Brotherly Love (1936) *** (out of 4)Fast-moving Popeye cartoon as Olive Oyl calling the sailor out saying he needs some brotherly love so he heads out to do some good deeds but soon runs into a riot.BROTHERLY LOVE once again flows like a classical music as we're given a terrific little score as well as an extremely catchy title song. As you'd expect the animation itself is extremely good and there's just a fun nature that is running throughout the entire running time. There are some pretty funny moments with that raspy voice Popeye talking to people as he does his thing. The final fight itself is quite memorable.

"The Women's Brotherly Love Society" is a new one on me, but that's what we see here. The group is holding a "mass meeting" at "Patterson Square Garden." You can guess who's the president - yup, "Miss Olive Oyl," as she is introduced. In the middle of the boxing ring inside stands Olive singing into a microphone. Boy, this looks and sounds like the opening of a Betty Boop cartoon, especially since the singer is Mae Questel, who did both voices. The lyrics to the song she is singing is typical upbeat-1930s stuff, designed to lift the spirits of American during the Depression years (which were about over, thankfully). Here's one verse: "Make every Tom, Dick and Otto, obey our golden motto, 'cause what we need is brotherly love!"Popeye is listening to her sing on the radio and takes the words to heart, going out and helping everyone he can, thanks to some superhuman strength, even without the spinach.His attitude is sorely tested when he gets involved in a big gang-fight rumble in the streets. The same applies for Olive who, ah, let's say, doesn't practice what she preaches. So much for "sisterly" love, too!Notes: 1 - There is no Bluto in here. The gangs are the "bad guys." 2 - You want to know just how sick and ignorant these modern-day "entertainment" people are? In the subtitles in one scene, two kids are trying to see a baseball game through a knothole. Popeye comes by and they yell "cheese it," a popular expression of the day. The subtitles read "Jesus!" As you know, that would never happen in a Popeye cartoon nor would it be allowed but - wink - the guys at Warner Brothers probably thought this would be cool to put in the subtitles. This is not the first example of this in subtitles, even in cartoons. This is modern-day Warner Brothers, for you, politically-correct in every way but still religiously bigoted and just plain ignorant.

This is my favorite Popeye cartoon. Made on the 1930's, it captures the humor and style of its time. In my opinion, the cartoon is sarcastic at the highest degree. In those days, Europe was at the dawn of the Second World War, and "brotherly love" was spoken of but never really practiced. The music is very good too. Watching today's cartoons, I get a bit disappointed at the lack of simplicity of the material watched by our children. Perhaps Popeye is not as influential upon children today as it was in my childhood, and this is a pity, because he is a unique character - I ate spinach mainly because of him. Many people say that Popeye is politically incorrect, because he smokes and uses violence to solve problems, and also because spinach is not so good to health as we used to think. But ... does this really matter? The cartoon is funny, interesting and sticks to our memory. So "all we need is brotherly love".

Somehow, I doubt that Gandhi would recognize the conclusion of this short as a good example of brotherly love! A very funny cartoon, well executed and true to the character's nature. Olive is in her typically "fine" voice, as is Popeye, in the singing of the title song. Very good cartoon, if a tad obvious in spots. Well worth watching. Recommended.