Beware of Barnacle Bill: Spinach, Sailors, and Heartbreak

Is this worth your time?

If you have seven minutes and a soft spot for Fleischer-style rubber-hose animation, absolutely. It’s perfect for people who like their humor slapstick and their plots incredibly thin. If you prefer your cartoons with actual character arcs or, I don't know, a plot that isn't just "man gets hit, man eats plant, man wins," you’re going to hate this.

Honestly, the whole thing kicks off because Olive just decides she’s over Popeye. It’s cold! She starts singing this song about Barnacle Bill, and you can tell the animators were just having a blast making Bluto look extra menacing. He’s huge here. Like, comically big.

The fight choreography is wild. It’s less of a brawl and more of a series of physics-defying impacts. Watching Popeye get flattened like an accordion always hits differently, doesn't it? It’s not exactly Othello, but there's a weirdly honest rhythm to the violence.

One detail I couldn't stop looking at: the way the background characters just kind of melt into the scenery. It reminds me of the chaotic energy in The Lost Jungle. They didn't have time for realism back then. They had time for gags.

The spinach moment? You know it’s coming. You wait for it. And when it happens, it’s still satisfying in that weird, primal way. It’s not subtle. It’s not trying to be. It’s just Popeye getting his strength back after being turned into a human pretzel.

Sometimes I think about how these shorts were made. Just rooms full of people drawing thousands of frames by hand, all to make a guy punch a giant sailor. It feels a bit like the frantic energy in The Dog Catcher, just with more singing.

I’ll be honest, the singing part went on a bit too long for me. Maybe a few seconds too many? The song is catchy, but by the third chorus, I was ready for the punches to start flying. ⚓️

It’s not high art. It’s just a funny, loud cartoon. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need on a Tuesday afternoon when your brain feels like mush.

Quick thoughts:

• That moment Olive sings? Her eyes do that weird, hypnotic thing. Creepy.
• The sound effects for the punches sound like a wooden board hitting a bag of wet laundry.
• I wish the ending lasted longer. It wraps up so fast it gives you whiplash.