Popeye travels alone through Darkest Africa to find his fist-fightin' pal, Bluto.Popeye travels alone through Darkest Africa to find his fist-fightin' pal, Bluto.Popeye travels alone through Darkest Africa to find his fist-fightin' pal, Bluto.
- Directors
- Writer
- Stars
Photos
Pinto Colvig
- Bluto
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Jack Mercer
- Popeye
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Dave Fleischer
- Willard Bowsky(uncredited)
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaClearly inspired by the Stanley and Livingston story which had been recently portrayed in a Spencer Tracy film.
- GoofsThe cartoon's title is missing an apostrophe. It should be "Fightin' Pals".
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Popeye Show: Sock-a-Bye Baby/The Jeep/Fightin' Pals (2001)
Featured review
In darkest Africa
Like to love a vast majority of the Fleischer Studios Popeye output, the late-30s cartoons being particularly good and where the high quality was the most consistent. 1940 saw Fleischer Studios starting to decline significantly, the cartoons were mostly well made and scored but they tended to not be very funny, too cute with un-compelling stories and characters. The Popeye cartoons though were among the better ones from this period, in its best theatrical series in the early 40s bar none.
'Fightin Pals' may not one of the best Popeye cartoons overall though or one of the best of the 1940 output. Considering that Fleischer Studios' pre-40s output was mostly decent to brilliant, it is a little disappointing. At the same time though, despite a couple of major problems there are a lot of well done things and 'Fightin Pals' on the whole was pretty good. It was interesting to see a different more friendly side to the usual anarchic Popeye and Bluto relationship.
Story-wise, 'Fightin Pals' is not much new, other than the different slant to the relationship between Popeye and Bluto, and is not too interesting in the beginning.
While loving Jack Mercer (one of two consistently good things throughout the series, the other being the music), Pinto Colvig never quite gelled for me as Bluto. He had big shoes to fill, but my problem was comparing him to other roles he did and not being able to get them out of my head or separate them (in Colvig's case it was him being the original voice of Disney's Goofy) when the voice didn't fit the character design enough.
On the other hand, the animation is neatly and expressively drawn (especially with Popeye) and still very much like the work that goes into the backgrounds. The music, appropriately like its own character, is as beautifully orchestrated and characterful as ever.
The gags are also a lot of fun despite the lack of originality, with genuinely funny moments once the action moves to Africa. The story is not much new but still a lot of energy, with a wonderfully wild final third that is the case for most Popeye cartoons. Popeye and Bluto work so well together and are great characters individually and Mercer as usual is great.
Concluding, very well done on the whole. 8/10
'Fightin Pals' may not one of the best Popeye cartoons overall though or one of the best of the 1940 output. Considering that Fleischer Studios' pre-40s output was mostly decent to brilliant, it is a little disappointing. At the same time though, despite a couple of major problems there are a lot of well done things and 'Fightin Pals' on the whole was pretty good. It was interesting to see a different more friendly side to the usual anarchic Popeye and Bluto relationship.
Story-wise, 'Fightin Pals' is not much new, other than the different slant to the relationship between Popeye and Bluto, and is not too interesting in the beginning.
While loving Jack Mercer (one of two consistently good things throughout the series, the other being the music), Pinto Colvig never quite gelled for me as Bluto. He had big shoes to fill, but my problem was comparing him to other roles he did and not being able to get them out of my head or separate them (in Colvig's case it was him being the original voice of Disney's Goofy) when the voice didn't fit the character design enough.
On the other hand, the animation is neatly and expressively drawn (especially with Popeye) and still very much like the work that goes into the backgrounds. The music, appropriately like its own character, is as beautifully orchestrated and characterful as ever.
The gags are also a lot of fun despite the lack of originality, with genuinely funny moments once the action moves to Africa. The story is not much new but still a lot of energy, with a wonderfully wild final third that is the case for most Popeye cartoons. Popeye and Bluto work so well together and are great characters individually and Mercer as usual is great.
Concluding, very well done on the whole. 8/10
helpful•80
- TheLittleSongbird
- Mar 1, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Walka kumpli
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime7 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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