite a bit), it justifiably received a great deal of fanfare and notice on its release and is considered one of the finest animated shorts ever made by a great many people (including me). This runs on Cartoon Network occasionally and is well worth getting a look at. I believe it has at least once or twice been available on VHS. Most highly recommended.