The creation of cartoons has been a staple go-to plot for many cartoons. Popeye gets his turn to draw his own adventure in this 1943 short. In his production "Wages of Sin (Less 20%)," Popeye casts himself as a man venturing out to make his fortune, hoping to return and bring his beloved Olive Oyl to wherever he has landed. Then the evil mortgage holder Roger Blacklay wants Olive for himself and kidnaps the slender damsel in distress, sending Popeye out to rescue her.
The short begins with Popeye working on some ideas at his animation stand. When finished, he screens the film for Olive and his nephews. He accompanies the short with his own music and sound effects. It's a great bit of animation timing watching Popeye try to keep up with the action, juggling horns, piano, etc., etc. For Popeye's drawing style, the filmmakers put the traditional Popeye and Olive heads on stick figure bodies, filling in the backgrounds with simple crude-looking line drawings of trees and houses.
In addition to satirizing the clichéd serial villain and the woman tied to the train tracks plotline, director Seymour Kneitel and animators Orestes Calpini and Otto Feuer take shots at all kinds of action stereotypes and even the way films are screened. Thanks to help from one of the nephews who switches the speed on the projector to high, the film takes a breakneck pace at the end, flowing from one gag to another as the projector casts the film on various surfaces, including Olive's bulbous nose. The pacing timed so excellently to the music closes this cartoon with a bang. It's a great example of how joyous animation can be when all the pieces are handled so well.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
