ReFrederator Blog

“Me Musical Nephews.” 1942. Great cartoon. GREAT CARTOON! Popeye hustles nephews Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye and Poopeye off to bed so HE can get some sleep (we learn that the sailor man not only doesn’t take his pipe out while snoozing, he doesn’t even stop smoking!) Anyway, he never does get a chance to really doze off. Super talented quadruplets are super bored laying around in bed, so they start making musical instruments out of anything on which they can lay their pudgy little fingers. One of the earliest Popeye films made after Paramount took over Max Fleischer’s studio — maybe one of the best!

While watching these classic shorts as a youngster, one inconsistency that boggled my under aged little mind was the head count of Popeye’s nephews. In one cartoon there were four little Popeyes, in another three, and occasionally only two! Where were they stashing those extra kids? It was beyond my youthful comprehension that the toons I enjoyed on TV had been produced over many years — as expenses grew, the studio would periodically downsize its cast of characters (less to draw!) But as far as I was concerned, the number was completely arbitrary. I reasoned there must be cartoons I had never seen with only one nephew — and others with twenty!

Relatively Speaking Week on ReFrederator continues unabated!

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Dave Kirwan