When the streaming Boomerang service launched last year, I immediately subscribed because the idea of $40 a year for anywhere access to some 300+ classic uncensored Warner Bros. cartoons was one worth supporting. Unfortunately, the library of genuine classic cartoons didn’t increase with much frequency during those twelve months. The available Warner cartoons have remained largely the same, with hardly any from the pre-1948 library. The selection of Tom & Jerry cartoons was exhaustive, but limited to the “safe” cartoons (none with the maid); only a few random MGM Tex Avery cartoons (mostly with Droopy); not enough of the better Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons (they’re good background noise); Chuck Jones’ Horton Hears a Who! is presented in a bastardized widescreen version; and no Fleischer Popeye—which I guess is all to the good, lest they provide the horrendous colorized versions Ted Turner had done in the late ’80s.
I should hasten to say, though, that Boomerang certainly did provide more than enough content to justify a year’s subscription… 300+ uncut Warner cartoons is still nothing to sneeze at. Also worth noting is that the majority of the Warner cartoons that were presented in faux widescreen on DVD eight years ago are available in proper Academy ratio on the streaming app.
Alas, as my subscription is about to end, the folks at Boomerang decided to expand the selection of available color Famous Popeye cartoons to, well, just about the entire filmography. It’s quite shocking to see cartoons like The Island Fling (pictured below) and Popeye’s Pappy available completely uncensored with no historic context… so why no Pop-Pie Ala Mode?
I enjoyed the opportunity to go through the series again, mostly because my opinion of it remains the same. The Famous Popeye cartoons are generally great through 1947 and remain watchable until 1950. If you’ve wanted the opportunity to revisit the dynamic, unmatchable animation of John Gentilella or see Jim Tyer birthing his iconic style, here’s your chance to do so with ease.
The remaining years, however, are all darkness—the Famous writers and directors showed remarkable skill at taking unfailingly likable Fleischer cartoons and turning them into taxing, ugly experiences. (The aforementioned Popeye’s Pappy is a remake of the immortal Goonland, and it makes the case succinctly enough through some pretty vile racial humor.)
What’s very clear from this rewatching is how badly these cartoons are in need of restoration. Most of the transfers used by Boomerang date back to the late ’80s, sourced from 35mm positive elements that had already faded salmon pink. I’ve seen what the cartoons are supposed to look like in Technicolor, mostly thanks to Steve Stanchfield and Mark Kausler. Once you see them with their full candy-like colors, you’ll understand why the series lasted so long even when it got so bad—Famous color styling was just invigorating when projected on a large screen. While it’s better to have some copy than no copy, and I certainly don’t fault Boomerang for using what was available (especially since they go out of their way to use the restored versions of other Warner and MGM cartoons), it still does a disservice when the color plays such a vital role in the filmmaking, especially in a good cartoon like W’ere on Our Way to Rio. Hopefully the restoration that’s been promised these cartoons for over a decade is just around the corner.
I have no desire ever to subscribe to any streaming service, but the FAMOUS Popeye shorts are in need of restoration and a DVD/Blu-ray release sometime in the future.
A generous clip of POP-PIE A LA MODE is on the service, courtesy of the SPINACH VS. HAMBURGERS cheater. It even includes the Johnny Gent clip you highlighted on your blog a really long time ago.
I’d also really like to read a history about Famous Studios. So many of the cartoons feel like windows into the cartoonists’ tortured psyches (almost like with Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon).
Are you and Charlie Judkins still doing that NY animation book?
We still very much are!
Personally, I’m expecting cartoons like THE ISLAND FLING and POPEYE’S PAPPY to disappear just as soon as Boomerang gets complaints about them. I figure they were posted by some clueless person unfamiliar with the content.
And yeah, they look pretty awful.
I don’t know about that. Warner’s YouTube channel has had the completely uncensored, restored His Mouse Friday available for purchase for years now. Kind of makes their adamance over “Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat will never be released” all the more insane.
They really had to go out of their way to pull out the uncut versions of those cartoons, since they haven’t been run uncut in any legal venue since 1990. That suggests this was a conscientious choice.
The first order of business in restoring the Famous Studios Popeyes should be to correct the mixed-era Paramount logos that begin most of the cartoons when somebody finally removed the AAP titles. (A few of the Paramount replacements are right; in fact, there are enough “correct” ones in each time period to facilitate which opening goes with which cartoon.)
This may be too much to ask, but perhaps somebody could even use the excerpt of “Ali Baba” that appears in “Spinach Packin’ Popeye” (one, incidentally, that has the correct Paramount opening) to fix the missing bit of soundtrack that puts the climactic post-spinach beat-down temporarily out of sync in the actual 1937 featurette.
