Popeye The Sailor: The 1940s Volume 1 [Blu-ray]

I liked all the shorts.

This review is for the Blu-ray release of:Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s Volume 1Distributed by Warner Bros. Home EntertainmentCatalog #2000147371UPC: 8 88574 77070 9The quality is impressive! All of the cartoons appear to be complete without any edits whatsoever.I grew up watching most of the cartoons from this collection with the a.a.p. intros. I always hated the fact the poor editing of those intros made it obvious the cartoons hadn't been produced that way originally. The music would skip or change drastically also. That is NOT the case here!!!The intros all smoothly transition to the beginning of each cartoon without any unexpected change in picture nor sound quality. In fact, the quality is so good, I thought some of the initial frames in the intros might have been one frame frozen for clarity. I was wrong. The animation with Popeye's head popping out of a twirling star begins, yet the background is rock-solid stable. I didn't detect any jitter at all!!! That's practically unheard of with animation and live-action sources dating from over 70 years ago. I didn't detect any scratches at all either. I've only watched the disc two times all the way through, so it's possible I may have missed some. I did find it incredible how consistent the colors and the brightness were from the top of the frame to the bottom, and from cartoon to cartoon. This makes the cartoons appear to have been produced in modern times. Warner did an amazing job with this release. There is some film grain visible throughout, but that's such a minor detail.Yes, the disc is barebones. However it is an actual pressed, silver disc BD (Blu-ray Disc)---NOT a BD-R (Blu-ray Disc Recordable). The cover artwork is used for the menu, albeit in a re-arranged format. The menu has 3 options:PLAY ALL SUBTITLES: OFF EPISODE SELECTIONSelecting "SUBTITLES: OFF" toggles it to "SUBTITLES: ON" and back.Choosing "EPISODE SELECTION" displays a cartoon titles list with an arrow on the right:Her Honor, The MareThe Marry-Go-RoundWe're On Our Way To RioThe Anvil Chorus GirlSpinach-Packin' PopeyePuppet LovePitchin' Woo At The ZooPressing the right arrow on your player/remote replaces the cartoon titles list with the remaining cartoon titles list along with an arrow on the left:Moving AweighShe-Sick SailorsPop-Pie A La ModeTops in the Big TopShape AhoyFor Better or NurseMess ProductionPressing the left arrow on your player/remote replaces the remaining cartoon titles list with the initial cartoon titles list.These cartoons have reportedly been mastered in 4K from the original nitrate negatives. I don't know why they weren't also released in the 4K Blu-ray format. Perhaps that will be done in the future.Warner Brothers added this statement on the back of the case artwork:"Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1 is intended for the Adult Collector and May Not Be Suitable for Children."I think the only cartoons that may offend some people are:The Marry-Go-Round - The character Shorty may possibly be found offensive by some.We're On Our Way To Rio - Some may not like Popeye stating he's no "Sambo dancer" rather than "Samba dancer"Pop-Pie A La Mode - Black cannibal stereotypes may be perceived as offensive.One thing Warners didn't add to the Blu-ray case artwork was a list of the cartoons included. If you decide to select the "PLAY ALL" option from the menu, there is no way to know what is going to play next. Warners chose to put the list of cartoon titles on the disc itself! That's great for those with photographic memories. For other people, it's a bit of a drag!This set of cartoons is subtitled "THE 1940s VOLUME 1". It includes 14 cartoons. If it is successful, it's probable each new volume will contain about the same amount of cartoons:THE 1940s VOLUME 2 - 15 cartoons 1946-1947THE 1940s VOLUME 3 - 17 cartoons 1948-1949If we're lucky, hopefully they'll continue on with:THE 1950s VOLUME 1 - 16 cartoons 1950-1951THE 1950s VOLUME 2 - 16 cartoons 1952-1953THE 1950s VOLUME 3 - 17 cartoons 1954-1955THE 1950s VOLUME 4 - 13 cartoons 1956-1957...and finish with completing the 1960s releases too:THE 1960s CLASSICS VOLUME 2 - 72 cartoonsTHE 1960s CLASSICS VOLUME 3 - 72 cartoons

