Fleischer Studios (1933)

I Yam What I Yam is the second Popeye theatrical cartoon short, starring William “Billy” Costello as Popeye, Bonnie Poe as Olive Oyl, and Charles Lawrence as Wimpy. The source of the quote is the comic strip, Thimble Theatre by E. C. Segar, in which the character Popeye first appeared.

I Yam What I Yam is the second Popeye cartoon and the first cartoon in Popeye’s own cartoon series; the first entry, Popeye the Sailor, was released as a Betty Boop cartoon. This is the first cartoon in which Bonnie Poe voices Olive Oyl. This was the first screen appearance of J. Wellington Wimpy.

Popeye the Sailor Man is a cartoon fictional character, created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and theatrical and television animated cartoons. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929; Popeye became the strips title in later years. Although Segars Thimble Theatre strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, the sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip and Thimble Theatre soon became one of King Features most popular properties during the 1930s. Thimble Theatre was continued after Segars death in 1938 by several writers and artists, most notably Segars assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories. In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer—and later Paramount’s own Famous Studios—continued production through 1957.

Animated by Seymour Kneitel and William Henning