Robin Williams as Popeye?

[Jeff]

I remember seeing this live-action movie when I was a kid and enjoying it, but I also remember hearing that it was a "bomb". What do people think of the movie?

A couple things I remember:

- the unique setting/atmosphere of the movie
- feeling really bad for Popeye as he is picked on in a bar regarding his Pappy
- being disappointed that Popeye only discovered the power of spinach at the end of the movie
- those prosthetic forearms that Robin Williams wore

Anyway, I'd be curious to see it again, but I'm hoping I wouldn't cringe at the dialogue...

Jeff

[ALK]

I thought that movie was stupid and horrible. A Popeye musical? Come on!

[absolutpaul]

I just bought this movie on DVD last week and watched it again. Granted, it didn't have to be a musical - the story played fine without the songs - but I didn't think it was as much of a bomb as people say it was. I think all of the characters were well-cast (Wimpy and Pappy were quite good) and I don't think anyone else in the world could have played Popeye but Williams.

Popeye doesn't discover spinach until the end of the picture, and I was dissapointed that Bluto only got one single punch which sent him swimming away, while the octopus got blasted into the stratosphere. It would have been much better to see Bluto take a longer beating, since he was so evil in this movie that he really deserved it.

It's easy to think of this movie as a flop, but remember that this was the film that really started the trend of adapting cartoons into feature films, and there have been MANY MANY worse bombs since then!!

PS - I discovered a cool "ad lib" in the film. When Pappy is going on about "The whole country was in a 'depreshican', and he wouldn't eat his spinach", Popeye mutters, "That was Coolidge, pop, not me."

[Gordan]

I thought that movie was stupid and horrible. A Popeye musical? Come on!

There is nothing strange about the idea of a Popeye musical at all. Actually, some of the best Fleischer "Popeyes" were also musicals, or featured Popeye or other character performing a song or two (not counting the cartoons in which Popeye sings his theme song):

MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE
AXE ME ANOTHER
WE AIM TO PLEASE
BEWARE OF BARNACLE BILL
BROTHERLY LOVE
A CLEAN SHAVEN MAN
I-SKI LOVE-SKI YOU-SKI
I WANNA BE A LIFEGUARD
THE SPINACH ROADSTER
LET'S GET MOVIN'
LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE
GOONLAND
POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR
POPEYE MEETS ALI BABA'S 40 THIEVES
ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP
SHAKESPEARIAN SPINACH
NEVER KICK A WOMAN
IT'S THE NATURAL THING TO DO

A big problem with the musical numbers in the live-action feature was that they were absolutely hidious - a huge contrast to the catchy/entertaining/humorous songs (often with ironic twists) in the Fleischer pictures.:sailor:

[Greg Method]

I've always been a fan of the Altman film, as it was one of my very first favorite movies growing up. Looking back on it through the magic of home video (gosh, an official Popeye home video release...what a novel concept), I still find it to be charming and funny.

Some people do like to condemn it as one of the worst movies ever made. I really don't know why. As stated already, Popeye and music haven't exactly been strangers, and Robin Williams does (IMO) a fantastic job of inhabiting the character without becoming Robin Williams, if you know what I mean. I've read a few people complain that it's not exactly like the Fleischer cartoons. No, it may not be, and to those people I say, get over it. Popeye had existed in numerous ways for the (then) fifty-plus years that preceded the film, and this was just a new way to present a character everyone knew and loved. God forbid a filmmaker wanted to actually add a new level to the Popeye mythos. I don't believe anyone has ever griped about the Fleischers doing just that by making Bluto Popeye's arch rival.

But like I said, "Popeye" has always been a favorite of mine, and most likely if it wasn't for the film I wouldn't have become interested in the character and in later years want to seek out and appreciate the Fleischer cartoons for the works of art they are.

In a day and age in which "Titanic" becomes the highest grossing film of all time and Ashton Kutcher has a movie career, there are obviously much bigger targets to spew our venom at. Give "Popeye" a break. It could've been a lot worse.

:sailor:

[Philo & Gunge]

My mom always told me a funny story about this movie:

Now, according to her, all that was out at the time was horror movies and then this "critically acclaimed" movie came out and my parents went to see it. All they saw was Popeye rowing the boat, singing. They still sat and watched it, then when they started singing on the dock, they couldn't stand it. So they left. And it was only 15 minutes in. And the thing is, my mom dosn't even like Popeye. :p

[Senbei Norimaki]

I love the Popeye live action movie. When I was a child I watched it all the time on cable.

