(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from 1980's Popeye)
Doug (vo): Did you know that "Popeye" is technically a Disney film? Yeah, it's one of the few times that Disney actually worked with another studio to get a film made. And I'm here to talk about it today. Why? Because, in my opinion, I think too many people hate on this movie. Okay, it's not great, okay, it almost destroyed Robin Williams' career, and...okay, maybe it is a completely pointless film to have around. But with all those factors taken in... (sighs) Let's just look at the story.
Story and Review
Doug (vo): Robin Williams is Popeye the Sailor Man. He comes into town just looking to make a living for himself, and he ends up in a giant house with a giant family, one of them being Olive Oyl, played by Shelley Duvall. And if you know the Popeye cartoon, you kinda know the other characters he's gonna come across. There's a character obsessed with hamburgers named *Weepy, a cute little baby named Swee'pea, and a giant bully named Bluto, who always wants Olive Oyl, but Popeye is always there to fight for her.
*Note: Popeye's hamburger loving pal is actually named Wimpy, not Weepy
Doug (vo): Well, that's all fair and good, but, is that enough to make an actual story on it? The answer is...not really. So this story sort of goes all over the place. One minute it's about him fitting in and getting annoyed with this tax collector, another minute, it's about him entering a fight and trying to win this big cash prize, another minute, it's about the baby and how he can predict the future guessing what's gonna win what race, and another point, it's about him trying to find his long-lost father, and another point, it's about Bluto wanting to marry Olive Oil while also looking for buried treasure, it's...holy smokes, what isn't going on in this movie?! This isn't a Popeye the movie, does it?! Popeye the five or six cartoons thrown into one. But, strangely enough, for all the stuff that is going on in the movie it has a very laid back tone. And I think that's sorta what throws people off but in my opinion I think its kinda delightful. All the actors, for what they have to do, portray their parts fine. A lot of it is just them living in this town interacting off each other and just trying to make a living. And once in a while, I don't mind seeing a movie like that, in fact, I actually would've maybe liked it a little bit more if it was more on the town and they didn't have to go looking for treasure and all that stuff. But on the other hand, it is a Popeye movie and you kinda gotta do something similar to that, you know, rock 'em, sock 'em, eat the spinach, all that stuff. There is a lot of slapstick and granted a lot it is kinda slow because, well, you're always gonna be comparing it to the cartoon and it's not gonna be as fast as the cartoon, because back then, technology wasn't good enough to do that, but, I think it's okay because, once again, it is so laid back. That's Robert Altman who directed this and if you know anything about his work, you know that he usually directs very slow atmospheric movies, and this movie does have a lot of atmosphere. The Popeye cartoons, when you really think about it, are kind of quiet cartoons, at least when you're thinking of the older ones. Yeah, there's the song in the beginning and end but, they're usually very quiet and a lot of it is sort of lazily doubled over but, it kinda didn't matter it just sort of had its own feel to it and, that's kinda what I think of with this movie. It's just kind of its own weird thing. And I think if it was trying too hard to have so much action and adventure and too many jokes then maybe it couldn't have worked but I think because it is so slow paced and it does sorta go at its own rate, it doesn't bother me. At the very least it's an artist just sort having fun with his version of something that was really popular. And it didn't feel like it was compromised, he was just sort of telling it the way they he saw it.
Final thoughts
Doug (vo): But, does that technically make it a good film? Eh... probably not. Like I said, it is all over the place, it is pointless for existing and, well, the slapstick can't match with the original animation. But I think for me there's just sort of this nice environment to it, and it has some nice songs, some actual catchy songs. If you're looking for this great big grand adventure that has a lot of comedy that you're gonna be laughing your ass off to, this definitely isn't the movie but, I don't know if you're a person who likes to spend some days just sitting back and chatting with some friends and doing nothing much else, this is kinda like the cinematic version of that. You know, with a few goofy moments thrown in but, hey, that happens a lot in laid-back conversations too, right? I can't help it, I have a soft spot for this movie. And if you don't like it, I'm not gonna act like I don't understand I do a lot of people can find it boring, they can see it as not very funny. But for me, I see it as just kinda a nice film to pop in to relaxed to. It's got a few funny visuals, some fun performances, some enjoyable songs and a lot a good atmosphere. Yeah, it's cheesy and corny but, for making Popeye into a movie, what did you expect? I actually think it's a lot better than what they could have had. At least, for the time period and what technology would allow. Now you can probably make it all CG with a lot of in-jokes and adult jokes and stuff but, for back then, I don't think this has half-bad. From my point of view, it's tough to the finish.