Popeye
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Movie Reviews of Popeye
Movie Review: An Underappreciated Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1980 Popeye hit the silver screen to a rather inauspicious reception. The profits were pretty good but poor word of mouth and some savage reviews caused it to vanish from theaters after just a few weeks of its release. It also hurt director Robert Altman's career for several years after. So what went wrong? The movie is Popeye... the Musical. Let that sink in. A musical.... with Popeye. But here's the thing, the movie is extraordinarily well done. In fact it is a near cinematic masterpiece. I'm serious. Don't laugh.
From the casting to the costumes to the set design to the decision to base the movie on the original Thimble Theater comics rather than the cartoon version, this movie nails it. It has all the obscure characters including Rough House, Castor Oil and even super obscure ones like Ham Gravy (although you have to read the closing credits to catch many of them). Popeye was truly a labor of love not just an attempt to cash in. Popeye himself is dramatically toned down from the cartoon version which was already a watered down version of the Thimble Theater Popeye. Robin Williams Popeye is a simple, sweet hearted sailor who just happens to be talented with his fists. The original Popeye was a foul mouthed, gambling addicted, violent brute with a preternatural ability to deliver earth shattering punches. I like the Williams Popeye, I like the Thimble Theater Popeye, they just aren't the same character. This movie is clearly aimed squarely at the pre-teen audience (not that it isn't fun for the rest of us too).
One of the things that people have been critical of this movie for is the music. I couldn't disagree more. I love the songs and I'm no great fan of musicals. The only song that didn't do it for me was a duet between Popeye and Olive over the future of Swee'pea. That one was actually removed for the TV version for good reason but it's here in the DVD. Besides that one clunker the songs are great. "I'm Mean", "I Yam What I Yam", "Sweethaven" and "Everything is Food" stand out as my favorite songs.
Popeye's place in the public's collective consciousness has dipped considerably since I was young which is a shame because he is such an interesting and unique character. On the other hand this is a great time for Popeye fans with the release of the original Segar comics by Fantagraphics and the black and white Fleicher cartoons from Warner Home Video. Both of these are well done productions. If I had one complaint about this DVD it would be the anemic extras. There are a bunch of great back-stories to this movie that should have been added as extras including the fact that it's the first film featuring Robin Williams and the mind blowing set built on the island of Malta that exists to this day.
Special mention should go out to the set designers for the fully realized Sweethaven. It took 165 workers 7 months to create the town and it is quite spectacular. I wish more people would give this film a chance it really is something special.
Movie Review: Love It or Hate It...Who Cares?
Summary: 5 Stars
Sure, POPEYE doesn't fulfill conventional expectations, but Altman chose (perhaps as a snarky contrarian to Disney and Paramount, his financiers) to deliberately produce a film that retained the context of the original Segar cartoons and the Dada antics of the Fleischer cartoons at the expense of making a fun, forgetful, and irrelevant cookie-cutter film for the whole family.
Jules Feiffer, the film's screenwriter and one of the great keepers of the Segar/Popeye flame (and someone who understands the iconic value of Popeye better than anyone I can think of), thought Altman restored the spirit of Segar's original strips, saving it, effectively, from the decades of mainstream mediocrity that Popeye suffered from, largely as a result of the patriotic exploitation of the character in the wake of World War II.
I watch and greatly appreciate this film for what Altman is doing with the Popeye "legend,'" and not for its (lack of) entertainment value (which, ipso facto, makes me an "Altman apologist." Yeah, right. Whatever).
Let's put one ignorant myth to rest, shall we? POPEYE was not a bomb. This tall tale was promulgated by a few egomaniacs in the industry who wanted to bury both the film and Altman's career. It did have a problematic production history, as did dozens of films from this era, a time when the studios were going through a major upheaval and wound up playing it extremely safe in the 1980s. Altman (along with nearly all of the great or at least interesting auteurs of the 1970s) became persona non grata practically overnight.
But let's not let history get in the way of opinion...
Movie Review: A musical gem from Harry Nilsson!
