Punch And Judo

Punch and Judo
Directed by	Isadore Sparber
Produced by	Seymour Kneitel Isadore Sparber Sam Buchwald
Written by	Irving Spector
Starring	Jack Mercer Jackson Beck
Music by	Winston Sharples
Animation by	Robert Connavale Frank Endres Tom Johnson
Studio	Famous Studios
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	November 16, 1951
Running time	6:00
Country	USA
Language	English
Preceded by	Let's Stalk Spinach
Followed by	Popeye's Pappy
IMDb profile

Punch and Judo is a Popeye the Sailor theatrical animated short produced by Famous Studios (the original animation unit of Paramount Pictures) and released on November 16, 1951.

Plot[edit]

Popeye delivers a brand-new television set to a run-down local orphanage for the entertainment of its residents. When one of the boys turns on the TV, a boxing event comes on as the ringside announcer announces an upcoming title fight between Popeye and the defending champion. Realizing he nearly forgot about the match, Popeye excuses himself and bids the kids goodbye as he leaves for the arena and they wish him luck.

At the arena, the Champ, a thuggish-looking bald boxer, gets into the ring to the crowd's boos and displays tattoos down the length of his left arm representing all the challengers he has defeated, with a space reserved for Popeye near his glove. Back at the orphanage, the kids watch the TV and cheer as their hero Popeye enters the ring next. The match referee, a short fellow with an Italian-sounding accent, calls the combatants to the middle of the ring and, in mangled English, gives his instructions while making physical demonstrations against each boxer of what not to do during the match, lest the referee throw the bout out entirely. When the ref instructs the boxers to shake hands, the Champ delivers a vise-like grip that crushes Popeye's hand.

The bell then rings to start the fight and the Champ delivers a one-sided pounding to the overmatched Popeye, who gets saved when the bell rings again to end the first round. In his corner between rounds, Popeye's "fighting spirit" emerges and encourages Popeye to continue the bout and try out-thinking the Champ in order to beat him, while in the opposite corner, the Champ gets a manicure from a woman while his ring shoes are polished by a shoeshine boy. When Round Two starts, Popeye puts his wits to work to fluster the Champ, then catches him by surprise with a sucker punch that knocks him upward into a steel arena girder and then backpedals to stay out of the Champ's reach long enough before nailing him with a punch off the ropes to end the round.

Frustrated by Popeye's comeback, the Champ attempts to cheat in Round Three by sticking a live light socket on his opponent's nose and electrocuting him, then ties Popeye in knots and punches him into his corner, knocking him literally into a block of ice. Seeing Popeye in trouble on the TV as the referee delivers his count, the orphanage kids grab a can of spinach from the kitchen pantry and feed it through a funnel into the TV set and into Popeye's pipe, snapping the sailor back to consciousness and turning his right forearm into a sledgehammer as he rushes to the Champ, clubs him and knocks him out of the ring and through the TV screen into the orphanage living room. The referee comes out of the screen next and counts the Champ out, and Popeye follows him into the living room as the ref declares him the new champion to the kids' delight.

Trivia[edit]

• The cartoon title Punch and Judo is a play on the name of the traditional British puppet show Punch and Judy.
• When one of the orphan boys turns on the TV set and mentions what is on "Chanel No. 5", he makes a double pun as he references both the perfume brand and a TV station in Los Angeles owned at the time by Famous Studios parent Paramount Pictures, KTLA, which has operated on channel 5 since its first sign-on in 1947; KTLA, which was the top independent station in the Los Angeles area for many years and later became a superstation carried regionally in the southwest United States and nationally in Canada, is now owned by Nexstar Media Group as a CW affiliate

Production notes[edit]

• Some TV airings of this cartoon are edited for reasons of political correctness to remove the shoeshine boy, who is presented as a black stereotype.
• The Champ later appears as an antagonist in the 1955 short Cops is Tops, where he attempts to make unwelcome advances on Olive Oyl during her duties as a police officer but is stopped by Popeye.
• This was later partially remade in 1956 as Out to Punch.

External links[edit]