Sock-a-Bye, Baby (1934) User Reviews

Popeye The Serial Killer!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 5 September 2007]

Popeye begins this with his familiar song but an unfamiliar role: rocking a baby to sleep in its carriage on a sidewalk outside. When nearby Harpo Marx's harp playing wakes up the baby, Popeye kills him with one sock, and poor Harpo is now playing his harp with a halo over his head.

More crazy scenes occur, like Popeye singing and playing a banjo; the baby taking his pipe, smoking it and blowing smoke rings. From that point, the whole story is Popeye doing whatever he can to stop noise, so the baby will go back to sleep and stay that way.

Outrageous scenes follow. Popeye's solution to everything, at least in these first-year cartoons, is to sock it - whether it's people or an inanimate object. You cannot believe the damage - and the number of people he killed - our "sailor man" does in this story. In real life, he would spent his entire life in jail, if the jail could hold him!

Some great visuals and a few really funny sight gags make this worth watching.

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 11 October 2003]

This is a really funny early Popeye, with some really excellent visual effects. Swee' Pea is making life most unhappy for all concerned-himself, Popeye and all the poor souls Popeye silences in order for the little noisemaker to stay asleep (a consummation devoutly to be wished) and thus to be silent. Costello is okay as Popeye here, though he never really did very well in my view. I'm not sure he understood the character terribly well. All in all, a fairly good cartoon largely consisting of sight gags of a fairly violent nature. Good early effort and worth seeing. Recommended.

Brutal Popeye

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 20 August 2018]

Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

'Sock a-Bye, Baby' is not one of the best Popeye cartoons to me. It is extremely well done and never less than very funny, its best parts being hilarious, though some of the content and Popeye himself here may not be for all tastes. Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great character chemistry. 'Sock a-Bye Baby' has much of makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era, though one does miss Bluto.

The story is an interesting and beautifully paced one, never being dull, if formulaic (not uncommon with the Popeye cartoons). The humour and gags make it even more entertaining, 'Sock a-Bye Baby' is non-stop fast-paced wildness, avoiding the trap of repetition, though it is more brutal than the usual Popeye cartoon, especially with Popeye whose characterisation is a bit of a shock to start with, and youngsters may find it a little disturbing.

William Costello's voice work has been better and more inspired, he is not on complete top form here or as involved.

As ever, 'Sock a-Bye, Baby' is a Popeye cartoon that has so much energy. The baby character is amusing and cute and the chemistry between the two characters drives the cartoon very well. There are many inventive and hilarious moments too beautifully timed.

Furthermore, the animation is beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement. The music is also outstanding, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.

In short, very enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Popeye be murdering

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 2 September 2023]

Popeye and a baby are out in the streets. He's desperately trying to keep from waking the baby with all the street noises. He punches out Harpo. There is a noisy music school. He sinks a ship for blowing its horn. He punches a radio signal. He turns a construction site into rubble. He destroys a traffic jam caused by the stroller.

First, a crying baby is always annoying and rarely funny. The concept is funny, but damn Popeye is doing some damage. I think he killed a bunch of people. It's still funny even with all the murdering. It is notable that he doesn't use his spinach. Basically, Popeye is a killing machine in this one.

Another Winner

[Michael_Elliott · 25 February 2008]

Sock-A-Bye, Baby (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Weaker but still entertaining Popeye vehicle has him babysitting and beating up anyone or anything that dares to wake the kid up. There's plenty of action in this short but there aren't as many laughs as normal. The highlight is a great sequence where Popeye punches a radio, which sends his fist across the country to the actual guy singing and knocks him out. There's another rather funny moment where the baby steals Popeye's pipe and begins smoking it. The baby falls asleep right after his few hits so I'm guessing Popeye was smoking something other than tobacco.

Rampant Death and Destruction

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 4 August 2019]

Popeye has been given the task of looking after a baby. Because his environment is so noisy, he sets about destroying, with his fists, everything that comes in his path. This includes destroying buildings, cars, musical instruments, and other obstacles. He also kills Harpo Marx and probably others working on construction.

Lil Sweepea

[boblipton · 7/10 · 3 September 2023]

Popeye wheels a sleeping Sweepea through the tow, where various noises wake the infant. The sailor man responds by biffing the noise makers.

Popeye's voice actor offers some of her real singing voice in this cartoon. It's still in the Fleischer era, so the gags flow freely under the direction of Dave Fleischer, and although the background work is simplified to remove the slovenliness that amuses fans of Segar's Thimble Theater comic strip, there are plenty of mildly askew details.

For some reason Mae Questal is credited in the IMDb listing as the voice of Olive Oyl, even though she never appears.

"Action speaks Louder than words" goes with Popeye the Sailor

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 20 December 2009]

"Action speaks louder than words." At least, that is what some people say. But once you watch this short, it proves that this quote goes with Popeye the Sailor.

