Me Musical Nephews (1942)

A different way of telling a story

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Me Musical Nephews (1942) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Popeye is watching his four nephews and they are practicing on their musical instruments but the uncle says that's enough and sends them to bed. However, once in bed that doesn't stop them from the music.For the most part this is a mildly entertaining episode for the series that offers up some nice animation as well as a great directing job. The music numbers are extremely fast-paced and the way the action on screen mixes with the music was well-handled. There really aren't too many laughs to be found here but the highlight is the sequence where Popeye keeps opening the door trying to catch the kids making noise but they are one step ahead of him.

One of the Fleischer's best (DESPITE the nephews - in fact this one could be the ONLY good Popeye cartoon that features them, aside from the 1950 color remake of this cartoon, "Riot In Rhythm" which contains fewer of the great gags... These days when you see this one, it's been colorized, which looks okay for cartoons - everything has a black line around it). Cartoon Network's "Boomerang" channel seems to agree, since they did indeed make a killer promo with THIS cartoon, and not the 1950 version.When the story opens, Popeye is having trouble keeping his eyes open as he and his four nephews (later cartoons feature only three nephews - cheaper to draw, I'm guessing) are in the living room, and the normally annoying nephews are practicing their music. At the time this one was made (1942), Big Band Swing music was all the rage, therefore the nephews are playing brass and woodwind instruments, along with a rhythm section of drums and piano.Popeye just wants to get some sleep, but the kids are still wound up from playing music and have no intention of sleeping. Having played Swing and Jazz tenor sax professionally many years ago myself, it's easy to understand why it could take a while to wind down from a jam session... even a sleepy one as at the top of this cartoon.Anyway, after Popeye confiscates the instruments and ad libs a cheesy excuse for a bedtime story, which turns out to be an off-kilter amalgam of several fairy tales, he hauls the boys off to bed for some overdue shut-eye. However, the boys soon discover things in their bedroom upon which they can continue to play more Swing. Meanwhile, Popeye is trying to sleep, but to no avail due to the music played by the boys. And by the way, kids, NEVER smoke your pipe in bed as Popeye does in the 1950 version! It's a fire hazard! After several times getting out of bed to see where the music's coming from (smashing a perfectly good radio in the process), Popeye figures out that the music is coming from the room belonging to the nephews. But every time he opens their door and looks inside, the boys are one step ahead of him and feign their rhythmic snoring. At first, Popeye is fooled, but not for long. And as explained in several other user reviews, he temporarily escapes the musical din by stepping outside the "iris-out" and pulling it closed behind him. This solution doesn't last long, however, and the Sailor Man bounces his way up the aisle and out of the theater. All in all, in my opinion this is Dave Fleischer's best cartoon with the crummy nephews in it. At least they're not Swee' Pea.

Popeye is getting annoyed in this early cartoon because his nephews are making noise playing the trumpet, trombone, drums and piano while our hero is trying to take a nap on his big easy chair. Popeye sends them to bed but they demand a story first. The kids - Peepeye, Poopeye, Pipeye and Pupeye - rush to the bathroom, which is funny to see since all have separate facilitates.Once in bed, the kids can't sleep and they sure have music in their blood. They improvise, playing bed springs, trash cans, the radiator, and whatever they see in the room to make more music....and they sound good, too. The last part is hilarious as a woken-up Popeye tries to catch the kids in the act, but they are too quick for him. Overall, a very clever animated short.

A pretty funny cartoon considering the fact that I was never a fan of Popeye's nephews. They were actually created by the studio to compete with Disney's Huey Dewey and Louie, and for me that just makes me disrespect them even more. This cartoon however was really funny, and it's fun to watch them make music with objects they found in there room.