How Green Is My Spinach | |
Number 169 | |
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How Green Is My Spinach is Popeye's 169th cartoon, released in 1950 by Famous Studios. The cartoon in fact contains three title cards: How Green Is My Spinach, Popeye in Spinach Sockeroo and Popeye in Strictly from Spinach.
Plot[]
How Green is My Spinach: Begins with Bluto jumping on Popeye's chest, who simply eats his spinach and proceeds to punch Bluto into a garbage can.
Popeye in Spinach Sockeroo: The second "story" has Bluto repeatedly punching Popeye against a wall until the contents of his spinach can fall into his mouth, enabling him to strike back and leaving his enemy's head encased in a cuckoo clock.
Popeye in Strictly From Spinach: Bluto shoots a tied-up yet unconcerned Popeye from a ship's cannon. Sucking his spinach with his pipe, he turns around, transforms into a missile and hits Bluto, sending him flying to be left hanging from the edge of the moon.
At the end of this last vignette, Bluto begins to cry and lament Popeye's empowering usage of spinach, until he realizes that if the vegetable were to disappear, he could finally destroy his enemy. Next, he mixes various evil substances into a huge vat, along with:
- Arsenic
- Castor Oil
- DDT (Drop Dead Twice)
- A drop from Essence of Skunk
The resulting chemical successfully kills a small spinach plant during a test. After that, the villain boards a small fighter plane, named "The Spinach Killer", and makes a devastating run over the spinach fields. As Popeye is helping repair a spinach-carrying wagon, Bluto flies by leaving his toxic mist to suck the truck's contents away. Through a nearby store window, Popeye and some children see a news report tell of the mysterious vanishing of spinach everywhere, and the children cheer.
Not even his trusty can is safe, as Bluto is nearby and sprays it with his noxious toxin. Unable to defeat his nemesis, Popeye runs into a supermarket that carries spinach, but it is likewise eliminated. The sailor has no choice but to try out other vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cabbage, celery and potatoes - none giving him the strength to even hurt Bluto. The latter begins to sweep the floor with Popeye, rain down punches upon him and otherwise pummel him.
A narrator relays all of this to the concerned live-action audience of the theatrical cartoon, finally asking "Is there a can of spinach in the house?" A saddened boy checks the grocery bag he had brought to the movies and finds a can of the greens, then throws it into the screen to reach Popeye. Again empowered, the hero multiplies five-fold and punches his enemy, then uses him as a beast of burden to help seed the spinach fields again. The wonder veggie begins to grow immediately, cans and all.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- How Green Is My Spinach at the Internet Movie Database