The adventures of the famous sailor man and his friends in the seaside town of Sweethaven.
I used to love the “Popeye” cartoons when I was a kid and I remember my mother taking my sister and me to see the film version on the big screen in 1980 when I was eight years old. I also remember walking out of the cinema afterward and not liking it one bit. They turned the big-screen adaptation into a musical and that, I feel, was one of the biggest mistakes. The other is that while there is a semblance of a story, for the most part, it is pretty much insignificant as director Robert Altman wants to take your breath away with their magnificent, bona fide sets and the physical embodiment of the cartoon characters brought to life on the big screen by such actors as Robin Williams as the titular Popeye, Shelley Duvall as his love interest, Olive Oyl, Paul L. Smith as the town bully, Bluto, Paul Dooley as Wimpy, who will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today, and Ray Walston as Popeye’s father, Poopdeck Pappy. You are supposed to ooohhh and aaahhh at the visual attributes just mentioned, in the hopes that the emaciated storyline will slip by unnoticed, and while kids might willing to forego that aspect, movie critics won’t.
Popeye (Robin Williams) rows his boat into the small coastal town of Sweethaven, searching for his father, Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston). While there, he stays at the Oyl family’s boarding house, where he eventually falls in love with Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall) and her sweet-natured but scatterbrained family. When Olive’s fiancé, Bluto (Paul L. Smith), the town bully who never takes no for an answer, goes ballistic after Olive decides to leave town before her wedding, she bumps into Popeye on the streets of Sweethaven and they both come across an abandoned baby in a basket, who they proceed to name Swee’Pea. The town, and Bluto, think the baby belongs to Popeye and Olive and when Bluto has the chance, he kidnaps Swee’Pea and Olive and takes them aboard his ship on a journey to discover buried treasure on Scab Island, who he says was promised to him by Popeye’s father, who is actually living in the town but was also taken hostage by Bluto. Now Popeye must give chase if he is to save Swee’Pea, his father, and his one true love, Olive.
The sets for the seaside town of Sweethaven were actually built in Anchor Bay in Malta and according to the special features on the Blu-ray, when Set Designer Jack Stephens was asked how long the town might last after filming wrapped production, he said maybe six or eight months. Today, the town is named “Popeye Village” and is still standing and has been converted into a small attraction fun park, an open-air museum, and seaside resort. The town itself was the most wondrous element of the movie as this was made in a time pre-CGI so watching the film, you know that every ramshackle building and hut was built for real. Robin Williams is the perfect embodiment of Popeye, his facial expressions, mannerisms, and physical attributes, mirrored the cartoon character perfectly, and I doubt there will ever be another actor who could personify the character as well as he did. Shelley Duvall also encompassed Olive Oyl flawlessly, her skinny frame, tightly-wound hair, and enormous feet were taken straight out of the cartoons and both she and Robin Williams were the perfect onscreen couple. Director Robert Altman stepped out of his comfort zone with “Popeye,” taking on a Hollywood blockbuster when he was used to making subversive, low-budget dramas with large ensemble casts. While “Popeye” most certainly has a big collection of actors, the slow pace, tedious musical numbers, forced humor, and contrived sight gags, were enough to prevent it from becoming the blockbuster both Paramount and Disney had hoped for. If you’ve never seen “Popeye,” I would recommend watching it at least once, then you can observe a trainwreck in motion.
Now available on Blu-ray™ for the first time ever from Paramount Home Entertainment
