Never Sock a Baby (1939)
Never Sock a Baby Review
Never Sock a Baby is a 1939 animated short from Popeye the Sailor series. It is very different, but still flawed in terms of the pacing.
Never Sock a Baby explains itself perfectly with that title. Popeye spanks the baby and later has doubts about his actions. The baby leaves and it is up to Popeye to save him. But eventually it was all revealed to be a dream. I liked that revelation and even though it is clichéd up to this point, here it worked.
The entire short has a very good message about child abuse and I really adored Popeye here in one of his most human outings. The devil and angel part worked really well and I liked that he didn’t have spinach in the can, that was interesting. The mountain scenery is well animated and the action was exciting. But the big problem here is the pacing which is awfully fast and the film’s running time is just too short for this type of story and it should have been at least two minutes longer.
