| Onion Pacific | |
| Number 80 | |
 | |
| Guide | |
| previous Me Feelins Is Hurt |
next Wimmin Is a Myskery |
Onion Pacific is Popeye's 80th theatrical short, released on May 24, 1940 by Fleischer Studios.
Plot[]
There is a train race for the State franchise. J. Wellington Wimpy announces the competitors, Bluto's Sudden Pacific and Popeye's Onion Pacific. He adds that a beautiful lady (Olive Oyl) has offered to kiss the winner. Olive proceeds to shoot the revolver at the starting line, but finds that it is jammed, which results in her being propelled into Bluto's engine. Popeye loses some time getting rid of a big lump of coal Bluto had jammed into his train, but quickly catches up. As the racers remain even, Bluto notices Olive on board, but says the kiss will have to wait and gets her shoveling coal. She is able to successfully desert to Popeye's engine, not without a tug of war happening with her arms. After losing some ground in a tunnel, Bluto sabotages his competitor's engine by puncturing and deflating it. However, Popeye inflates it again using steam from a kettle.
Later, the rivals must work together to survive across a narrow bridge, until Bluto thanks Popeye with a wrench to the head. When he recovers and catches up again, Bluto takes a connecting rod off Popeye's engine's wheel and piston, only for Popeye to substitute himself for the rods. Bluto then makes the Onion Pacific take a wrong turn where it crashes into pieces. Popeye declares that he has been derailed from the tracks, so he eats his spinach, which allows him to reassemble his broken, small engine into a much larger, modern one. He and Olive get on board and swiftly catch up with the Sudden Pacific, wrecking it in the process. The race - and the franchise - is won, and a kiss is earned.
Trivia[]
- The engine on Bluto's train is a 6-4-0 engine while Popeye's is a 4-2-0 engine. The locomotive reassembled by Popeye from his smaller engine closely resembles an EMC E2 series diesel locomotive.
- The names "Sudden Pacific" and "Onion Pacific" are parodies of the real-life Southern Pacific and Union Pacific.
- J. Wellington Wimpy's last appearance in a Fleischer Studios cartoon, as well as in a black-and-white one. He would return ten years later in the Famous Studios cartoon Popeye Makes a Movie.
External links[]
- Onion Pacific at the Internet Movie Database