4.0

Popeye & Friends Volume 2

Popeye is one of the more famous comic strip and cartoon characters around. Since his original printings, he has been included in many cartoons, the best of them being the Fleischer ones. However there have also been many more incarnations of the sailor man. The series has been resuscitated many times, and not for the better. Volume 1 of this DVD series featured cartoons from The All New Popeye Hour , which in itself was a shadow of the former cartoons. It included eight episodes of mostly filler that even most Popeye super fans wouldn’t touch due to the random inclusion of episodes and well, the fact they were pretty crap. Volume 2 fares no better, but this time grabs its episodes from an equally bad bastardisation of the original cartoons, Popeye and Sons.

Popeye and Sons involves our titular hero, but he is almost pushed to the background in favour of his son Junior, who also attends school with Bluto’s son Tank. The two get into many misunderstandings and have a similar rivalry to their fathers. What follows is neither much like the original Popeye’s nor able to stand alone. Make no bones about it this cartoon is rubbish, and loses what made Popeye so recognisable in the first place. We get spinach intake, but we get no hitting people, we get a “Cousin Oliver” in Popeye’s kid, whose adventures aren’t interesting at all. There are dumb jokes and boring stories, and it suddenly all makes sense that this show only lasted one season before it was taken out back and mercy killed.

The DVD doesn’t really hold up either, the video and sound quality might as well be on a VHS. The episodes are once again randomly picked and out of sequence, and once again are not very good in the first place. There are no extra features, yet the disc is cheap. Yet no matter how cheap it is there is really no reason at all to buy this set. If you are a huge Popeye fan, no doubt you will already be outraged at this useless reboot. If you are a parent, there are many cartoons better suited for your child. If you are an animation buff and must have everything there is... There is still no reason to own this DVD. Instead turn your head to the classic Popeye collections, and remember that the sailor man used to be a bad ass, and at least entertaining.