With all due respect, given what bad shape most of these Popeye cartoons are in, not having the Paramount logos on them is the least of their problems. They look like exactly what they are: Eastman prints that are so badly faded your average film collector would junk them.
Improved copies of some of these cartoons , created for THE POPEYE SHOW, which ran on Boomerang ages ago, are floating around out there, but those obviously aren’t the prints Boomerang utilized.
A friend of mine put together a video, with the standard faded-to-pink Warner copy of WE’RE ON OUR WAY TO RIO side-by-side with Steve Stanchfield’s beautiful Technicolor copy. Seeing the difference makes it that much harder to sit through those awful AAP prints.
“A friend of mine put together a video, with the standard faded-to-pink Warner copy of WE’RE ON OUR WAY TO RIO side-by-side with Steve Stanchfield’s beautiful Technicolor copy. Seeing the difference makes it that much harder to sit through those awful AAP prints.”
Speaking of which, does anyone know if Steve’s great Technicolor transfer of “We’re On Our Way to Rio”is still available for viewing somewhere? Or could it possibly be re-uploaded (perhaps on Vimeo, as was done with “Tale of Two Mice”)? Warner Brothers blocked the YouTube upload worldwide a good while ago. I’d love to be able to still see it… especially as it doesn’t look like an official remastering is coming out anytime soon.
The 1950-55 period was just a slog overall through the Famous catalog — the Popeye series lost its fun, and the other series were simply content to take the plots from their debut efforts and re-use them ad nauseum for half a decade, with only 1-2 exceptions (you have to wonder how Popeye and Bluto made it all the way through the 30s without being used by the Fleischers as hyper-combative New York City cabbies, as in Irv Spector’s “Taxi Turvy” from ’54).
Once you get to the latter half of the decade, the story variations on the Famous shorts actually took a step up, including on the Popeye series (mainly the Tom Johnson-helmed ones). But by then the damage was done, and the series was probably fortunate to end when it did, before the theatricals started looking like Paramount’s King Features efforts.
Judging from that screenshot alone, the Famous Popeyes are most definitely in need of restored masters on the Boomerang SVOD! That said… I wonder how far along restoration may be. I can’t imagine Warner Brothers is still working on remastering these cartoons, but they WERE working on it around 5-6 years ago. Back in 2013, the following could be read on the FAQ section of Jerry Beck’s Cartoon Research site (via Wayback Machine; http://web.archive.org/web/20130304213042/http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/frequently-asked-questions/):
“WHY AREN’T THE CLASSIC COLOR POPEYE CARTOONS RELEASED ON VIDEO?
Good News! Warner Bros. will release these to DVD and Blu-Ray next year. Restoration is taking place now. The first boxed set should be released in July 2014!”
Of course, the idea here was to tie-in to the then-upcoming Popeye theatrical movie directed by Genndy Tartakovsky – but when that movie was first delayed and finally put on indefinite hold, so was the Blu-ray/DVD project for the Famous ‘toons. Here is what Jerry’s FAQ site CURRENTLY says about the matter (http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/frequently-asked-questions/):
“WHY AREN’T THE CLASSIC COLOR PARAMOUNT POPEYE CARTOONS RELEASED ON VIDEO?
DVD sales began to tank after Warner Bros. restored and released the Fleischer black & white Popeyes several years ago, so the project to restore the rest of that library – the color theatricals released by Paramount – has been put on hold.”
Even so… that “Restoration is taking place now” statement from 2013 is intriguing. Maybe a handful of the 1940s color shorts were actually fully remastered before the project was halted? But maybe not. Whatever the case may be, I’m guessing all the Popeyes on Boomerang’s service are the old, analogue video prints.
One of the oddest things is that none of the Fleischer two-reelers are up on Boomerang, even though they’re in color and definitely HAVE been restored. Instead there are four different cheaters that steal footage from them.
If you want to see just how much 1950’s Famous fell short of 1930’s Fleischer, watch those cheaters.
Just an update. Boomerang no longer has “Spinach vs. Hamburgers,” “The Island Fling” or “Popeye’s Pappy” available on the website. All three had been up and available. I figured they’d disappear as soon as somebody complained.
Yep, he’s right. I emailed Boomerang and asked why the three Popeye cartoons mentioned above were no longer available. I was told that Boomerang’s “content team” had reviewed the titles in question after they received “subscriber feedback” about them and had determined that they were inappropriate for a family-oriented service like theirs.
That’s a shame; then again as long as somebody still has copies of the rips and put them up elsewhere, then it’s all good.