Max and Dave Fleischer’s 1936 classic Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor and a rarely seen short by (hand drawn and stop motion) animator Charley Bowers titled There It Is have been added to the National Film Registry according to the head of Library of Congress, James Billington. Each year the Librarian of Congress, advised by the National Film Preservation Board, selects up to 25 films that are culturally, historically or aesthetically significant to be added to the Registry. For each title named to the Registry, the Library of Congress works to ensure that the film is preserved for all time. Other recent animated editions to the Registry include Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Pixar’s Tin Toy and Warner Brothers’ One Froggy Evening.

Of Popeye, the NFR release says: “Wildly popular during the 1930s, Popeye’s impact was matched only by Mickey Mouse, his chief rival for cartoon supremacy. This classic by renowned animators Max and Dave Fleischer features lush three-dimensional sets, Technicolor, and was twice the length of normal eight-minute cartoons”.

Of There It Is: “One of the increasingly famous Charley Bowers surrealist shorts, this film combines live action with stop-motion object animation in settings where the usual rules do not apply. This ‘Scotland Yard investigates Haunted House’ spoof features the adorable animated bug MacGregor”. To learn more about Bowers, check out this bio and this DVD review from DVDToons. (Note that while the DVD reviewed, Charley Bowers-The Rediscovery of an American Comic Genius, supposedly assembles the complete known works of Charley Bowers, it does not include There It Is.)