I've waited a good long decade for the first batch of Popeye cartoons in Technicolor to be issued on DVD and I'm glad they're here plus I can't wait for the next batch or two of Popeye episodes from the 1940s. These ones cover the years of mid-1943 to mid-1945. I already have the three volumes of Popeye The Sailor in black and white not to mention the three two-reeler Technicolor featurettes-"Popeye Meets Sindbad The Sailor"; "Popeye Meets Ali Baba's 40 Thieves" and "Popeye Meets Aladdin". All of those early cartoons were distributed through Paramount be it either Fleischer Studios or Famous Studios. All the shorts contained here are Famous Studios picking up from where Volume 3:1941-1943 left off, which was where we first encountered Shorty-Popeye's diminutive, bespectacled bunkmate voiced by Arnold Stang[who was caricatured after]. Two shorts on here("Marry-Go-Round" and "Moving Aweigh") also feature the same character. But note in the latter short, the traffic cop also resembled the same one from "Cops Is Always Right"(1938)which also has the same plot to it-slightly. Also note that Olive Oyl has NO speaking lines in the latter short.Also note that this collection is a single disc containing 14 shorts which is worth it. Plus you get to see the original openings by Paramount with Popeye emerging from the spinning star tooting his pipe, NOT the substituted A.A.P. titles that caused bad edits as we viewed them on television as kids. Speaking of kids, you may want to caution those of your own[who have any]since there may be stereotypes involved like previous collections. That's the same case with the Little Rascals(nee Our Gang), which is another story altogether. I've watched both series on Channel 11-WPIX as a kid since they were "edited for television". Regardless, these cartoons are still fun to watch even as an adult. Speaking of Famous Studios, they alsoproduced the Superman cartoons at that time in the early to mid 1940s, which crossed paths in "She-Sick Sailors", slightly, where Olive Oyl develops a crush on Superman much to Popeye's disbelief and then Bluto, upon overhearing this, returns clean-shaven disguised as the superhero convincing Olive wanting to do away with Popeye, who is saved by spinach rescues Olive from the evil Bluto after his hat falls from his costume. In "Spinach Packin' Popeye", when giving a pint of blood hours before a scheduled boxing match he falls asleep and dreams that he loses not only the fight but Olive as well when he tries hard to convince her of his strength via flashbacks(from Sindbad and Ali Baba clips). Then he wakes up realizing he STILL has Olive after all.The shorts here include "Her Honor The Mare"; "The Marry-Go-Round";"We're On Our Way To Rio"; "The Anvil Chorus Girl"; "Spinach Packin' Popeye"; "Puppet Love"; "Pitchin' Woo At The Zoo"; "Moving Aweigh"; "She-Sick Sailors"; "Pop-Pie A La Mode"; "Tops In The Big Top"; "Shape Ahoy"; "For Better Or Nurse" and "Mess Production".Get this today and you, too, will be "strong to the finich".

I am greatly enjoying watching these cartoons with my grandmother. We have all of the earlier sets, so it's nice to finally be able to catch up with later color cartoons. I only wish that they had kept the same slipcase style as they did with the first three volumes.

This is a collection of Popeye cartoons on Blu-ray the way it was shown in orginal way . I love Popeye and glad I own this .

Worth it for "On the Road to Rio", one of the best of the Famous Studios Popeye shorts.

Popeye is one of those iconic figures of the cartoon world that crossed over, from the second most popular comic strip character of the Great Depression, to shorts, and finally, even a big-budgeted movie musical. While most critics will concur that the shorts made after Paramount fired the Fleischers and took up the franchise, pale artistically by comparison, there is nothing pale about these gorgeous new image harvests. The Warner Archive has taken great pains to restore and remaster Popeye for posterity on Blu-ray and the results could not be better. You are going to LOVE the way these vintage shorts look. My one regret is that WAC did not start at the beginning, remastering the Fleischer franchise first, and releasing not only 'volumes' on Blu, but also one whopping comprehensive box set of these wonderful examples of hand-drawn animation. Otherwise, this one is a no brainer. Buy with confidence and fall in love with 3-strip Technicolor all over again. Vintage Technicolor - there is NOTHING like it today!

No Region number displayed. Disc turned out to be a number Region my Panasonic Player/ Recordercouldn`t play. Cannot recommend this seller as you do not know what you are buying.Very disappointed. Mike Foster

Absolute gold for the Popeye animation fan! Usually, watching these same14 Popeye cartoons in a row, of bad prints on a degenerated video, would be taxing but with the crisp clean restoration they are like watching for the first time and I am seeing details I have never seen (in the ones I have seen before). Please Time Warner, complete the series of Famous Studio's Popeye cartoons!

Très bonne qualité.Livré à temps.Serait préférable de livrer dans une boîte plutôt qu'une simple enveloppe à bulles car la boîte du disque a été un peu écrasée. Ça aurait pu endommager le DVD.

Fantastic transfers of previously unavailable Popeye cartoons post Fleischer Studios. These cartoons just do not hold up. They are well made, but juvenile, offensive, and often just bad. The few gems on each set hardly justify the purchase price, sadly.