"I Wanna Be a Life Guard" is an American Fleischer studios cartoon from 1936, so over 80 years old now already, that runs for 6.5 minutes and features the world's most famous cartoon sailor Popeye. Here water plays a bigger role than usual, even if it not about see water, but about Popeye applying for a lifeguard job at a swimming pool. Unluckily for him, so does Bluto and what ensues is a competition between the two with the objective (forWimpy) to find out who is more suitable for the job. A nice moving hole very early on was one of the better animated moments here and so was Popeye's transformation into an octopus. What a difference spinach makes. What else is memorable here? Once again I found Bluto the most memorable in terms of voice acting, so it sure is a bit of a pity that Gus Wickie is so underappreciated and forgotten in general. Also it makes obvious how little sex appeal Olive was intended to show in this film when we even see her in a bathing suit, but also in general. The moment Popeye tells the audience how swell she is it was difficult not to argue against him. She is like the anti Betty Boop. And finally, what i liked about this film the most was probably the music. definitely more than usual for a Popeye cartoon and the title song is as catchy as the very brief rendition of a true ocean classic. You will know what I mean when you hear it. All in all, i would not call myself a big Popeye fan or anything, but this one was to my liking and it is certainly among the better Popeye films I have come across, even if it was not outstanding or anything. My suggestion is still to check it out if you like old cartoons.
Review of I Wanna Be a Life Guard
