William Pennell

Popeye and Bluto fight for the love of Olive Oyl in their debut short, featuring Betty Boop.

Bluto is the boxing champ, Popeye his challenger, Wimpy the timekeeper. Popeye is pounded mercilessly until Olive comes by with a can of spinach.

Pierre Bluto, running a logging camp, has thrown Olive into the river because he didn't like her spinach. Popeye rescues her and proceeds to beat Bluto in a lumberjack contest.

Popeye and Olive, adrift on a raft, land on what apparently is Africa, and are immediately battling elephants and gorillas (also a moose!). Popeye eventually battles an entire menagerie at once - after first gulping down a can of spinach, of course.

In the circus, Betty Boop is the lion tamer, sings the title tune on the high wire, and fights off the lecherous ringmaster.

Popeye comes to ask Olive out, but finds she's gone off with the title character. Popeye goes to the circus (ringmaster Wimpy) looking for her, to find she's part of the act; an aerial battle ensues.

Popeye and Bluto each wants to save Olive as she sleepwalks onto a construction site. But most of their efforts go into preventing each other from being the hero.

To the classic tune of "Barnacle Bill the Sailor", Olive explains that she can't marry Popeye because she's in love with Barnacle Bill (an unusually large Bluto), who then comes by and proceeds to pound Popeye (until he eats his spinach, of course).

Popeye skates over to Olive's house to give her a Christmas present: ice skates of her own. While he's teaching her, Bluto skates up and gets fresh; of course, Popeye fights him. When Olive rejects Bluto again, he sends her careening on an ice floe towards a waterfall.

Popeye sees Olive going into the Bruiser Boys Club, where she works in the hospital ward. Their motto, "Can you take it?", is a clear challenge to Popeye. President Bluto puts Popeye through the tests, and while he fares better than most, he still ends up in the hospital ward, until he eats his spinach and goes after the members.

Betty drudges in the kitchen alone until her friends (including Bimbo and Koko) hold a surprise birthday party for her… which gets rowdy.

Popeye takes Olive to a stage show of a hypnotist (Bluto), who also levitates objects. While he's doing this, Popeye makes him lose his concentration, so in retaliation, the hypnotist pulls Olive on stage and turns her into a chicken. Popeye comes down to fight and the hypnotist tries to turn him into a monkey, but Popeye pulls a mirror into place. He recovers, and turns Popeye into a donkey, then smacks him around a bit, but spinach comes to the rescue.

Popeye and Olive compete as partners in a dance contest. Naturally, Bluto butts in.

Wimpy is such a terrible helper that blacksmith Olive fires him. Both Popeye and Bluto see the help wanted sign; they compete for the position. Of course, their competition wrecks the shop.

Popeye and Bluto own adjacent shipyards. They are given the plans for a battleship; whichever finishes first gets the contract for the fleet. Bluto does his patriotic duty by refraining from his usual sabotage; his own incompetence provides much of the entertainment, until the end, when Popeye finishes first. Bluto, invited to help launch the ship, provides a bottle of champagne filled with nitroglycerine. Popeye's ship is destroyed, but after his spinach, he manages to turn out a ship every 5 seconds or so, launching an entire fleet for the war effort.

Popeye and Olive Oyl visit a rodeo.

Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy are shipwrecked on an island of hostile Indians

The boys arrive at Olive's house at the same time, but at different doors. They both come in, and whenever Olive isn't looking, they start fighting. She catches them, and tells them one will have to leave. Bluto tells Popey that whoever does the best trick can stay. As a result, they find ever more creative ways to abuse each other, much to Olive's merriment. Eventually, though, they start destroying her house, and Olive throws them both out, for a little while, anyhow.

A Max & Dave Fleischer cartoon from 1931. Bimbo climbs a beanstalk to find Betty Boop enslaved by the giant.

Popeye sails into Mexico, where Olive is a dancer and Bluto is a bandit.