[MF TOON]

I don't think it's a good movie by any stretch... there's very little in the story department and as a few have mentioned, the songs are often painful to sit through... but to fans of the animated films and Segar comic strips, it's still a fun movie to watch, I think. If not simply for the wonderfully imaginative set designs and Williams outstanding character acting. I own the DVD and haven't watched it in well over a year, but it can be a fairly light and enjoyable film depending on the mood you're in. It's certainly not gripping entertainment, but I think most Popeye fans could appreciate it for what it is. It's a shame it bombed actually... since it was really only an introduction to the character, I think it would've been really fun to have the same actors sign on for some well-made sequals with more plot direction. They could have adapted some of Segar's comic stories or even an assortment of themes from the Fleischer shorts into future scripts and expanded on the characters. I agree that the movie can be pretty boring though. I still think it's years ahead of the Rocky & Bullwinkle and other such recent cartoon-adapted live action duds.

[Ray Pointer]

This has been discussed before, where it has been questioned as to whether Jules Fiefer was the proper choice to write the script, and Robert Altman to direct. Two fatal mistakes from the start. The actors did a notable job trying to make something out of nothing, which is really what the movie was.

As for it being a musical, it is one of the most unmusical musicals of all time. The songs are absolutely terrible. They only song that was any good was the original Sammy Lerner, "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man." This is yet another exmaple of a project that was sold on the reputation of the past without really looking at what was being done in the present. It would seem that the entire concept was sold on the look of the film without considering the material in the script. Besides a slow pace, there is not much entertainment value beyond the actors in dress-up. There are no comedy elements, there's no warmth, no wit. None of the ingredients commented in detail in my thread are in this film. And the shame of it is that it was all laid out for them to follow. This is the result of latter day moviemakers being placed into a foreign element, and making their own "statement" in an effort to be more subtle and sophisticated. The results were, they missed the boat, and the movie sank. :sailor:

[mmtper]

Overall I like the Popeye movie, there's a lot of good, clever things in it. But I've always had real problems with Robert Altman as a director: sometimes he's a brilliant intellectual, a fine visual stylist but doesn't always know where to place his camera, sometimes he's plodding, he can be funny but can't tell a straightforward joke, he doesn't know a good idea from a bad one, he scrambles his sound mixes and is sometimes just plain incompetent. All in that in five minutes! And Popeye is one of his better films! I think the songs by a Harry Nilsson are a bit underated (and I read somewhere that Nilsson himself was very dissatisfied with the cast's performances). Not masterpieces, and not pop tune catchy, but I've heard the long-out-of-print soundtrack LP and the lyrics and arrangements have their charms. My understanding was this film, and another musical from that year, The Blues Brothers, were considered both enormous bombs, yet they ultimately turned in tidy profits for their studios. Go figure.

[bjimba]

I'm going to jump in here in defense of the songs. I have a copy of the original Harry Nilsson demo versions of the songs, and they are fantastic. "Kids", in particular, never fails to crack me up when I hear the Nilsson version, and should have been a high point in the movie,

Nilsson was reportedly quite upset with Altman for what he did to the songs in the movie version.

[mbaker]

I agree that it was 'Popeye' that started this whole 'cartoon to live action' trend we're experiencing now. I'll admit that i use to love that movie when i was younger, but looking back on it, you just can't beat the cartoons. Robin Williams was quite a character in that film, and has moved on to bigger, and better things since then. While 'Popeye isn't exactly 'Citizen Kane', it's not nearly as bad as the other 'cartoon' adaptations we've seen since, but that still isn't saying much.

[Vdubdavid]

In my opinion, it's not a great movie by any means, but it's not unwatchable either. It had its moments, like the animated opening and when the tax collector first meets Popeye ("Are ya up to no good? 'Cause if ya are there's a 15% up-to-no-good tax!") One mistake I feel they made was with Bluto. Why didn't they give him any real dialogue besides that heavy breathing? By the way, was the opening of this movie the last time Jack Mercer voiced Popeye?

[Ray Pointer]

Is it interesting that so many justifications and excuses need to be made for a bad movie? Let's face it. The wrong people were involve, and it was clearly made to exploit the property based on its legacy without any real concern or feel for the material on the part of the writer, director, and song writer. This is not meant as disrespect to these men, but they were simply out of their element as every seems to agree. It is extremely obvious!

Bit isn't it also intersting that the recent CG POPEYE that has everyone so upset proves once again that either they just can't do it any more, or the powers that be continue to make the same mistakes, engaging people who do not know the character. I'd hate to think that because of these recent failures that THIS is being held up as the reason why the original POPEYE is being withheld from the public!:sailor:

[bjimba]

This is not meant as disrespect to these men, but they were simply out of their element as every seems to agree. It is extremely obvious!


