Olive Oyl Cuspidor Dance

Does any cartoon character get twisted and turned more than Olive Oyl? The Fleischer animators loved to bend and stretch her pipe-cleaner dimension arms and legs every which way, and a great example is in “Blow Me Down” (1933).

Olive is dancing in a cantina, with her big flat feet flying around as she slides on the floor (the background moves left to right). Then she gets cuspidors stuck on both her feet and tries to dance them off. She grows an extra leg (and cuspidor) in some of the drawings in the process.









Finally, she cartwheels, splits her legs and lands on her butt, still pissed off.




Finally, she makes a long-legged, triumphant leap off camera, even though she hasn’t triumphed at all. The cuspidors are still there.



They sure loved doing things in time to the music at Fleischer. Popeye stomps down the street to the beat. People in the cantina bob in unison to the beat. And Olive, of course, is landing her feet, butt and whatever on the floor to the beat.
Willard Bowsky and Bill Sturm get the animation credits here.