Have you seen… Popeye (1980)

BY JOHN BILLINGER

Few names in the comedy world are as respected as the late, great Robin Williams. The man was and still is considered one of the greats of the comedy world. And, like many comedians, he had his fair share of movies. So many films immediately come to mind. “Dead Poets Society,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Aladdin,” “Jumanji,” “Good Morning Vietnam,” “Hook,” and many more. However, everyone has to start somewhere, and that was the case with Williams with his 1980 film debut “Popeye.”

For the sad few who don’t know, the character Popeye is a spinach-eating cartoon sailor created in 1929 by E.C. Segar for his comic strip “Thimble Theatre.” A couple of years later, Popeye underwent his greatest cultural exposure, starring in theatrical cartoon shorts. These shorts were distributed by Paramount and first created by animation studio Fleischer Studios (the studio behind Betty Boop) and later on by Famous Studios from 1933-1957, totaling 231 shorts. These shorts remain the most iconic cultural image of the character and remain widely seen today largely because many of them today are public domain. After the classic shorts completed production, various other series went into development to continue the brand. These shows were created by the likes of Jack Kinney Productions and Hanna-Barbera, but these didn’t recapture the same iconography of the classic shorts.

The roots for a live-action film adaptation of Popeye had its humble beginnings in the production of another live-action adaptation of a comic strip character. In the mid-1970s, a film adaptation of the Broadway Musical “Annie” (an adaptation of “Little Orphan Annie”) was being eyed by Paramount and Columbia. In the end, Columbia got the rights, but Paramount was not going to go empty-handed. They decided to go forward with their own live-action musical adaptation of a comic strip character they already owned the theatrical rights to, Popeye. 

The film soon entered development, and at the end of the day, it was co-produced by Disney. This is rather ironic as back in the 1930s/1940s, the original Fleischer shorts were the biggest rivals to the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies shorts. Cast as the title character was Robin Williams, fresh off the success of the TV show “Mork & Mindy.” Aside from a small role (that was excised) in 1977’s “Can I do It…’Til I Need Glasses,” this was Robin Williams’ film debut. “Popeye” was released in 1980 and did decently well at the box office, scoring $60 million on a $20 million budget. Despite being negatively reviewed by critics, the film has since earned a cult following. Is this following deserved? Let’s find out.

The plot is as follows…

In the seaside town of Sweethaven, a sea-faring sailor by the name of Popeye arrives, in search of his long-lost father. The town is under the gripes of an unseen commodore and a burly bully by the name of Bluto. While there, he rents a room at a boarding house run by the Oyl family, inhabited by many colorful characters, including Olive Oyl (the love interest of the film), Wimpy (a man obsessed with hamburgers), Geezil (a local greengrocer), and a few other ones. Over the course of the film, Popeye goes on a series of adventures, gets into fights, adopts a kid – all kinds of stuff.

The main problem I have with the film is its narrative structure. I don’t think that the story flows as well as they thought it would. What I mean is that a lot happens in this film. Popeye’s trying to find his dad, falling in love with Olive, getting in fights with Bluto, participating in a boxing tournament, adopting a kid with Olive, disrupting a betting scheme, etc. This can all work in a story theoretically, but the film is so passive, nothing really feels like it takes precedence. It’s just one thing after the other. It feels more like they took a bunch of the classic shorts and animated new scenes to connect it all as a movie (similar to the 80s Looney Tunes compilation movies), except it’s in live-action. The end result is that the film is a little hard to get into.

It’s odd, as aside from the narrative, there is stuff that does work. The cast, for example, is great. Now, I would’ve never in a million years thought that Popeye in live-action would work, but they got the right people to play these characters. Robin Williams’ performance may not rank as one of his most iconic roles and may not be the first image that people think of when they think of the character, but he does a great job of making the character his own. Shelley Duvall played Olive Oyl in the film, and likewise does a good job. Film critic Roger Ebert stated that this was “the role she was born to play.” The rest of the actors likewise fulfill their respective roles almost to a “t.” There is not a single character in the film that had me thinking, “Hmm, they should’ve cast someone different.” More live-action adaptations of cartoons should take note of this film and how they cast the roles.

The production side of things is also equal to the casting. For starters, they built a whole village for filming, and it looks like a completely lived-in environment. Secondly, for a live-action film, a lot of production was clearly spent on having the film be like a cartoon. Popeye fights like a cartoon character. People act like cartoon characters. There’s a lot of slapstick, over-exaggerated expressions, and prop work; it’s all there. Much like the 1966 “Batman” movie, which went to great lengths to be a comic book movie, this went to great lengths to be a cartoon movie. In terms of scale, the only other thing to compare it to is the Warren Beatty “Dick Tracy” movie.

The last thing to mention when discussing this movie is the fact that it’s a musical. Somehow, I keep forgetting that this is a musical. That’s probably because I found most of the songs to be rather forgettable. There are two songs that stick with me though, the song that Popeye sings when he arrives in town, and the song that Popeye and Olive sing together. Other than that, there aren’t any real bangers. So if you ever watch this movie, don’t expect “Singin’ in the Rain” here.

Overall, Popeye is alright. Maybe a mess in terms of narrative, but it definitely has its good elements. I think that the deciding factor on whether or not you’re going to like it is if you can get into the passiveness of its story. I can see why it’s a cult movie, and I’m glad I saw it, but I don’t think that I’ll be returning to it anytime soon. I find it unfortunate that in the years since, there has yet to be another film adaptation for the character that’s been released. There was an animated film in development at Sony to be directed by Genndy Tartakvsky (creator of “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Hotel Transylvania”), but unfortunately, that eventually got canceled. Hopefully, there is a future involving the character, but as for the live-action film we got, there’s certainly better and there’s worse.

Side Note

The opening of the film showing the Paramount logo features a short cartoon clip of Popeye. In this scene, he is not voiced by Robin Williams. Instead, he is voiced by Jack Mercer. Mercer was the original voice actor from the classic shorts, and provided voices for many other classic cartoon characters.