Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves (1937) – A Spinach-Fuelled Swashbuckle

Alright, so let’s just get this out there: I’ve always had this weird soft spot for Popeye. Something about those biceps and that rough sailor’s voice wakes up memories of me as a little ung, sitting cross-legged in front of the TV on a Sunday around ‘88, chewing on a piece of rågbröd and pretending it made me as strong as him. But this one, “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves,” directed by Dave Fleischer – I mean, talk about taking a sledgehammer to an already bonkers formula and cranking it up.

The legendary Jack Mercer voices Popeye again, mumbling and cackling his way through sand dunes and flying carpets. So there’s Bluto, but now he’s Abu Hassan, bossing around a bunch of knasiga, bumbling thieves. And Olive Oyl, gods, she gets “damsel in distress” treatment, like always, but Mae Questel makes her shreaks and sighs kind of loveable (though my mum always said Olive needed “more grit, like a proper svensk dam.”)

I gotta admit, the animation’s such a time capsule. Three-strip Technicolor, almost glowing, kind of like Stockholm at four in the afternoon in December – weird and fake, but beautiful if you squint. The slapstick still made me snort, especially Popeye uppercutting camels and punching holes in Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s army (okay, not really, but you get the drift).

But I dunno, by 2024 standards, there’s this awkwardness with the “exotic East” setting, like an old Swedish adventure comic. Charming, ja, but more “wow, folk tänkte verkligen så då” than “I’m swept away.”

Still, if you’re ever feeling blå and missing 7-åriga you, spin this up, eat some spenat (honestly, it’s not as gross as we all made it out to be), and give Popeye another round. It’s silly and kinda heartwarming – like taking the wrong tram and ending somewhere better.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

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