Popeye the Sailor (TV Series) Operation Ice-Tickle (1961) User Reviews

Staying Upbeat

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 3 July 2007]

Popeye and Brutus are exchanging insults and Olive gets tired of listening to it. She asks them to stop arguing and do something worthwhile. "Why don't you make your stamp on eternity?"

"Give us a for-instance," asks Bluto.

Olive is leaning on a statue of Admiral Perry, discoverer of the North Pole. "Why don't you guys discover something like he did?" she replies. Popeye promises not only to discover something "but bring it back here!"

Olive says she'll go out with the "first guy who brings me the North Pole." The two boobs (they must be, to compete for her) go racing off. Brutus builds a rocket; Popeye, an air balloon. You know who wins.

I liked Popeye's attitude in here. No matter how bad things got, he just kept sining to himself and feeling optimistic. His scat-music singing was the best part of the cartoon!

It's unlikely the People of Today will understand . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 21 March 2023]

. . . this picture unless they know Admiral Peary's back story. OPERATION ICE-TICKLE concludes under a statue to the controversial arctic explorer, who literally tried to steal the North Pole, as Popeye and Brutus reenact during this film. Peary crash-landed his dirigible North of the Arctic Circle on Christmas Eve, 1906. During the long winter that followed, Peary's local guides built an igloo for him, after which he devoured them because he was out of rations. Hiking down to Quebec later that summer, Peary claimed to have "discovered" the North Pole, and he passed around a testimonial from Santa Claus in an attempt to verify his feat. Since then, experts have estimated that Peary was at least 60 miles short of the pole, and handwriting analysis proves that he himself penned the note allegedly from Saint Nick.

Bland cartoon, but the central idea is funny

[J. Spurlin · 5 May 2008]

Popeye and Brutus are fighting over Olive as the three of them take a walk through the park. Olive tells them she's sick of their childish bickering. Why don't they go out and do something important? As she says it, she happens to be standing next to a statue of Admiral Peary, who discovered the North Pole. "He only discovered it," boasts Popeye. "I'll brings it back here." Brutus denigrates the idea, but Olive says she'll go out with the first person to bring her back the North Pole. Brutus travels in a rocket ship, Popeye in a hot-air balloon. Both reach the red-and-white-striped pole, but only one brings it back.

Once again, Olive Oyl proves herself to be the most desirable woman on the planet -- at least to a fat brute and a pop-eyed sailor. Both are willing to perform an impossible task just to get a single date with her. As for the cartoon itself, it's bland. But at least the central idea is funny.