Spooky Swabs
| Spooky Swabs | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Isadore Sparber |
| Produced by | Seymour Kneitel Isadore Sparber |
| Written by | Larz Bourne |
| Starring | Jack Mercer Mae Questel |
| Music by | Winston Sharples |
| Animation by | John Zago Frank Endres Tom Johnson |
| Studio | Paramount Cartoon Studios |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 9, 1957 |
| Running time | 6:00 |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Spree Lunch |
| Followed by | Barbecue for Two |
| IMDb profile | |
Plot
Popeye and Olive Oyl are playing checkers while adrift on a raft at sea when Popeye spots a ship nearby. Olive is overjoyed at the news, as it means she can go back home and watch TV. Popeye uses his pipe like a propeller to pilot the raft toward the ship, unaware that what he and Olive have come across is really a ghost ship called the Sea Witch, built in 1678. Popeye and Olive's exploration of the ship rouses the ghosts of the ship's crew from their slumber, and after overhearing Popeye tell Olive he will get them back to civilization with the ship, the ghosts (which speak with various kinds of British accents, including Cockney and Received Pronunciation) determine to get rid of the couple.
The ghosts begin pulling a variety of pranks on Popeye and Olive to make them believe the ship is haunted, like throwing its anchor overboard while Olive is resting on the anchor's rope and causing her to fly into Popeye and knock his head through the center hole of the ship's steering wheel, greasing the anchor rope and tying it around Popeye's ankle while he tries to pull the anchor back up (causing him to get pulled into the water when he loses his grip on the greased rope) and tying a blindfold over Olive's eyes as she tries to pull Popeye back up and then making her walk the plank at swordpoint (which Popeye rescues her from after he frees himself from the rope and resurfaces). Olive soon finds out about the ghosts and freaks out when two of them turn visible while they walk her along the ship's deck and she nearly jumps overboard, but Popeye stops her and pulls her back aboard.
Popeye tries to convince Olive that there are no such things as ghosts, but another ghostly prank causes a topsail on the main mast to fall on the sailor's head. Thinking that Popeye is a ghost, Olive grabs a quartermaster's baton and whacks the "ghost" several times, but stops when Popeye's yells make her realize her mistake. Popeye and Olive then see the now-visible ghosts running at them waving swords, so they run for cover, with Popeye discovering a jar marked "Ye King's Spinach" while inside the ship's galley. Popeye chomps down the spinach and turns himself invisible, then blasts each of the ghosts with punches hard enough to turn them solid and send them sailing into the galley wall, with Olive grabbing each of the now-inanimate ghosts and sewing them all together to create a new sail for the ship, which is hoisted in place as Popeye takes the wheel and he and Olive set sail for home.
Production notes
- Spooky Swabs is one of a number of Famous Studios/Paramount-produced Popeye the Sailor cartoons in the public domain in the United States.
- This is also the final theatrical Popeye the Sailor cartoon to be produced. Beginning in 1960, a new series of made-for-TV Popeye the Sailor cartoons was released by King Features Syndicate for first-run syndication, with animation farmed out to several different companies: Paramount Cartoon Studios, Jack Kinney Productions, Larry Harmon Pictures, Rembrandt Films/Halas & Batchelor and Gerald Ray Studios.
- Some of the ghosts featured in this cartoon originally appeared in Casper the Friendly Ghost, another theatrical cartoon series originally produced by Famous Studios/Paramount Cartoon Studios.
- This is a semi-remake of the 1934 Fleischer Studios Popeye the Sailor short Shiver Me Timbers!.
External links
- Spooky Swabs public domain cartoon at YouTube
