Popeye’s Gym and the Art of Drag Sabotage

If you have about seven minutes to kill and a soft spot for classic rubber-hose animation, Vim, Vigor and Vitaliky is a perfectly fine way to spend your time. It’s basically exactly what you expect: Popeye being Popeye, Bluto being a jerk, and a whole lot of weird physics.

Honestly, you’ll probably enjoy this if you grew up watching these on Saturday mornings. If you don’t have any nostalgia for the Fleischer style, the jittery frame rate might just drive you a little bit crazy.

The setup is classic—Popeye opens a gym and it's an instant hit. Bluto, who runs the cabaret next door, gets big mad that he isn’t the center of attention. Watching Bluto attempt to pass as a lady in a dress is easily the highlight. It’s genuinely bizarre and holds up as one of the weirdest visual gags in the series.

The animation here feels a bit more frantic than in something like The Jungle Child. There’s a scene where they start competing in strength tests that goes on just a second too long, and you can practically hear the animators sweating to keep the momentum going. It stops being a contest and starts feeling like a weird, repetitive fever dream.

One detail I couldn't stop staring at: the way the background characters move in the gym. They all seem to have the exact same jumping animation on a loop. It’s lazy, but it’s charming, you know?

There is a moment where Bluto’s drag outfit starts to fall apart during a heavy lifting challenge. It’s not subtle. It’s not meant to be. It’s just loud and chaotic, like a cartoon should be. Maybe it’s not high art, but it’s got way more personality than the weird, stiff stuff you see in The Scotland Yard Mystery.

The sound design is also peak Popeye. Every punch sounds like a wet leather glove hitting a brick wall. It’s oddly satisfying.

• The wig Bluto wears is surprisingly well-rendered for the era.
• Popeye’s spinach consumption is, as always, the ultimate plot device.
• The cabaret next door looks like a fire hazard, but I’d still visit.

It’s not trying to change the world. It’s just trying to make you laugh at a guy in a dress getting punched into the next county. Mission accomplished, I guess? ⚓️