Studio: Famous Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Seymour Kneitel, Isadore Sparber
Short Synopsis
Popeye and Bluto drive rival taxis, and Olive Oyl, coming out of a shop with her parcels, is the only fare in sight. Both cabs screech up; each driver grabs an arm and a parcel, and the tug-of-war over the customer becomes a race through the city, with Olive handed, thrown and bounced from one cab to the other as the drivers cut each other off, ram each other and take shortcuts through buildings. Bluto resorts to sabotage, wrecking Popeye's cab piece by piece until the sailor is driving little more than a steering wheel and a seat. With Olive finally in Bluto's taxi and heading somewhere she does not want to go, Popeye eats his spinach, overtakes on foot, demolishes Bluto's cab and delivers Olive to her door in what is left of his own, with Bluto as the hood ornament.
Why It Matters
- The rival-tradesmen plot was the Famous Studios Popeye's commonest formula, and this is one of its fastest versions, a chase cartoon in which Olive is the ball in play; Tom Johnson's animation of the collapsing taxi, shedding parts until only the essentials remain, is neatly done.
- Taxi-Turvy is in the public domain in the United States through non-renewal and has been widely available in that form; some restored public-domain releases use the original soundtrack rather than the television redub.
Notes and Trivia
- The title is Popeye's version of "topsy-turvy".
- Irving Spector, the writer, had come to Famous Studios from the Fleischer story department.
- See also: Floor Flusher (1954), Bride and Gloom (1954), Spree Lunch (1957).
