Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Popeye Color Feature series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Dave Fleischer, with musical supervision by Sammy Timberg. The voice of Popeye is performed by Jack Mercer, with Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Gus Wickie as Sindbad the Sailor.

Plot

In this short, Sindbad the Sailor (modeled after Bluto) proclaims himself the greatest sailor in the world and "the most remarkable, extraordinary fellow," a claim which is challenged by Popeye's arrival on his island with Olive Oyl and J. Wellington Wimpy in tow. Sindbad orders his huge Roc, Rokh, to kidnap Popeye's girlfriend, Olive Oyl, and challenges the one-eyed sailor to a series of obstacles to prove his greatness, including fighting Rokh, a two-headed giant named Boola, and Sindbad himself. Popeye makes short work of the bird and the giant, but Sindbad almost gets the best of him until Popeye produces his can of spinach, which gives him the power to soundly defeat Sindbad and proclaim himself "the most remarkable, extraordinary fella."

A subtly dark running gag features Wimpy chasing after a duck on the island with a meat grinder, intending to grind the duck's flesh so that he can fry it into a hamburger. Many of the scenes in this short feature use of the Fleischer's Tabletop process, which used modeled sets to create 3D backgrounds for the cartoon.

Release and reception

This short was the first of the three Popeye Color Specials, which were, at over sixteen minutes each, three times as long as a regular Popeye cartoon, and were often billed in theatres alongside or above the main feature. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was nominated for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, which it lost to Walt Disney's Silly Symphony The Country Cousin. Footage from this short was later used in the 1952 Famous Studios Popeye cartoon Big Bad Sindbad, in which Popeye relates the story of his encounter with Sindbad to his four nephews.

Today, this short and the other two Popeye Color Specials, Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp are in the public domain, and are widely available on home video and DVD. A fully restored version with the original Paramount mountain logo opening and closing titles is available on the Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1 DVD set from Warner Bros.

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1994, the film was voted #17 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

External links

• Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor at the Internet Archive
• Watch the 50 Greatest Cartoons