This short is about a simple situation: Popeye is baby-sitting, and no, it is not Swee'Pea but Betty Boop's baby brother Billy; that's what I heard. Anyway, Popeye tries to make sure he takes his nap. But with the sounds of old New York, it isn't easy. Like if Popeye hears the honk of a horn or the whistle of an ocean liner, he would go and smash the noisemaker to bits. That is what I meant by: "Action speaks louder than words."

My favorite scenes are when Popeye tries to sing Billy to put him to sleep. Of course, in the first verse of the song, it wasn't the "croaky" voice we all know. It was the natural singing voice of his voice-actor Billy Costello. I also love the scene when Popeye sends a punch by wire to a radio station and slugs the singer. So anyway, I really love this Popeye short.

Some folks think that 21st Century Hollywood has cornered the market on . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 15 July 2019]

. . . Film Violence, but SOCK-A-BYE, BABY proves that this is NOT the case. SOCK-A-BYE protagonist "Popeye" begins his lethal rampage by murdering "Harpo Marx" for strumming in the park. Popeye continues his homicidal spree in the same key, massacring nine music school pupils. This terrible tar is just getting tuned up by this measure. Next, Popeye sinks an ocean liner, liquidating 2,463 souls (according to contemporary average passenger and crew manifests for two-funnel ships). Added to this watery mayhem are the snuffed-out lives of 89 construction site workers, topped off by 61 automobile, truck, and bus occupants crushed to death by Popeye's flailing fists. All totaled, Popeye does in 2,623 strangers in his futile attempt to tone down the environment for his babysitting charge. This is the sort of carnage that individual members of America's Robber Baron One Per Center Ruling Class exact upon We "Little People" on a typical day of their ruthless preying. However, it's very out-of-character to see this type of death toll recorded by a card-carrying member of the Seaman's Union!

Appropriately titled-- and hilarious

[petersgrgm · 10/10 · 24 May 2009]

"Sock-a-Bye, Baby" could not have been more appropriately titled. Indeed, after "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" at the beginning CAME "Rock-a-Bye Baby". It was all about Popeye's baby-sitting an unknown baby, and his socking whoever or whatever attempted to disturb the baby. Was it Swee'Pea? That was not given, with the Segar-created babe appearing a year or so later in "Little Swee'Pea". Neither was Olive Oyl in this cartoon; she may have been shopping or something like that, and asked Popeye to mind the baby. As funny as the street harpist's waking the baby was the music school segment, when a trombonist played "Pop Goes De Weasel" (and Popeye hit him on the "Pop"), and punching a pianist whose pianers kept getting smaller, finally punching the players in the school band, who were playing "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Ti-Ay", a trumpeter, a tuba player, a horn player, a flautist, a bass drummer, a side drummer, a cymbalist, even a concertina player! Even funnier was Popeye's smashing a radio, with his fist traveling a long way to the station where a singer singing "You Came to Me From Out of Nowhere" was knocked out. THAT part was repeated in "Quiet!Pleeze" in 1941. This also inspired a buddy and me to pretend to be singing over the radio, Station B-E-A-D (or something like that), and pretending to be bowled over when listeners smashed radios. It was also funny when the banjo strumming made the baby squall, but Popeye played "Go to Sleep My Baby". All in all, a wonderfully funny cartoon, and well put together

Good, sick fun!

[nnwahler · 8/10 · 30 June 2023]

You just have to be a certain type to appreciate the humor in cartoons like this. It takes a certain sick sense of humor, something not everyone has. Cartoons like "Boom Boom", one of the first Porky Pig cartoons with his co-star, Beans the cat, in which the two spend the whole film dodging malicious bombs with minds of their own. And the present film, in which Popeye proves even more of a bully than Bluto himself ever was. This was the REALLY early days, when Popeye would beat the living crap out of anyone and anything in his path. The cartoon is stuffed with gags, including the theme song which here is, naturally, the lullaby "Rock-A-Bye Baby", which is punctuated with all kinds of violent sound effects.

Like I said, it takes a certain type to savor this.

Would you let this serial killer babysit your kids?!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 13 June 2014]

This is a highly disturbing installment of Popeye. You see Sweetpea for the first time and Popeye is caring for the kid. He is taking him for a walk and wants the baby to sleep so he pretty much beats up or kills EVERYONE who makes noise in the town! Because of this, it's as if he's being worse in this one strange cartoon than ALL of Bluto's bad deeds combined! For example, a ship sounds its horn--and Popeye sinks it-- presumably killing everyone aboard. He also knocks down a building under construction--again, probably killing all the workers! What an unstoppable nut case!! Eventually, however reprehensible a swath of murder and destruction Popeye creates, the little brat awakens anyway. I was half expecting to see Popeye kill the kid as well! Aside from seeing a completely unreasonable and homicidal side of our hero, we also get to see him beat up Harpo Marx--though why Harpo was outside playing his harp, I have no idea!

This is a somewhat well made film but one that cannot help but disturb. Back in the 1930s, out of about every 20 or 30 cartoons they made, the Fleischer Brothers made one that was just insane--and this is one of them. Other inappropriate but entertaining films they made would include a Betty Boop's "Be Human" and "Bimbo's Initiation". Enjoyable but disturbing!