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Not truly a feature film, audiences often treated Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor as such during its initial release in the 1930s. This two-reeler appears often enough on low-budget compilations to merit a mention here, and is actually far better than many full length animated features. Part of a series of extended length Popeye shorts, Sindbad presents an amazing Arabian Nights-style fantasy using the beloved Popeye characters. It's funny, witty, charming, quaint, and oddly futuristic with its 3-D effects. I hope that one day all three of these shorts will be remastered from the original 35 mm negatives and released on a high quality videocassette.
Popeye was a popular character for the Fleischer studios in the 1930s, and under Dave Fleischer's direction, the series was imaginative and original. Not a trippy as the Betty Boop cartoons, the Popeye cartoons emphasized comedy and exaggerated slapstick. These cartoons were storyboarded but scripting was minimal. As a result, the animation was often improvisational and Fleischer's voice talents were allowed to ad-lib their lines. Thus, in contrast to the cookie-cutter school of Hanna-Barbera or the choreography of Disney, Fleischer's cartoons were as free as the Jazz Age to which they belonged.
The film is in sharp contrast to both Disney's Aladdin and the Arabian Nights adventures of Ray Harryhausen. Unlike Disney, there is no mawkish sentiment and no attempt to create a pseudo "correct" Arabian world; Many of the puns are worthy of Robin Williams and Fleischer's Sindbad is essentially a larger version of Bluto. Whereas Harryhausen injected elements of Greek mythology into his films and told his tales with a stone face, Fleischer reveled in the sillier aspects of fairytales. Fleischer was unafraid to poke fun at dragons and rocs.
Fleischer used a 3-D process while filming these and other movies. A miniature set was constructed in lieu of a painted backdrop, and the character's cels were placed in a frame in front of the doll-sized landscape. The effect is dazzling, especially during pans, and is a technique that independent animators may wish to consider. Fleischer even pulls off a neat lighting effect when Popeye enters a cave. The result prefigures today's computer generated backdrops.
I'm reminded that Marvel Comics published an unusual comic called "What If?" and this film prompts me to wonder "What if Fleischer's two reelers were more influential?" It's no secret that Fleischer's films were perhaps the most unlike Disney's (at least until the Production Code) and seen today, they are unlike most anime popular in the States as well. Despite Spielberg's attempt to prove otherwise with Animaniacs the improvisational spirit of the old cartoon shorts no longer exists in contemporary animation. (I always found Animaniacs to be smarmy, poorly animated, and annoying but that's another review). Perhaps the improv spirit is impossible given the huge expenses of animated films nowadays, and the poor distribution of independent films.
Which makes Sindbad even more of a treasure. Find a copy and watch it. If you've only seen recent animation, you've never seen anything like it.
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Other NonAnime Reviews Prince of Egypt Review* Gotham Girls Review* Jackie Chan Adventures Review* Godzilla 98 Review Titan A.E. Review* |
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