You're a Sap, Mr. Jap is a 1942

1942 in film

The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

 one-reel animated cartoon

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 short subject

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 released by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. It was the first cartoon featuring Popeye the Sailor

Popeye

Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...

 in a series produced by Famous Studios

Famous Studios

Famous Studios was the animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount acquired the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941...

, which took over the Popeye theatrical franchise from the Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...

. It is one of the best-known World War II propaganda cartoons

American propaganda during World War II

During World War II, American propaganda was used to increase support for the war and commitment to an Allied victory. Using a wide variety of media, propagandists fomented hatred for the enemy and support for America's allies, urged greater public effort for war production and victory gardens,...

. It is also one of the few Popeye cartoons not to have Bluto

Bluto

Bluto is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip . Bluto made his first appearance September 12 of that year...

, Olive Oyl

Olive Oyl

Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1919 for his comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was later renamed Popeye after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however Olive Oyl was a main character for 10 years before Popeye's 1929...

, or Wimpy

J. Wellington Wimpy

J. Wellington Wimpy, generally referred to as Wimpy, is one of the characters in the long-running comic strip Popeye, created by E. C. Segar and originally called Thimble Theatre, and in the Popeye cartoons based upon the strip...

.

Plot

The cartoon, which gets its title from a novelty song written by James Cavanaugh, John Redmond and Nat Simon, finds Popeye singlehandedly defeating the crew of a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese battleship in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. The cartoon was kept out of commercial release for years due to its racially offensive caricaturing of the Japanese and to the climactic sequence where the Japanese naval commander commits suicide by drinking gasoline

Gasoline

Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...

 and consuming lit firecrackers. However, it re-emerged in a November 2008 DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 release of Popeye cartoons produced between 1941 and 1943.

See also

• Spinach Fer Britain
  Spinach Fer Britain
  Spinach Fer Britain is a 1943, anti-nazi propaganda cartoon, produced by Famous Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film centers around Popeye the Sailor trying to deliver a shipment of spinach to 10 Downing Street in London, while fighting off Nazi Kriegsmarine soldiers pursuing him...
  
  
• Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue
  Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue
  "Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue" is a 1943 American cartoon short featuring Popeye, directed by Dan Gordon. It's a World War II propaganda cartoon featuring Bluto trying to escape the draft and fighting along with Popeye against some Japanese spies, Hirohito and Adolf Hitler.-Plot:While Bluto is busy...
  
  
• List of World War II short films