The Musical Duel Even Popeye Wasn't Ready For - Spinach Overture (1935) - Popeye Review

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:05][music] [music] Hello and welcome to another member request video. This time around the member request video is for the spinach overture released in 1935. It's the 28th Popeye in the series and it's directed by Dave Fleer. You can find this short on the Popeye the Sailor volume 1 DVD set and I will link below to that set.

[00:00:34]And the short is currently under copyright. There's only a handful of Popeyes are in the public domain and this is actually not one of them. But if you haven't seen this one, very straightforward. You've got Poey. He's conducting his own orchestra pretty terribly, I might add. And I definitely have something to say about that. Pluto shows up and shows that he's clearly the superior conductor. Poppy's orchestra defects to Bluto. And well, Popeye now has to show off his real talents after having spinach. Now, in terms of trivia, this one has a few interesting things about it. And I'll do the music one very shortly, but so we see the clarinet player is a character that comes from the Thimble Theater comic strip, and his name is Castor Oil in that strip. Haha, Castor Oil. Get it? And he's the older brother to Olive Oil. And sometimes in these shorts, they'll just include side characters from Thimble Theater just to pat out crowds or maybe have cameo appearances or whatever. And you honestly don't even need to know that to enjoy this short. But I thought it was quite interesting. In fact, from what I'm reading, this is his only appearance in a short. So, who knows what happened to him afterwards. And then you'll notice when you see Bluto that his hair is quite different in this one. Of course, it turns out to be a wig. But the whole shtick here when it comes to his conducting is that he's resembling Leopold Sakowski, who would be very famous for conducting without using a baton and just show off real dramatic actions with his arms. In fact, if you've seen Fantasia, you've seen him conduct. But that wild hair, that's what they're playing on here. And of course, Popeye gets that hair later on. Now the main song that's been done in this short is an adaption of the poet and peasant overture by France [music] von supupe and his work has been all over animated shorts around this time and not just the poem peasant overture you have other works of his as well but specifically the poem and peasant overture has actually been quite a few shorts it's been in a few Disney shorts like the barnyard concert and Mickey's melodrama it's been in quite a few Warner Brothers shorts with one of my favorite renditions is in Pokey at the crocodero and later on there'd be a Walt Lance cartoon and featuring Andy Panda called the poet and peasant which features that song as well. So it was definitely well known at the time but when watching this short I think you'll agree that it's actually a really good choice here. But I do have one other observation about this short but I'll save that for as we're going through it because this one is quite different in one particular way that I thought was very interesting. And given that this is only the 28th Popey short, it's interesting that they're still at this point in time trying all different things before later on in the late 40s and then 50s and onwards where they will just pretty much settle on the one exact formula. Yes, that formula is present here, but there's something a little different here and I'll get to [music] that in a moment. But let's take a look at this short from start to finish and I'll go through some of my observations as I do. So, right away we open up and I can hear my good friend Manny Cruz the Tunenner who's my music expert that he's on a lot of these reviews. I can hear him howling at the moon because of how bad this sounds as we open up the short and you can see all the neighbors why they wouldn't want to live nearby and I'm not even a musician and I certainly can't blame them at all.

[00:03:50]But we open up at the rehearsal hall and we go in and we see that Popey is a conductor. Why is he a conductor? I don't know. Why is he conducting while dressed up as a sailor? Again, I don't know. Do we need to know? Of course not.

[00:04:06]I just thought it was funny. But I love the design of this short as well. And I think it's perhaps the most underrated aspect here. I like how it's got the musical notes all around. You got pictures of musical notes, the rug on the floor. It's just a top-notch design, and it doesn't overpower anything, but if you take a closer look, you can definitely see some interesting things about it. But right away we see that perhaps this orchestra group is a victim of the depression because the instruments they're playing don't look like they're in particularly good nick here. So we see Wimpy, he's somehow cooking a burger on the actual high hat part of the drum, which I thought was a clever touch. And for those unaware, this character Wimpy loves his hamburgers and likes to eat it all the time. And thankfully though, you don't even need to know that to enjoy this gag. But that drum kit definitely looks like it's in a very sorry state. See, it's got the patches on it and it's got a makeshift stand as well on the bottom.

[00:04:57]It's pretty sorry looking, but as long as it works, I guess. I mean, again, it is a Great Depression after all. But what's interesting about the music here is you got this very poorly conducted version of the poet and peasant overure.

[00:05:11]And yet in the midst of it, we hear other bits of music. So, we hear a bit of the Popeye's theme. We hear a bit of the sailor's horn pipe as well, which I thought was a nice little touch. But the conductor's main role is to keep the orchestra in time as they play their notes. And yet they're playing so badly.

[00:05:26]So is it them playing badly? Or is it Popeye just a poor conductor not keeping them in time? I don't know. I'm not a conductor, of course. Otherwise, what would I be doing here? I'd be conducting and perhaps making more money. But anyway, despite sounding horrible, the timing of the animation is great, especially when again Whimpy's having his burger and he hits the pie hat, which flips the burger over and then once again to actually land the burger in his mouth. And we see Olive Oil whose harp again is in a pretty sorry state.

[00:05:57]And it even has a bizarre design. I mean, look at the head of the harp. It's got this weird looking face. Is it a fish? Is it a dragon? I don't know what that's supposed to be. Is it like a really big open mouth? You be the judge and let me know, okay? But she must be a really good harp player because she can do all these extra notes by having another string play with her feet, which is ridiculous. But say what you want about Popeye's conducting skills, you got to admit, he's definitely into it.

[00:06:23]He's definitely passionate. And I guess he likes what he's hearing cuz he's even humming along to it at a certain point, complete with this pipe actually bouncing around to the music. But we hear some laughter in the next room as we pan over and we see that Pluto is in the other room complete with a fancyl looking orchestra just laughing along which most of them actually end up looking the same. Some might have mustaches and some don't. And how tiny is that piano in the very back there?

[00:06:49]Looks a bit out of scale but whatever.

[00:06:52]You only see it briefly anyway. So Bluto says he's going to show these guys up.

[00:06:57]So, like in the other shorts, he is a bit of a prick here. But there is a little bit of a difference than the usual Popeye short cuz usually Pluto would say, "Hey, I'm the best at whatever task it may be, be it building a house or whatever." But he would typically cheat to achieve his goals.

[00:07:13]Here though, something rather interesting happens. So, Pluto just pushes Poey out of the way, leaving Poey's orchestra in a state of shock, but he starts conducting. And lo and behold, he's actually good at it. And he's really good at the violin as well.

[00:07:29]So, this is, as far as I'm aware, the only time where he's actually really good at something and doesn't have to resort at cheating. If you can think of other examples, definitely let me know.

[00:07:38]But this is the only one I can actually think of where that actually happens.

[00:07:41]Although, I like how he calls himself the great maestro. To be fair, I happen to agree with him on that. But I love the animation of Pluto playing the violin there. If you slow-mo that and just look at the fingers, the fingers look really bizarre in slow-mo. And yet, at normal speed, it looks perfectly fine. Of course, we're going to have Bluto flirting with Olive here. And again, in other shorts, the whole focus would most likely be Pluto seeing Olive and maybe taking over, conducting this orchestra just so he get close to her and then Papey has to fight for her honor like in other shorts. But in this case, no. He flirts with her, but that's it. So he continues playing. He even applies a bit of pizzicato in the middle of all that as well by plucking the string of the violin. And sure enough, the orchestra is impressed. Hey, I am too. That was actually really good. I do have to wonder who actually did the music here because one of the sad things that has happened in relation to a lot of the vocal credits and whatnot when it comes to the Flyer studio is that while yes, we know that Popey is voiced by Jack Mercer, May Kestle does olive oil.

[00:08:48]I mean, she doesn't really talk much in here, but that's pretty much the voice around this time. And Gus Wiki does the voice of Pluto, but we don't really know who does the orchestra here. We don't really know who's playing the violin, the piano here because when Paramount opened up Famous Studios, and there was the falling out between the Flasher brothers, it was all pretty sad. But sadly, on top of that, all the documentation ended up being destroyed, shredded, and so on. Hopefully one day some documentation can come up and we can find out who would have done the music here. But regardless, whoever did do the music here has done a really good job. So, Pluto says to Popey, "Now you try it." And Popeye attempts to do what Bluto did. Now, the funny thing is this just shows off that Popey isn't a particularly good conductor and he's a okay violin player. You can definitely tell as he's playing the violin that it's a bit off key there. It's not the worst I've heard, of course. But sure enough, after playing a little bit off key for a while, the strings ends up going off. So, I don't know if that's just his bad skill or a very poor violin. But Popeye's orchestra not only laughs at Popeye, but they laugh as though it's the funniest thing that they've ever seen. To be fair, it is the Great Depression, so maybe it was the funniest thing they've seen in a while.

[00:10:02]I don't know. But Bluto, I guess he wants to give Pop a sporting chance. He says, "Let's try it another way." And he ends up conducting the orchestra again.

[00:10:10]I love the head boopping in this scene there. Again, it's a reference to Sakowski and how energetic he would be at conducting. And he ends up going on the piano. And again, I have to hand it to Pluto. He's really talented here. I mean, as I understand it, and musicians can correct me if I'm wrong here, but typically you could be an expert at one instrument, but then in other instruments, you may know the basics or be competent, but you can only ever truly be an expert at one. So, for example, a guitar player might be really good at guitar and be fine at bass that they could pick it up and do some basic stuff but not be an expert. So, here I got to say Bluto is pretty impressive how he's able to play the violin so well like that and also play the piano so well. And again, if you slow-mo the fingers playing the piano there, it looks really great. When you see the single frames, it doesn't look like it should work. And yet, in full motion, it does. And I got to say, I love the animation of Pluto just twirling from his seat all dainty like and challenges Popeye again to try that. So Popeye attempts to conduct the orchestra just like Bluto did. But when he goes to the piano, wow, that's really up key. And I would have mentioned this in a track at some point in the past, but it'd be incredibly difficult being a professional music player to play badly.

