popeye's huge popularity led him to be adapted into animation, which would only be loosely based on "thimble theatre" due to the limited length of the theatrical shorts at the time keeping them from making proper full-length adaptations of the "thimble theatre" sagas, which resulted in the shorts being episodic. the huge success of the first "popeye the sailor" cartoon (which originally started as a part of the betty boop shorts) would ensure a long-running series of independent theatrical shorts for the now famous sailor. in the various cartoons by fleischer studios, he would usually have to rescue his girlfriend olive oyl from bluto, his rival and sometimes friend or go on a daring adventure with olive and his good friend j. wellington wimpy. some of the cartoons take a different recurring approach, like him rescuing olive from another threat, dealing with something alone, fighting a small enemy he cannot beat, or watching over his adopted son swee'pea. as these theatrical shorts deviated from segar's strips quite a bit, many characters from the comic never made an appearance or only appeared once (like castor oyl and the goons). however, other characters like j. wellington wimpy (who sometimes served as popeye's sidekick), poopdeck pappy and, more rarely, oscar would make semi-regular appearances in the shorts. eugene the jeep also made some appearances but would not be used as often as the above. george w. geezil also made only two appearances alongside popeye. many of these cartoons mostly focused on popeye's adventures and antics along with olive and occasionally wimpy as they tried to resist the antagonistic bluto. while not appearing as a sailor very often (as popeye was usually portrayed with a number of odd jobs) the stories in the cartoons would involve his brawling escapades or his adventures in certain areas of the world while doing impressive feats and preserving olive's safety and their relationship.