| Nurse to Meet Ya | |
| Number 210 | |
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Nurse to Meet Ya is Popeye's 210th cartoon, released by Famous Studios on February 11, 1955. It features Popeye as the protagonist, Bluto as the antagonist, Olive Oyl as the love interest and Swee'Pea as comic foil. Although it incorporates a similar theme to the 1940 Fleischer cartoon Nurse Mates, it differs in that Olive is present throughout, and her two suitors are attempting to impress her as much as they are trying to amuse the child in her charge. Notably, in this cartoon Swee'Pea is not related to either Popeye or Olive - who only takes care of him for work.
Plot[]
The scene opens with Popeye and Bluto riding through a park on a bicycle-built-for-two. Popeye sweats as he pumps the pedals laboriously, while Bluto, the slacker, leans back on the handlebars and puffs languidly on a cigar. They pass a park bench where Olive Oyl, wearing a nanny uniform, tends to a baby carriage containing Swee'Pea. The men stop in their tracks, then (acting, as in The Anvil Chorus Girl, as though they are seeing her for the first time) make a beeline to her side. In the process, Bluto leaves Popeye in the lurch hanging from a tree limb and chortles as he calls out, "So long, chump!"
There ensues a series of manipulations on the part of each sailor in an attempt to be rid of the other. Finally, a verbal altercation breaks out that awakens the infant and he begins to howl. A perplexed Olive moans, "Oh dear... Once that child starts crying, there's no stopping him!"
Bluto and Popeye take this as their cue to reach into their bag of tricks and curry favor with Olive by quieting the bawling babe. Popeye transforms himself into a playful puppy dog, but is foiled when Bluto sics an ill-tempered bulldog after him. Bluto performs tricks with a lariat until Popeye causes the rope to tighten around a trash receptacle, which crushes the big man into an accordion. Popeye becomes an airplane, with his pipe serving as the propeller, but Bluto sends him into a tailspin by use of a slingshot. Bluto becomes an Indian snake-charmer with a garden hose, but Popeye turns on the water full-blast and propels his adversary head-first into the mouth of a mounted cannon.
While Bluto struggles to extricate himself, Popeye gathers up the cannonballs that are part of the statuary and begins to juggle them. But Bluto perches unseen on an overhanging tree limb and catches them one by one. He then drops them back down onto the head of his rival, piledriving him neck-deep into the Earth. Bluto then grabs a driver and uses Popeye's head as a golf ball, striking it with force again and again. Unfortunately for Bluto, the final blow drives Popeye's mouth all the way to his distant spinach can, and the much-abused sailor partakes with a gleeful grin on his face.
Bluto's erstwhile golf tee instantly morphs into a solid steel cube. Striking it once again with all his strength, we are shown an x-ray view of every bone in the bruiser's body shattering to smithereens. Adding insult to injury, Popeye lets loose with a mighty blast that sends his opponent head-first once again into a children's swing set. The power of Popeye's punch causes the metal to wrap itself around Bluto's wrists and hold the beaten man suspended.
In the final scene, Bluto has been transformed into a children's trapeze toy and his limp body swings back and forth as Popeye controls his movements. At long last, Swee'Pea laughs uproariously, and Olive joins in on the merriment of the outlandish spectacle.
Gallery[]
See also[]
External links[]
- Nurse to Meet Ya at the Internet Movie Database