I Yam Love Sick (1938) User Reviews

Health Care Has Come A Long Way!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 25 June 2008]

The first segment of this 9-minute Popeye cartoon was funny while the second part was "cute, more than funny." Overall, it is still very entertaining. Afterward, you can't help but think, "Boy, hospitals have come a long way since this cartoon." Well, hopefully no hospital was this primitive, no matter what year, but it does have some old-fashioned means of treating people that have long gone out-of-style.

The story begins at Olive's home, where we see her reading a book about love while indulging in some chocolates. Olive has a new boyfriend: Bluto. Yes, she's dumped Popeye again, and didn't even tell our Sailor Man. Why poor Popeye puts up with this fickle woman has always been a mystery to fans of this great cartoon series....but it's something we've come to expect. Hey, Popeye always gets her back, anyway.

Funny bits included Olive gulping down about 20 pieces of chocolate at once, and Bluto coming out of the picture frame and laughing at Popeye.

Popeye's idea of winning Olive back is to fake an illness and hope that she, seeing him in dire straights, cares enough to show she still loves Popeye. The rest of the cartoon takes place in the hospital, where Popeye plays all kinds of tricks to fool the doctor into thinking he's sick. It almost reminded me of a wild Three Stooges film where doctors and patients are running all over the hospital ("Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!!!")

About halfway through this eight-minute animated short . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 3 September 2019]

. . . a hospitalized "Popeye" does some shenanigans with a medical thermometer, causing this body temperature-measuring medical device to explode. My junior year at high school, a major Super Fund Clean-Up Site environmental catastrophe occurred in one of the science labs when Mr. Pond--our aging chemistry teacher--stepped out of the room. If my memory is correct, the course in question was Chemistry One, and my mostly-male cohort was similar to an entire class of mischievous Popeyes, all in the would-be saboteur mode Popeye adopts in I YAM LOVE SICK. (I suppose it's possible most of these potential hooligans were then pining over Vicki Coyote, our institution's head cheerleader.) At any rate, while Mr. Pond was wandering away from his post one thing led to another, and a beaker full of mercury being used to turn pennies into "dimes" broke on the wooden floor, splattering the silvery liquid into dozens of deep cracks. (Because this problem lab was located directly above a teachers' lounge, some of the female instructors soon began showing up for work with unplanned "highlights" in their hair!) As this dire situation was pretty much immune to remediation, my alma mater was bull-dozed shortly after I matriculated. (A Kroger store now stands over the area which once featured Mr. Pond's ill-fated hang-out.) Attentive viewers of I YAM LOVE SICK will note that the medical facility to which Popeye is admitted resembles a cross between a mad house and an Escher drawing, indicating that Popeye's mercury mishap is not the first accident of this nature to happen there.

Beautiful Absurdity as Popeye is Hospitalized

[Sproketer · 8/10 · 4 September 2021]

The animation in this short is brilliant as Popeye enters a hospital that looks as though gravity and physical logic have departed long ago. I especially loved how the emergency gurney carriers follow an absurd path throughout the hospital, going up on the walls in a crazy curve toward their destination while Olive Oyl follows with her arms akimbo. It's delightful! These are the Popeye shorts I love. There was an organic humor that feels entirely like they weren't just churning out what they thought audiences would love, but what they laughed at while they drew it.

Popeye Would Do Anything For Love

[Michael_Elliott · 9 December 2016]

I Yam Love Sick (1938)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Olive is all wrapped up in her romance novel that she fails to even notice poor Popeye trying to flirt. With nothing left to do Popeye decides to pretend that he's dying.

I must admit that I thought this here was one of the best films in the series up to this point. I really thought there were a couple hilarious gags early on and especially with Popeye on his "death bed" and the ways he tried to make himself look like he was dying. There's also another very funny sequence with Popeye on the operating table. As usual, the animation itself is terrific and there's no doubt that this is one of the highlights of the series.

In sickness and in love

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 30 September 2019]

Gems, and also very good cartoons, from Fleischer Studios were many and have always much preferred their output as far as Popeye cartoons go over that for Famous Studios, though the latter's output was far from bad at all (just not as funny or as consistent). The stories were very thin and samey, but the cartoons, and the series in general actually, were mostly very charming and funny, well animated, scored and voiced.

'I Yam Love Sick' is almost one of the best Popeye cartoons to me. It is extremely well done and never less than very funny, its best parts being hilarious. Speaking as someone who has always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and liked Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between the characters. So much is great here and that 'I Yam Love Sick' makes something amusing and charming out of a premise that sounds mean-spirited on paper is a credit.

The first half is better than the second in my view, the funny stuff mostly happens early on whereas the cartoon gets slightly too cute towards the end.

Did appreciate though that Olive is not underused this time and love her sweet chemistry with Popeye, one can see what Popeye sees in her and the lengths he goes through here to win her over. Popeye has always been the more interesting and funnier character and his comic timing and likeability has not been lost, don't worry too his behaviour here is nowhere near as cruel as one might fear reading any summary for the story. Loved Jack Mercer's, relishing as ever the asides and Popeye's mumbling, and Mae Questel's (the only voice for Olive to do anything for me and there is a reason as to why she is the most prolific one) voice work.

Have never had an issue with the animation in the Fleischer period (it was more variable with Famous Studios), beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement. The music is also outstanding, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it. It's a very funny cartoon too, gags are plenty and all of them hit the mark. The death bed and operating table parts are riotous.

Overall, great. 9/10