Shark Bytes

FYI, Disney is not the reason they renamed Bluto "Brutus". According to wikipedia, the name Bluto was thought to have been owned by Paramount Pictures, so they changed it to Brutus. He was called Bluto again on the Hanna-Barbera series, and both his names are interchangeable. He can also be called "Mean Man".

Thank You! I could have sworn "Bluto" was later renamed "Brutus". I never knew why, tho.
I would like to find some of the later episodes, where they played a rather menacing version of "Blow the Man Down", whenever Bluto would appear. Any suggestions?

Popeye jumped over The Shark thrice--the first time was in the late 1950s, when KFS attempted to make Popeye into a Jay Ward cartoon by using his sound effects!

The second time would be in 1978, when Popeye became a Hanna-Barbera production. The addition of Dinky was totally unnecessary on the part of CBS.

The Shark devoured Popeye once and for all when the animated FOX special aired. What in the world was FOX thinking when they aired this travesty?

The early color cartoons and the original black and white ones were all great,even the rarely-shown WWII propaganda one where Popeye sings about "fightin' the Joimins and the Japs"-then,out came the later ones! Bluto becoming Brutus was bad enough,but add Alice the Goon and some really cheesy cheap background music,and you've got ruination and crap on your hands!

To me, Popeye jumped when the animation became choppy ('40s or '50s? Not sure...) and the new characters were LAME! Wimpy was the best of them. Although he had been on previous Popeye cartoons, he became a regular during this period. This is the same period when Bluto became Brutus. The rest of the 'new' characters sucked on ice. Swee'Pea, Alice the Goon, Roughhouse the cook, Poopdeck Pappy, That annoying dog-like thing called the Jeep (it walked around saying "Jeep! Jeep!" and was able to disappear and reappear. How lame can you get?), the Sea Hag, Geezil, etc. I believe most of them were actual recurring characters on the original Popeye comic strip. I thought they were weak when added to the 'cast.' They must not have had a budget for decent animation. It is also funny how some characters changed, too. Along about the time frame that the three nephews, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pupeye, became regulars (they were on several previous episodes but were not yet regulars), Bluto changed his name to Brutus and became fat again (He had been fat previously before the war years, but afterward he suddenly turned into a muscular he-man with biceps like bowling balls). Olive changed a bit, as well, becoming more attractive (if that's possible!!) and even Popeye stopped mumbling to himself. The older Popeye was great and never JTS, but the series itself did jump during the period all those lame characters became regulars. Ugh.

The "Popeye"cartoons made by KFS/Paramount Pictures in the late 1950's,for TV,jumped slightly,when at the end Popeye sang tne moral of the cartoon,and frowned.When he sang at the end of the episode in most of the color ones,(and the black and white shorts )he was happy .He did NOT frown and sing in all of them.He didn't,in the above average KFS/Paramount Pictures cartoon "Duel to The Finish" Popeye,full and exhausted,he said to an exhausted Olive Oyl,"Olive,the next time you have an eating contest,give me some notice ahead of time so's that I can diets for it."groan"(fade to black)And in the also good KFS/Paramount Pictures episode in which Brutus is tied to a wagon,pulling Olive and Popeye,Popeye says at the end(like a carnival barker),"Step right up,ladies and gents,and see the only human horse(Brutus) in captivity!"And in the also good "The Mark of Zero"cartoon,again Popeye doesn't sing,or frown.And WHO was little Diesel,Olive's niece?Did KFS/Paramount Pictures create her just for the handful of made for TV cartoons they did?Because she WASN'T in the other made for TV cartoons,or any of the color ones(or for that metter,the black and white shorts either.

The color "Popeye"cartoons ,as I said,never jumped.In addition to being better than the black and white cartoons,they had new ideas,that were creative indeed:Examples:The color release "For Better or Nurse"(in which Bluto eats Popeye's spinach,after Popeye force-force feeds him the stuff,and the ending is a laugh riot,totally unexpected),"The Marriage Go Round"(also a funny ending-Popeye does NOT eat his spinach in this cartoon)"Spinach vs.Hamburger"(another good one,in which his nephews,Pipeye,Poopeye,Peepeye and Pupeye eat the spinach),1950's color release "How Green is My Spinach"(in which Bluto bemoans being beaten by Popeye in every cartoon,and cheers up when he gets the idea to become "The Soinach Killer-"No more spinach,"he says gleefully,then smiles,and adds "And no more Popeye!" But Popeye wins out,again,after a little kid patron in a theatre where the color Popeye cartoon is being shown,and (saddened that this could be the end of Popeye),throws Popeye a can of spinach,and once again,he beats Bluto.The ending is great.And Olive eats Popeye's spinach in 1956's color release "Hillbilling and Cooing",and saves him from the clutches of a backwoods gal.Another color gem.So,in conclusion,The "Popeye" color cartoons were even better than the black and white ones.

..lovin some popeye !always !!!

As I said below,"Popeye"got better in color.The characters got a well-deserved makeover,and "Popeye was STILL strong to the finish 'cause he eats his spinach.He's Popeye the sailor man!"Olive was a lot prettier,Popeye and Bluto were a lot more handsome,and ALL three were a lot more refined,because to quote the classic black and white short ""It's the Natural Thing to Do".And one of the best things about the color ones,was that color segments"House Tricks","The Anvil Chorus Girl
(both from the 1940's,)and "Riot in Rhythm","The Fly's Last Flight",and "Car AZY Drivers",(from the 1950's)are superior,better-than average remakes of black and white shorts.

