- Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves
Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves
series = Popeye Color Features
caption = A scene from "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves"
director =Dave Fleischer
animator =Willard Bowsky
George Germanetti
Orestes Calpini
voice_actor =Jack Mercer
Mae Questel
Gus Wickie
musician =Sammy Timberg
Sammy Lerner
Tot Seymour
Vee Lawnhurst
producer =Max Fleischer
studio =Fleischer Studios
distributor =Paramount Pictures
release_date =November 26 ,1937
color_process =Technicolor
runtime = 16 min (two reels)
preceded_by = "Proteck the Weakerist"
followed_by = "Fowl Play"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0029415"Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" is a two-reel
animated cartoon short subject in the "Popeye Color Feature" series, produced inTechnicolor and released to theatres onNovember 26 1937 byParamount Pictures . It was produced byMax Fleischer forFleischer Studios , Inc. and directed byDave Fleischer .Willard Bowsky was head animator, with musical supervision bySammy Timberg . The voice ofPopeye is performed byJack Mercer , withMae Questel asOlive Oyl andGus Wickie as Abu Hassan.Plot
Ali Baba does not appear in this film, but the band of Forty Thieves do, led by Abu Hassan (modeled afterBluto ). Popeye,Olive Oyl , andJ. Wellington Wimpy hear of Hassan's attack on a town inArabia and fly there to capture him but their plane crashes as they enter a desert in Arabia. After getting lost in the desert, the group happens upon the town where the Forty Thieves attack. The Thieves abduct Olive and Wimpy, and Abu Hassan leaves Popeye hanging from achandelier after failing to win a battle of wits with him (during which, demonstrating amagic trick , Popeye relieves Hassan of hislong underwear , remarking "Abu Hasn't got 'em any more!"). Popeye manages to break free and takes acamel to Ali Baba's secret cave, where, failing to remember the magic word of "open sesame!", he breaks in using his pipe as atorch .Inside the cave (giving the Fleischers a chance to show their Tabletop 3D background process), Popeye sneaks past the guards and attempts to free Olive and Wimpy. He confronts Abu Hassan and demands that he give the Forty Thieves' stolen jewels back to the people. He is apprehended and thrown into a
shark pit. Just before being eaten by a shark, Popeye tangles the shark's teeth together, and the shark goes back down into the water. Popeye then produces hisspinach , opening it by commanding the can "open sez me!" Now superpowered, Popeye defeats Abu Hassan, and all forty of the Thieves (counting them as he does so). The Thieves and Hassan are chained and made to drag a cart filled with the stolen jewels, Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy, back to town, where the townspeople await them with open arms. Popeye turns to Olive and sings, as the film irises out, "I may be a shorty/but I licked The Forty/I'm Popeye the Sailor man!/*toot toot*".Release and reception
"Forty Thieves" was produced while Fleischer competitor
Walt Disney was entering the final months of production on his first animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". It made full use ofFleischer Studios 'smultiplane camera , which they had been experimenting with for some time. Disney had just released the "Old Mill ", their first 3-D cartoon, and were advertising their upcoming "Snow White " as multiplanal as well. As such, advertising for "Forty Thieves" accented the fact that it was 3-dimensional. It was released just weeks before the seasonal Los Angeles premiere of "Snow White" and was essentially the only animated competition for the feature.The short was the second of the three "Popeye" Color Specials, which were over sixteen minutes each, three times as long as a regular "Popeye" cartoon, and were often billed in theatres alongside or above the main feature. Today, this short and the other two "Popeye Color Specials", "
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor ", and "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp ", are in thepublic domain , and are widely available onhome video and can be downloaded from theInternet Archive [http://www.archive.org/details/PopeyeAliBaba] . The cartoon, fully restored with the original Paramount mountain logo opening and closing titles, is available officially on disc four of the DVD collection "".External links
*
* [http://www.archive.org/details/PopeyeAliBaba Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves] at the Internet Archive.
* [http://www.vintagetooncast.com/search/label/popeye Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves] in Flash and iPod formats.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.