Funny, I read this thread and saw a wide variety of opinions, many of which did not agree with you. You read it as "every seems to agree" with your point-of-view.

Well, for the record, just so you understand, I do not agree with your statement. No disrespect intended.

[Bobby Bickert]

By the way, was the opening of this movie the last time Jack Mercer voiced Popeye?


No, he was doing voices (and writing) for Hanna-Barbera's The All-New Popeye Hour/The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show, which lasted through 1983, though his voicework for the final episodes had to be recorded at the hospital where he lay dying from cancer.

[Howard Fein]

No, he was doing voices (and writing) for Hanna-Barbera's The All-New Popeye Hour/The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show, which lasted through 1983, though his voicework for the final episodes had to be recorded at the hospital where he lay dying from cancer.

The last original season of H-B's Saturday AM :sailor: revival premiered in fall 1981. Popeye appeared in two of the three segments in the COMEDY SHOW: the Prehistoric Popeye and just plain Popeye episodes. He wasn't in the PRIVATE OLIVE OYL segments, which were inspired (along with H-B's animated LAVERNE & SHIRLEY adaptation that aired concurrently on ABC) by the hit movie PRIVATE BENJAMIN. CBS repeated the sixteen COMEDY SHOW half-hours for the 1982-83 season combined with reruns of :sailor: 1978-80 Saturday AM shorts. The network then pulled the plug- I always assumed low ratings, although Mercer's illness may have been a factor as well.

No original Popeye animation aired until 1987 when H-B and CBS gave him a new series, a son:rolleyes: :eek: and Maurice LaMarche's voice. So Mercer probably last voiced the Sailor in late 1980 or early '81. (Saturday AM cartoons are generally recorded the fall or winter before they premiere, don't they?)

Mercer still seemed to handle the role pretty well in 1978, having continued to perform it in commercials (and a one-shot ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE in 1972) since the KFS TV shorts ended production in 1961. But by 1981, it was painfully evident that, like Mel Blanc, age and illness was taking its toll. That Popeye is such a vocally demanding part (like :ysam: or Taz was for Blanc) didn't help either. Considering how weak he sounded in the 1981 episodes, and his age, it certainly seems logical- and sad- that Mercer's illness forced him to perform his most-beloved role from a hospital bed.

Mercer passed away in fall 1984:( in New York City, where all his Fleischer, Famous:buzzy:, KFS and other TV work :felix: had been done. Did he relocate or commute to Hollywood to record for Hanna-Barbera? The fact that he performed his last from a hospital would indicate that special accomodations were made so he wouldn't have to travel cross country.

[Gordan]

Is it interesting that so many justifications and excuses need to be made for a bad movie? Let's face it. The wrong people were involve, and it was clearly made to exploit the property based on its legacy without any real concern or feel for the material on the part of the writer, director, and song writer. This is not meant as disrespect to these men, but they were simply out of their element as every seems to agree. It is extremely obvious!
:sailor:


You know what else, Ray? When I organized that 75 YEARS OF POPEYE retrospective with Fleischer shorts for the Ottawa 04 International Animation Festival, I tried to invite a few people from work to come and bring their children to see the show. You know what answer I got TWICE: "Thanks, but my kids don't like Popeye." My response to that: "How come?" The answer: "We rented the movie with Robin Williams and my kids didn't like it."

Imagine living in Canada where pretty much the only reference to Popeye is that terrible live-action movie. Kids these days base their opinion about Popeye on that stupid film and you cannot help the situation. That film has done so much disservice to an amazing classic cartoon character, I get sick when someone only mentions it.

KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, are you listening ??? This is ALARMING !!! Honestly, it is.:sailor:

[MF TOON]

I think to an extent, the filmmakers at least tried to do the character justice by incorporating certain elements and formulas that reflected upon the origins and traits of Popeye and his world... that's more than most filmmakers care about nowadays when readapting animated entities into live-action film. That's not to say it was a success... but watching the film I at least had the sense that somebody was a fan.

[JIM ENGEL]

It's a movie that doesn't live up to its potential, but it's WAY better than the vast majority of comic-adaptation movies.

I can't stand Robin Williams anywhere ELSE, but I think he made a great Popeye. Ray Walston was great as Pappy, Shelly Duvall was swell as Olive, and I also liked Nana & Cole Oyl, & Richard Libertini as Geezil.

And I will part company with the haters of the songs, too. I thought they were terrific---particularly the Sweet Haven national anthem.