Movies - Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves

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	Movies - Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves

Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves is a two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Popeye Color Specials
series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 26 1937 by Paramount Pictures. It was produced by Max & Dave Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Willard Bowsky, with musical supervision by Sammy Timberg. The voice of Popeye is performed by Jack Mercer, with Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Gus Wickie as Abu Hassan.

Plot

Ali Baba does not appear in this film, but his band of Forty Thieves do, led by Abu Hassan (modeled after Bluto). They wreck and plunder an Arabic town until Popeye, Olive Oyl, and J. Wellington Wimpy hear of Hassan's exploits and fly there to capture him. After getting lost in the desert, the group happen upon the town and soon run-in with the Forty Thieves. The Thieves abduct Olive and Wimpy, and Abu Hassan leaves Popeye hanging from a chandelier after failing to win a battle of wits with him (during which, demonstrating a magic trick, Popeye relieves Hassan of his long underwear, remarking "Abu Hasn't got 'em any more!"). Popeye manages to break free, and takes a camel to Ali Baba's secret cave, where, failing to remember the magic word of "open sesame!", he breaks in using his pipe as a torch.

Inside of the cave (giving the Fleischer a chance to show off their Tabletop 3D background process), Popeye sneaks past the guards and attempts to free Olive and Wimpy and give the Forty Thieves' stolen jewels back to the people. He is apprehended and thrown into an shark pit. Just before being eaten by a shark, Popeye produces his spinach, opening it by commanding the can "open sez me!" Now superpowered, Popeye defeates the shark, 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*".

Lyrics

You better lock up your doors today,
'Cause Abu Hassan is on his way.
Go in hidin',
When I go ridin'
Me and my Forty Theives.
Your wives and children,
And money too
I'll steal 'em from you,
before I'm through.
I'm out gunnin',
So start in runnin',
From me and my Forty Theives.
Abu Hassan.
Abu Hassan!
My gang's the roughest,
but I'm the toughest,
And that's no lie.
Abu Hassan.
Abu Hassan!
You've it got to hand it,
to this bad bandit,
Cause I'm a terrible guy!
(There are also two additional choruses sung by the radio.)
Abu Hassan!
Abu Hassan!
When things get quiet,
I start a riot,
As I go by.
Abu Hassan.
Abu Hassan!
And you'll discover,
They run for cover,
'Cause I'm a terrible guy!

Release and reaction

This short was the second of the three Popeye Color Specials, which were, at 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 the public domain, and are widely available on home video and can be downloaded from the Internet Archive.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves ]

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