Turkey Surprise

The background art is just tremendous in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor. Even watching what must have been a semi-washed-out print on a black-and-white TV in the early ‘60s, I really appreciated it. Adding to it were the 3D-like scenes with backgrounds and foregrounds at moving at different speeds than the animation.

Watching a restored version in full Technicolor is a real treat. The background artists outdid themselves with the various colours. Here’s a great example, with a rock-skull and gnarled tree with a face.



This is part of a gag that I remember liking 60-some-odd years ago. Sindbad punches Popeye upward. Sindbad’s huge rokh grabs him, circles once (the animators had to draw the bird’s underside as the shot looks up) and flies into a distant volcano to finish him off.



Notice how the background the same setting is different than the one in the first frame. The Fleischers spared no expense.

Popeye's a goner. Or is he? A tornado whisks its way from the volcano to the foreground and provides the answer.



Here’s the background painting under the first set of titles. What a shame none of the background artists got credit.



Willard Bowsky led the animation crew on this, with Ed Nolan and George Germanetti getting screen credit.