The Fly's Last Flight (Popeye the Sailor)

The Fly's Last Flight
"The day Popeye the Sailor went downhill."
Series: Popeye the Sailor Episode Number: 168 Air Date: December 23, 1949 Writer: Larz Bourne Director: Seymour Kneitel Previous episode: Barking Dogs Don't Fite Next episode: How Green Is My Spinach

The Fly's Last Flight is a 1949 Popeye the Sailor cartoon produced by Famous Studios and was the 168th cartoon in the series. It is a color remake of Fleischer Studios' "Flies Ain’t Human".

Why It Sucks

1. As mentioned above, it is just a watered down remake of Fleischer's "Flies Ain’t Human".
2. The fly in this cartoon is extremely unlikable since he keeps disturbing Popeye's nap, beats up Popeye after eating his spinach and never gets punished for his actions. Even the fly from "Flies Ain’t Human" was much more sympathetic than the fly here.
   • It doesn't help when we first see the fly, he does the whole "devil horn and tail" thingy, making it seem like we're suppose to be against him and yet wins in the end.
3. Some violent scenes even for the standards of Popeye, such as Popeye choking on bug spray and getting electrocuted by an electrical socket.
4. A few of the jokes are weak and mediocre.
5. The plot involving Popeye and the fly doesn’t show up until around the second half.
6. The pacing is very slow and poor.
7. Popeye gets constantly abused throughout this cartoon since he just wants to get some sleep.
8. Horrible ending: Popeye seemingly kills the fly at the cost of destroying his own house... Only for it to be revealed that he is alive, and he invites his peers to dance on Popeye's head, causing Popeye to go insane.
9. This cartoon marked the time when the Popeye cartoons started to go downhill, due to them reusing plots from older Fleischer cartoons and having much slower pacing than usual.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Good animation for its time.
2. Popeye is a likable character in this short.
3. Jack Mercer still does great voicing Popeye as usual.
4. Decent music by Winston Sharples.
5. Some moments can be funny at times.

Reception

Both this short and its respective black-and-white original ("Flies Ain't Human") hold an IMDb rating of 6.5/10.

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