Popeye (1980)

The sailor man travels to a seaside town called Sweethaven, falls in love with Olive Oyl, adopts Swee'pea, and makes an enemy of Bluto.

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Jules Feiffer (screenplay), E.C. Segar (based on characters by)

Stars:

Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robin Williams	...	Popeye
Shelley Duvall	...	Olive Oyl
Ray Walston	...	Poopdeck Pappy
Paul Dooley	...	Wimpy
Paul L. Smith	...	Bluto
Richard Libertini	...	Geezil
Donald Moffat	...	The Taxman
MacIntyre Dixon	...	Cole Oyl
Roberta Maxwell	...	Nana Oyl
Donovan Scott	...	Castor Oyl
Allan F. Nicholls	...	Rough House (as Allan Nicholls)
Wesley Ivan Hurt	...	Swee'pea
Bill Irwin	...	Ham Gravy - the Old Boyfriend
Robert Fortier	...	Bill Barnacle - the Town Drunk
David McCharen	...	Harry Hotcash - the Gambler

Storyline

Buff sailor-man Popeye arrives in an awkward seaside town called Sweethaven. There he meets Wimpy, a hamburger-loving man; Olive Oyl, the soon-to-be love of his life; and Bluto, a huge, mean pirate who's out to make Sweethaven pay for no good reason. Popeye also discovers his long-lost Pappy in the middle of it all, so with a band of his new friends, Popeye heads off to stop Bluto, and he's got the power of spinach, which Popeye detests, to butt Bluto right in the mush. Watch as Popeye mops the floor with punks in a burger joint, stops a greedy tax man, takes down a champion boxer, and even finds abandoned baby Swee'pea. He's strong to the finish 'cause he eats his spinach!

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Plot Keywords:

popeye | spinach | abandoned baby | tax | sailor | 

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Taglines:

The sailor man with the spinach can!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 December 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Karl-Alfred

Filming Locations:

Anchor Bay, Malta

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$50,000,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Vistasonic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In a print interview released around the same time as the film, Shelley Duvall admitted that kids used to call her Olive Oyl when she was in grade school.

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Goofs

The Paramount logo used at the opening was never used for any of the Paramount Popeye cartoons, though it is portrayed as being from a Popeye cartoon. Also, the opening credits sequence shown (doors of the wooden ship) was from the earlier Fleischer Studios cartoons, as opposed to the later Paramount cartoons.

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Quotes

Bluto: Commodore.
Poopdeck Pappy: Don't keep calling me commodore inside this here harbor. I got millions'o emenies. And you is 10 or 12 of 'em.

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Crazy Credits

The opening begins with 1.33 footage windowboxed in the 2.35 frame, with a black and white vintage Paramount logo, followed with a standard credit sequence for the original Max Fleischer-produced Popeye cartoons. When the ship doors open up (where the cartoon title would normally be revealed), instead an animated Popeye sticks his head out of the doors, looks around, and proclaims "Hey, what's this? One of Bluto's tricks? I'm in the wrong pitcher!" The movie then cuts to full color and Panavision, and the remaining credits continue.

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Connections

Referenced in Paul Smith: The Reddest Herring (2008)

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Soundtracks

"It's Not Easy Bein' Me"
(uncredited)
Written by Harry Nilsson
Performed by Ray Walston and John Wallace

User Reviews

Glad I Finally Got Around To Viewing This

I never saw this movie until last week. "Better late than never," I guess, because I liked it. I thought it was good and....in a very different way. I had known of this film for a long time but did not realize it was a musical. That didn't excite me, but I wound up enjoying most of the music because it was only done in short segments and the songs were decent. None were excellent, but none were awful, either.

Popeye was fun to hear. Robin Williams had Popeye's mumbling down to a tee. I suggest you watch this with the English subtitles on so you can get all of what Popeye says, or you'll miss a lot of funny lines because of his mumbling. The same can almost be said of Shelly Duvall's impersonation of "Olive Oyl," although you can understand her better. She, too, was fun to watch. I read somewhere that she was very depressed over her performance in this film, but she shouldn't have been. She was perfect for the role.

I didn't think the supporting characters were much, such as Bluto or Wimpy, but Popeye's dad, "Poopdeck Pappy," (Ray Walston) who appears late in the film is a real hoot, and little baby "Swee Pea" is cute. "Pappy" adds a lot of spark and energy to the film, just when it was really needed. My only concern was that it was a really clean movie up to then and Walston changes that, although not with anything really harsh but a number of "let's haul ass" statements and the like.

However, overall, it's a nice, pleasing type of film. It's no award-winner, but it's a lot better than what you might have read from national critics. If you like Popeye's cartoons and comics, you should like this film, too. I would gladly watch this again.