"Popeye"got better in color.Because the black and white ones were extremely violent.Some of the color ones were too,especially 1947's "Abusement Park".But one of the best was 1945's "Spinach Packin'Popeye",which started out with Popeye lying in a hospital bed after giving blood,telling the nurse attending him he has a big fight tonight.He rests,and in a dream sequence,is at the fight,loses it,and spends the rest of the dream trying to convince an angry Olive that he is a strong man,by showing her from an album,clips of his old color(before they became full color)pictures.Anyway,she angrily jilts him,and says "You may have been strong then.But you're just a weakling now.Good-bye!",He wakes up,rushes to Olive's house,and says "Olive!Oh,Olive!"Olive says "Why hello,Popeye>"Popeye then says "Olive ,do you still think I'm a strong man? She says,smiling,after he tips her house up,and he catches her in her arms,"Why Popeye,I think you're about the strongest man alive"After which he says,smiling "That's all I wanted to hear--(sings)"Cause I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!"So,in closing,he got even stronger--and better--in the color years.

I think Popeye might've only really Jumped The Shark when Dinky The Dog was added to the CBS version, a cartoon which I don't recall seeing at that time when dozens of Popeye merchandise was spanned from the early 1980's. The biggest all-time mistake that was ever made to this franchise, and what definitely made Popeye JTS, was a 2005 CGI animated film called "Voyage To The 7 Seas". What were they thinking? If he did, I'm glad it's only temporary, since all of Popeye's cartoons, especially Hanna Barbera's 1978-'81 cartoon series (MY FAVORITE!) are coming to DVD in 2007. All the episodes are okay, except for the very early ones where the characters do almost nothing but mumble and talk to themselves the whole time, but I still prefer the late 1970's/early 1980's Popeye the best.

True to his character, Popeye beat up lots of sharks before he jumped any. His mid-1930s Fleischer years are generally regarded as his best (my opinion as well). The studio's move from New York to Miami clearly changed the feel to a more conventional style, but the characters' look and appeal basically survived. The dissolution of the Fleischer studio and the formation of Famous certainly changed things, but they maintained a boisterous high spirit and fine production through the 1940s. Leonard Maltin suggests the direction of Famous changed abruptly with the death of producer Sam Buchwald around 1950, and I'm inclined to agree. The studio output afterward became repetitive and child-oriented - all of their titles, from Casper to Baby Huey to Popeye, all started looking and feeling the same. The music score was all the same bland sing-song, all the characters seemed to punctuate every gag with the same drawn-out take that deflated any humor. And the character makeover didn't help - Bluto got oddly top-heavy, Olive lost her inherent Oliveness, and Popeye looked downright awkward on little feet - and in surprise takes was seen to have two eyes! The later tv cartoons were stilted, cheap, and inconsistent, but had been headed that way through the 1950s, as the Famous budgets cheapened its animation (and Popeye's nephews disappeared one by one) and the layouts went unappealingly blocky in an ill-considered attempt at UPA-style modernity. That Popeye continues to retain immense good will after all his mismanagement is a testament to 'what he yam'.

I liked Popeye when I watched it back in the fifties because it was REALLY WEIRD!!! I especially liked that goofy Wimpy character. He'd have hamburgers under his hat, in his pockets, just about anywhere! The goons, the sea hag, Olive, man what a bunch of goofballs! However, when Wimpy, the goons. and the sea hag all left I lost interest and stopped watching.

There was not a single event that signaled a Shark Jump for the "Popeye" series, but rather a gradual process. The original black-and-white Fleischer shorts of the thirties were easily the best of the series. Much like "Looney Tunes," they were packed with none-too-subtle attempts at adult humor, namely Popeye's off-color mumbles. However, the blue nature vanished after production was taken over by Famous Studios in the forties. The cartoons gradually blanded themselves out as they became increasingly juvenile. The Shark Jump became obvious when the inferior made-for-television shorts began to be produced by King Features in 1959. On another level, I would say that Popeye cartoons never really jumped, but my perception of them did. As a child, I loved the fast-paced and manic slapstick-styled humor. When I tried to watch the restored versions on Cartoon Network recently, they seemed very predictable and formulaic. Stories almost always involved Bluto trying to steal Olive from Popeye, and the two sailors settling their differences with their fists. As a grown man, this whole dynamic seems very childish and boorish--as if Popeye and Bluto never matured beyond middle school. For that reason, my adult mind fails to find "Popeye" funny or remotely entertaining.

Just want to note the passing of Jackson Beck, the voice of Bluto(or Brutus). I think he and Mae Questal were only ones to voice their Popeye characters from beginning to end. (Jack Mercer came after William Costello and Questal took over for Popeye while Mercer joined the military during World War II) Beck was so perfect as the big bully voice that it's hard to imagine him as anyone meeker. I also remember hearing him as a harassed store manager in a Little Lulu cartoon in which he tries, with no sucess, to find something Lulu could exchange her doll for (she of course keeps the doll!), and as the narrator of Take The Money and Run, Woody Allen's directorial debut, in which he recounts the story of Virgil, the most inept bank robber who, when using a bar of soap as a gun, fails to get of of jail because it happens to be raining... Most recently, he was the announcer of the Little Caeser commercials (though I'm guessing he didn't do the "Pizza! Pizza!" slogan at the end) So long for 93 years of living, Mr. Beck, and here's hoping if Popeye is ever revived in animation that Bluto's new voice matches yours to a T.