[00:11:26]It's actually harder than you think because you have to remind yourself, oh, I need to fail and still make it sound good like I'm failing, if that makes sense. But I love the animation of Popey playing the piano so badly and just sweating and trying to figure it out. So again, to be fair to Popeye in this case, just because he's conductor doesn't necessarily mean he'd be good at piano. So Pluto says, "Come and join the good band." And Popeye's orchestra defects. And again, fair enough. Ludo is genuinely the better of the two here. He knows what he's doing and he doesn't have to cheat at all in this one. So, I'd say Popeye, don't give up your day job. You're good as a sailor, not as conductor at least. But the piano opens up and we see that there's the spinach.

[00:12:10]And rather than the usual gulping, hey, Papa gets strong and he starts smashing into things. Now, we do a little bit differently here. Every time he gulps a bit of spinach, he plays really well with one hand, then the other hand, and then he's playing amazingly. Again, I would love to know who actually did the piano here because it's really amazing work. And yeah, Papey plays along. He even plays with his toes. I mean, that's some spinach. But the funny part about this one to me is just the whole thing about Poey just scatting along to the music, obviously happy with himself. So, the spinach has made him really good at playing the piano. But can he conduct better? Well, we're about to find out.

[00:12:47]So, Popeye seeks to have his orchestra back and ends up knocking out Pluto and taking his wig. And again, this is a really weird short in that aspect because Bludo was just being a little bit of a jerk, but he showed that, hey, he may be a jerk, but he's actually a good orchestra conductor. It's not like he's stealing olive oil and then just trying to make her fall in love with him. No, he's saying to him, "Hey, I'm better than this guy. You've got better potential." Am I overthinking this?

[00:13:16]Perhaps, but this is the only Popeye short I know that does it this way. In any case, Pluto gets knocked out and we see one of the most energetic things in any Popeye short of this period. Popey conducting as though he's Leopold Stacowski. And we see Popey is doing a really good job at it, being very energetic. And we hear the overture done competently this time. I mean, maybe the other band members are propping up his original orchestra. I don't know. But it still sounds good. And Pluto's not happy. He's also bold and not happy.

[00:13:48]Throws the tuber Popeye. And I guess Popey is now a tuber player as well. Now that would be interesting. Imagine someone being an expert at the piano and the tuber. Two completely different instruments requiring completely different set of skills. And I like the added touches here. So you got Popeye even as he's conducting. He even lets his toe do some of the conducting as well. Perfectly in time to the music.

[00:14:09]Pluto throws the wood from the exylophone. Of course, Popey knocks it back in time to the music and he ends up knocking out Bluto with the trombone.

[00:14:18]And as Popeye's knocking him out with the trombone, I like the fact that he actually counts in German briefly for whatever reason and then in English again. Clearly adlibbed, but it's so funny. And this is one of the funniest fights as well. Just how it's all done in time for music where he even just stops briefly. Conducts the song, fights again, conducts the song. He throws Bluto onto the band stand, which clearly has a weight limit of some kind there, causing the whole thing to collapse, much to everyone's shock. And we end with Popeye conducting his theme song with the remaining band members who aren't injured. And we end right there.

[00:14:53]So yeah, this one's definitely an interesting one because it has a similar formula but does things differently.

[00:15:00]Again, normally you'd have the formula of Bluto taking an interest in olive oil, does something to impress her, usually by cheating, and then Popeye has to rescue in some fashion, and we get variations on that. Whereas here, he's the better conductor out of the two, at least without Poey having to spin, of course, and gets Pope's orchestra over, and that's that. But Popeye has to of course win in the end. I guess he's just really passionate about music. So there you are. But this is definitely a fun short to watch. And I actually had not seen this before. My good friend Manny Cruz, the Tuni Tenner, he's the one that recommended me to take a look at this one. And I'm glad he did because this one is fantastic. It gets nine and a half out of 10 for me. Just the energy of this short, the timing of the music in this one, and it's funny. That's the main thing for me. and even other the other small details just with the music notes in the room and just the general design of it all. But that will do it for this review. So, like with all the other member request videos, as they get posted up, you can always let me know which one you'd like me to review, except for the Looney Tunes since I'm covering all of them anyway. And even if it's an Animation TV episode, like an episode of the Flintstones, Top Cat, whatever, let me know. And yeah, I may pick your choice. But that'll do it for this one. Thank you so much for watching, guys. And until next time, take care.

[00:16:32]>> [music] >> Oh.

[00:16:37]Oh.