Baby's Day Out

I'm conflicted!  The inside of the box says this one's called Little Swee'Pea, but the title card of the film has a tiny "with" at the top of it!  So is it just With Little Swee'Pea, or would the full title be Popeye the Sailor with Little Swee'Pea?  And how about that?  Is it Swee'pea or Swee'Pea?  Does not compute!  404!  The compiler has shut down.  Humanity officially lost.  It's all zeroes and ones from here on out, people.  I know it.
Anyway, sure, I could be all negative and compare this to the earlier iconic game-changing classic Sock-a-Bye Baby, especially the ending, but I'll leave that to the Popeye haters out there, and those who are too busy fawning over Cartoon Network's latest and greatest, whatever that is.  Probably some flavour of animé.  So instead, let's just focus on the differences, because this baby's got a name and a connection to Olive.  Also, Popeye doesn't open with his usual song.  I think it's long gone by now.  But we do see him walking merrily along to the tune of "Brotherly Love," and he's behind stuff at first... is he Medusa all of a sudden?  What gives?  Were the aminators on strike that day or something?
Oh, since I'm reviewing Stooge films so much, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the doorbell gag.  Olive's got one of those old-timey doorbells that you twist to ring.  Popeye's not paying attention, and Olive comes to the door, standing right where the bell was.  Popeye twists her nose, and she ... wait for it... screams like the doorbell rings!  Genius.
Now, the plot: Popeye's plan was to take Olive to the zoo to see the "aminals" but she gets Popeye to take her bastard child... I mean, li'l Swee'pea instead.  Needles to say, this is not your average baby, I hope.  I'm not a parent so I don't have any nightmare stories.  Swee'pea takes it upon himself to make Popeye's life a living hell.  He or she starts by slipping out of the crib as they're walking merrily along to the zoo and marching behind Popeye.  Ah, kids.  Always wanting to do all the fun adult stuff.  Popeye eventually notices that Swee'pea's not in the crib!  He keeps marching along to his own beat, though, as he does a slow 360, looking for Swee'pea.  As this is happening, Swee'pea sneaks back into the crib, thereby freaking out Popeye when he looks back into the crib.  Genius.  Mind officially ... melded.  Oh, and, there's a 3D background while all this deviltry is going on.
They arrive at the zoo.  Time for an unprecedented second patented Fleischer 3D background!  Game-changing.  Swee'pea sneaks out of the crib again, but doesn't get back in the crib.  Instead, Swee'pea confuses the zoo with a petting zoo and starts walking around the giant stumpy feet of a rotoscoped elephant.  Now, I hate to cut this short, but you can guess the cycle.  Swee'pea goes from cage to cage, and the various animals' maternal instincts apparently kick in.  Even an alligator!  Oh, it's madness, I tells ya.  Madness.  Popeye ends up using his spinach powers on the hippopotamus, and a tiger that Swee'pea ends up riding.  Lol.  "Hold that Tiger" is the background music at this juncture, of course.  They even have a moaning sound in the right spot!  LOL
Back to Olive's place.  Popeye may be harboring some doubts about parenthood at this point, but Olive helps him make up his mind for good.  Popeye shows Swee'pea a little toy monkey.  Swee'pea gets scared by this and starts crying.  Apparently, Swee'pea couldn't see the trees for the forest earlier, but it's that one pine needle that does the trick.  Olive sees this little scene and beats the snot out of Popeye for scaring poor, defenseless Swee'pea, and takes Swee'pea inside immediately!  The nerve of that guy.  His ending song, no surprise: "There's no ifs or maybes, I'll never have babies.  I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!!"

****
-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan