Popeye and the Circus Mess

Is it worth your time?

If you have seven minutes and a soft spot for rubber-hose animation, sure. It’s exactly the kind of Popeye short that makes zero sense if you think about it for more than two seconds, but who goes into these looking for logic?

If you hate old-school cartoons or people shouting in high-pitched voices, you’ll probably want to skip this one entirely.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934) through its definitive frames.

So, Popeye shows up to see Olive, but she’s already skipped town with some guy who spends his life hanging by his toes. Classic move. He ends up at the circus, where Wimpy is the ringmaster, which is honestly the funniest part of the whole thing. Imagine Wimpy in charge of anything more organized than a hamburger stand.

The middle of this short is just absolute bedlam. Once the aerial act starts, the physics just kind of… check out. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Puss in Boots, where everything is constantly stretching or bouncing off the walls. You can tell the animators were just having a blast making things move in ways that would definitely break a human neck.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934) through its definitive frames.

There's a moment where Popeye is doing these impossible mid-air maneuvers that feels like the movie is just showing off. It’s impressive, sure, but it also feels like a fever dream. The way his body contorts—it’s like watching a balloon animal trying to win a wrestling match. 🎈

I found myself staring at the background characters more than the actual plot. They’re just these weird, repeating blobs of people. It’s charming in a way that modern CGI just can’t replicate. You can practically see the ink smudges.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934) through its definitive frames.

Is it a masterpiece? No. It’s just Popeye being Popeye. He gets mad, he eats his spinach—or maybe he doesn't, I lost track—and he fights for his girl. It’s simple. It’s loud. It’s a bit messy.

• Wimpy in a top hat is a look I didn't know I needed.
• The sound design is just a constant barrage of boings and swishes.
• Olive Oyl really has the worst taste in men, doesn't she?
• That trapeze guy is definitely going to fall, eventually.

It’s not as emotionally heavy as, say, The Marriage Circle, but then again, nobody is throwing punches from a high wire in that one. Sometimes you just want to see a sailor knock someone into the rafters. ⚓