This fast-paced Popeye cartoons is one of the more successful as the series was becoming more and more influenced by Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes shorts. Popeye and Bluto are in the Navy and Bluto decides he will fake an illness to get out of work. When a concerned Popeye pays him a visit at the hospital, he discovers Bluto is faking it and really put the lazy loaf through the wringer for it.
Director I. Sparber and animators Jim Tyer (who laid out and timed this cartoon) and Abner Kneitel crafted this toon as a cross between the classic New York Fleischer style and the zanier, frantic Looney Tunes style. Popeye in drag, Bugs Bunny anyone? Fueled by its own bizarre internal logic, one gag flows seamlessly one after the other until Bluto is begging for mercy. Watching the sequence where Popeye paints Bluto's throat is an avalanche of surrealism where the gag builds slowly and then tumbles out at the audience. Too many of the Popeye cartoons of this era cast Popeye as the foil to some other wacky new character. While this cartoon isn't Popeye as his classic muttering bloke persona, it works better because he's more Bugs while Bluto is Daffy. Popeye should never be the Elmer Fudd to a gangster-talking woodpecker or four bratty nephews or whatever. TOO WEAK TO WORK shows a thoughtful blending of the classic Popeye character and the increasingly popular Tex Avery style.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
