'Popeye the Sailor' is a good debut for Popeye, but there have been better cartoons of his since.There is not much wrong with it. There is a finding its feet/style feel, and there is a preference to the voice actors who would take on the roles later. Popeye and Bluto were fine courtesy of William Costello and William Pennell, but Bonnie Poe's voice agreed (from personal opinion this is) doesn't really fit Olive Oyl, and it was strange hearing a deeper voice when so used to Mae Questel's pretty iconic interpretation.On the other hand, the animation is beautifully drawn, smooth and meticulously detailed, the black and white crisply shaded. The music is merry and energetic, though again am more familiar with the scoring of Winston Sharples later.It's a very entertaining cartoon and smartly written, with a lot of charm and energy. All three lead characters are engaging and their personalities established well even for so early on. Betty Boop makes a small but memorable appearance, that's both sexy and cute.All in all, a very good debut cartoon but not among my favourite Popeye cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox

In his day Dave Fleischer was the best of the best when it came to animation. The Nicola Tesla of cartoons if you like. (No, younger readers, that does not mean he made CARS). Some of the other reviewers nailed it when they pointed out, with props to both men, that, frame by frame Fleischer was better than Disney. (Of course, a century later, more or less, we see that Disney was the better businessman, which is why your kids aren't bugging you for a vacation to FleischerLand). The animation, the cell work, was astonishing. The concepts were astonishing. The blending of music and action were astonishing. Believe it or not, late in his career Fleischer experimented with a strange kind of "3D animation" (intended of course for 2D projection on theatre screens SINCE TV HAD NOT EVEN BEEN INVENTED.) And a decade after this film, he did a Superman cartoon which, as other reviewers on IMDb have acknowledged, was decades ahead of its time, and holds up well even for viewing today. Wow. What an artist.

Popeye the Sailor (1933) **** (out of 4) First film in the series of shorts was also the first I've seen of any of these early films. I watched some of the later ones when I was a kid and I wasn't sure what to expect out of these theatrical shorts but this first one was great. Popeye takes Olive Oyl to a fair when Bluto shows up to start trouble. There's a lot of great humor here and I really loved the animation style. The opening scene of Popeye singing his famous song is priceless as is the appearance by Betty Boop.Now available through Warner in a 4-disc box set.

The first Popeye cartoon ever, although it was marketed as a Betty Boop cartoon. It was also the first in a series of cartoons where Betty Boop met various characters from newspaper comics (Such as The Little King) in animated form. Naturally, Popeye was the only one who the Fleischer Brothers got any mileage out of.Very entertaining, like all the early Popeye's. Betty Boop makes only a small cameo, but it's hard to miss. Try to get the black and white version, since the colorized version, I dunno. It just seems to take away some of the excitement.4/4