Fightin’ Pals (1940)
Fightin’ Pals Review
Fightin’ Pals is a 1940 animated short from Popeye the Sailor series. It is such a refreshing entry.
Yes, here we see for the first time Popeye and Bluto being friends. Not just working together, but as real friends. That was weird, but very interesting and different than usual. But it is mostly done for the better as the two are fighting pals as the title suggests meaning that they love each other, but fight constantly. That is such a great concept that even makes a new theory for their rivalry through the years.
But what isn’t great here is the pacing. This is just an awfully slow, mostly uneventful part and that was a bit annoying to be frank. The outdoor sequences in the forest were finely animated and atmospheric, but still prolonged. It succeeds due to these two, but it’s a shame that they only get two scenes, one in the beginning and one at the end.
Fi ghtin’ Pals is an amusing Popeye with different story line, of Popeye and Bluto good-naturedly punching each other when Bluto was off to safari in Africa. Popeye was out of character in being sad that Bluto was absent , not inclined to date Olive Oyl; suddenly a News Flash came on radio, that Bluto was lost in Darkest Africa! THAT spurred Popeye to sail to Africa torescue his pal. As he approached, he heard tom-toms and EERIE MUSIC, which reinforced a sign on a barier, which read JUNGLE KEEP ALIVE KEEP OUT!! The brush with a rhino, a meeting with a lion who tried to steal Popeye’s pith helmet and whose body was full of next gunk! An elephant’s trunk seemed to Popeye a telephone; the elephant teased Popeye, who struggled on UNTIL he dimly saw Bluto with three native girls– then FAINTED! Bluto fed him spinach which revived him so that the pair resumed fighting! All in all, an enjoyable cartoon that was no fill-in-the-blanks affair.