Summary: 5 Stars
Harry Nilsson didn't record very much after his contract with RCA expired in 1978, his last album for the Nipper being his own personal favorite album of his career, 'Knnillssonn,' a truly great piece of work, but completely out of step with the Disco and Punk of 1978. The result: low sales. His very last album was released in 1980, 'Flash Harry,' produced by ex-M.G. Steve Cropper, using primarily the still intact Blues Brothers Band. Unfortunately, Cropper could not get a single record company to release it in the U.S.A., and resorted to releasing it on Mercury in the U.K.-only, in 1980.
Ah, but also in 1980, we have POPEYE! Harry Nilsson's soundtrack to this musical is phenomenal! And at least as a movie, it most definitely was released in the U.S.A. in 1980 and is readily available today on both DVD and VHS tape. With Harry's untimely death to a strange disease in the early 90's, this is the very last mainstream release of new Nilsson compositions. If you are a Harry Nilsson fan and yearn for yet one more "new" album from Harry, here it is - the DVD of this movie, 'Popeye.' And happily, it's a wall-to-wall musical, simply packed with the musical genius of Harry Nilsson!
Robin Williams' performance as Popeye is equally phenomenal - the mumbling under his breath, the swagger - he IS Popeye; Williams has done here what no one else could do. He is a human cartoon.
Fans of Harry Nilsson, Robin Williams, or Popeye - you will LOVE this movie! It is truly a movie musical treasure, of which there are far too little from the last 20 years of the 20th Century!
Movie Review: The Live-action Cartoon
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie continues to provide laughs and entertainment now not only for me, but for my children, as well.
The costumes, sets, and props used in the movie were perfect for the slap-stick cartoon feel for which the story was aimed. The colors were at both vibrant and subdued. The clothes were bright, bringing the characters to a sort of technicolor life; however, the scenery, the buildings, and the props were austere. The effect was truly magnificent as it took an unbelievable prop town and made it part of the story to such an extent that you do not notice it until the end.
For anybody that ever watched Popeye the cartoon, Robin Williams did an excellent job in recreating the scruffy and lovable sailor. Williams was able to project when required by the story, be subtle when need be, and to do slap-stick comedy as if he were born to it. Shelley Duvall was equally brilliant in bringing Olive Oil to life. It could not have been easy to recreate the gangly grace displayed in her cartoon counterpart; however, she did so with dignity and a style that befitted the occasion. And who can forget the singsong lyrics of Paul L. Smith's "Bluto": "I'm mean, I'm mean, I'm mean, I'm so d#@m mean..." Throw in excellent support from Ray Walston, Linda Hunt, and Paul Dooley and you have a cast that's meant for their roles!
Whatever the casts' feelings are on this movie, I, along with many other old and new fans, continue to love watching the antics of Popeye in "technicolor" live action!
Movie Review: Popeye is for me.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am 59 years old. What most people who review this movie don't understand is that this movie was taken from the old comic strip and cartoons of my youth, and stayed true to its origins. It was taken from the cartoons of the 50's that mystified me as a small child.
It takes me back like the Superman, Batman, et cetera movies never could. You see, they were made to relate to a modern audience...one who never saw the originals. Popeye was not meant for the young movie crowd of today, however some of you do "get it", but was made for people of my age...to take us back to the 50's and earlier.
We "get it". We understand about the lack of identifiable plot...it perfectly mimics the cartoons of my childhood. We understand that the songs were only snippets...the short ditties and song snippets were all a young child would sit still for back in those days.
No one but Robin Williams could have played Popeye. No one but Shelley Duvall could have played Olive Oyl. The entire cast takes me back to a time when life was simple...not perfect, but simple.
Call me an "old school" person for I don't care. I love this movie. I have it both on VHS (copied from HBO) and on DvD; and whenever it is shown on TV, I watch it. On quiet Saturday afternoons, I sometimes get a bowl of popcorn, a tall glass of iced tea and pop the DvD in the player and sit back. It immediately takes me back to those old cartoons.
It was meant for me.