Popeye (Jack Mercer, who also co-wrote the story) and Brutus (Jackson Beck) are competing farmers at the "County Fair". At least we now know who taught future villains how to screw up with dirty tricks........
The story goes that King Features thought Paramount owned the rights to the name, Bluto, hence the name change of the antagonist to Brutus. However, when Popeye and company returned to television through a license granted to Hanna-Barbera in 1978, Bluto was restored. Of course, the release of "Animal House" that year might have something to do with it. John Belushi's character was nicknamed "Bluto".
Rating: B.
2 comments:
Did they think that Paramount had created? Bluto? In fact, he appeared in one extended storyline of E.C. Segar's Thimble Theater strip in 1932, and though that was his only appearance in Segar's lifetime he clearly made an impression on the Fleischer brothers, who were readying their Popeye cartoon series for launch at that time. Since he was a character from the strip, King Features (who presumably should have known) should have retained the rights to him as well as all the Thimble Theater characters who appeared in the 1960s shorts.
This is according to the research I did on the 60's shorts, which signaled the end of Paramount's involvement, as King Features outsourced the shorts to four other studios, including Gene Deitch's Rembrandt Studios, and Larry Harmon's group, during a dizzying 2 year run (1960-2).
Apparently, someone at KFS wasn't doing their homework......
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