Since I'm seen briefly in an interview on it, I keep getting wonderful compliments on the new DVD collection of early Popeye cartoons. I'm happy to accept all accolades even though I couldn't have had much less to do with the project. Many folks, some of whose names are unknown to me, all worked with the common goal of showing the world how this kind of DVD should be done.
It starts, of course, with superior material…and the Popeye cartoons produced by the Max Fleischer Studio were about as good as any cartoons ever produced anywhere. Later Popeye cartoons by others make it easy to forget this, but there was a creative energy in that studio that is still amazing: Gags piled on gags piled on gags. I find a lot of the non-Popeye Fleischer shorts to be a bit on the hollow side — everything moves and everything's funny but all that action is a bit spineless, hung on premises and characters that don't quite deserve it. But the squint-eyed sailor (and later, when the Fleischers got hold of him, Superman) was more than up to carrying a story…at last, a star worthy of all that animation.
Also making it easy to overlook the Fleischer Popeyes has been a general unavailability…and when you do come across them, you usually see chopped-up, washed-out prints. One of the stunning things about this new DVD set is the sheer quality of the imagery. I'm not sure if these cartoons looked this good when they were originally shown in theaters but I know they've never looked this good on TV or previous home video releases. "Restored" doesn't begin to describe what has been done to these cartoons. I can't recall another home video release that has more delighted animation buffs.
So, uh, anyone know how it's selling? I haven't heard and I'm worried. Popeye hasn't been as visible lately as some cartoon characters…and like I suggested above, even the folks who know him are more familiar with his lesser adventures. They just plain don't know how good a good Popeye cartoon can be…and if this thing doesn't sell decently, we all lose out. There are a lot of us who lobby home video companies to unlock the treasures of their film vaults, to present those treasures in a complete offering, to spend the time and money to restore the material to the best-possible condition, and to create commentary tracks and other extras. If this Popeye DVD doesn't yield a significant profit, we're going to hear that it can't be done for other material because "that Popeye DVD didn't do well." That won't be the reason but it'll be the excuse to not bring other home video releases of classic animation up to this standard.
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