Hill-billing and Cooing | |
Number 218 | |
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Hill-billing and Cooing is Popeye's 218th cartoon, released by Famous Studios in 1956. It introduces Possum Pearl, the only character originating in the cartoon series to receive a spin-off of her own, the eponymous Noveltoon Possum Pearl. It was the final Popeye short to be submitted and screened (but not nominated) for the Academy Award. In this cartoon, Olive is the protagonist and Popeye is the deuteragonist, with Pearl as the antagonist.
Plot[]
Possum Pearl, a hillbilly woman, is singing the blues about her lack of a partner when she spots Popeye and Olive Oyl driving by the countryside. She shoots one of their tires out and snatches Popeye away. Pearl is a large, imposing lady with a strength and aggressiveness easily matching Bluto's, which leaves Popeye both unwilling to fight off a mere woman and unable to even resist her advances. All the fighting is then left to Olive, who is nevertheless able to get her boyfriend back and drive away, until the pushy backwoods Amazon grabs him again and elopes on a boat. The chase through a river and a forest ends with Popeye trapped in a tree and Olive in a tree stump, with Popeye's spinach can having rolled into the ground nearby. Olive manages to reach the spinach, eating it and gaining the strength to send Pearl flying into space before she can drag Popeye before a judge to be married. Hanging from a star, Pearl becomes infatuated with the moon, then proceeds to chase it. The short ends with Olive singing "I'll knock the dame sky high who tries to take my guy, Popeye the Sailor Man!", imitating Popeye while the latter is tied to the back of Olive's car.
Trivia[]
- Final Popeye cartoon under copyright.
- Final time Olive eats Popeye's spinach in the theatrical cartoons.
- This is also the final cartoon in which another character eats Popeye's spinach.
- The cartoon is similar to Never Kick a Woman except Popeye is scared of a woman he and Olive encounter: Possum Pearl.
- Final cartoon in which Olive is the protagonist.
- Possum Pearl would appear two years later in her own solo Paramount cartoon in 1957, from the Noveltoons series, named after herself. The plot is fairly similar, with the titular character trying to hunt for the man of her love.
- The spin-off short has been described as "Paramount Cartoon Studios' answer to character Pepé Le Pew".
External links[]
- Hill-billing and Cooing at the Internet Movie Database