Tops in the Big Top

This, of course, takes place at the circus. Bluto is the ringmaster. Popeye is a strong man/animal trainer, and Olive is an aerialist (sort of). There is very little ne here. Bluto wants Olive and destroys Popeye in various ways. The ultimate result has something to do with a green leafy vegetable.

Do prefer the Fleischer Popeye cartoons over Famous Studios' personally, something that has been said a few times by me already. To me, Famous Studios' Popeye cartoons still entertained and their earlier Popeye cartoons were well made and had invention, don't get me wrong. Just found Fleischer's more consistent, were funnier, more inventive and looked better, and the mid-late-50s efforts betrayed budget and time constraints somewhat.

'Tops in the Big Top' was made during the best Famous Studios period, which was the early 40s (or at least the non-"wartime" Popeye cartoons, which were at the risk of heavy-handedness and stereotypes). It is though not one of the best from this period and a long way from Popeye at his very best, while still being pretty decent. 'Tops in the Big Top' is well-made and entertains enough, but there are far funnier and more imaginative Popeye cartoons.

When it comes to strong suits, the story was never one of them in the Popeye cartoons. It still isn't in 'Tops in the Big Top', instead feeling very flimsy and formulaic with a sharper pace needed at times.

Although never exactly unfunny and often raising a smile, the gags are never properly hilarious and could have done with more freshness and variety, standard has been used here to describe them and it sums them up well.

Olive doesn't have enough to do and what she has isn't really all that note-worthy, feeling more like a plot device and not an awful lot more.

However, 'Tops in the Big Top' does have a lot that is good about it. The animation is very nicely done, the backgrounds have lost none of the meticulous attention to detail, it's fluid, Popeye still looks good and is recognisable in design and the colours are wonderfully vibrant, which really does make the setting come alive. Love the music just as much, it is the highly characterful and lush music score, that fits seamlessly and enhances the action.

Popeye is amusing and likeable still and Jack Mercer doesn't disappoint with the voice acting. Bluto, robustly voiced by Jackson Beck, is even funnier and the chemistry between the two sparkles and carries the cartoon brilliantly.

Luckily too, much is done with the circus setting, which has enough of the excitement and danger as ought. The animals are fun and a long way from wasted, even if even more could have been done with them. A very memorable sequence is a shockingly brutal one with the lion. Despite nothing being hilarious, 'Tops in the Big Top' is hardly devoid of gags and they are amusing ones at least. Popeye's mumblings and asides are still great. Beck and Mae Questel do well voicing Bluto and Olive.

In summation, above average but not great. 7/10

Bluto is the ringmaster of a circus. Popeye is the star with Olive Oyl as his assistant. Bluto has his eyes on Olive and sabotages Popeye's lion taming act. Then he sabotages Popeye's high wire act. In the end, they battle it out after Popeye has his spinach. This is perfectly fine although Bluto and Popeye are not sailors in this one. It's a very standard Popeye story with the three lead characters.

In "Tops in the Big Top" (1945), Bluto's a ringmaster at a circus, Popeye's a daredevil performer and Olive is Popeye's tutu-wearing partner. During the show, Bluto gets the idea to put the make on Olive and begins sabotaging Popeye's act—right in front of everybody in the sold-out crowd! When Popeye puts his head into a lion's mouth, Bluto quickly plops a steak on Popeye's head. The resultant struggle kills the lion and leaves a gruesome corpse, a rather startling act of brutality in a cartoon like this and one that prompts Olive to ask, "What's the idea of butchering the act?" When Bluto finally gets Olive where he wants her, he wraps her in a line and reels her up and down like a yo-yo from a high wire position, kissing her whenever she reaches him. Popeye is battling a cage of apes at this point and, after getting the spinach, leaves them in the familiar "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkey pose.

It's all beautifully animated and very colorful but, like most post-war, post-Fleischer Popeye cartoons, is never very funny.