Tuesday 15 October 2013

How To Spell, By Olive Oyl

The Fleischer studio animators seem to have loved whipping around Olive Oyl’s spaghetti arms and legs. They did it really creatively in “You’ve Gotta Be a Football Hero” (1935). The fickle Miss Oyl decides to become a cheerleader for Bluto’s team. She contorts her body to spell “Bluto.” The animator actually put each letter on the screen, and the drawing of the letter and Olive-as-the-letter alternate for a few frames before the next letter is formed.



Willard Bowsky and George Germanetti get the on-screen animation credits. The theme song was written by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis.

1 comment:

  1. The Flieschers pretty much had everything together for the Popeye series by the time this cartoon was made -- a lighter touch, quicker gags and better drawing, especially from the Bowsky unit. The only piece of the puzzle still missing was Jack Mercer's voice, which would follow in the next cartoon released (William Costello's mumbling ad libs still tended to focus on describing the action or talking about how great his character was -- it may have fit the series as it was in 1933 and early '34, but it was holding the cartoons back by mid-'35)

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