Robin Williams made his feature film starring debut as Popeye the sailor man. The movie adaptation is a musical based mostly on the Elzie Crisler Segar comic strip, rather than the Max Fleischer animated cartoons. Yet, the film begins with an authentic intro from the original black and white POPEYE cartoons.
Popeye arrives by dinghy in the seaside town of Sweet Haven looking for his long-lost father. He meets Wimpy (Paul Dooley) who loves hamburgers, Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall), the love of his life, and Bluto (Paul L. Smith), a mean and nasty pirate who runs Sweet Haven. His dad Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston) shows up, he adopts Swee' pea (Wesley Ivan Hurt), and is determined to stop Bluto. He mops the floor with punks in Wimpy's burger joint, stops a greedy tax collector (Donald Moffat), and defeats a champion boxer.
Popeye: "I found him in Sweet Haven, that's why I am calling him Swee'Pea. That is his name."
Olive : "Swee'Pea is the worst name I've ever heard on a baby."
Popeye: "Well what do you wants me to call him? Baby Oyl?"
Like a cartoon character brought to life, Williams has massive forearms and mutters asides under his breath, a pipe clenched in his teeth. Often it's difficult to understand what he is saying. Both he and Shelley Duvall are perfect for their roles. Popeye sings, "I'm one tough gazookas that hates all palookas that ain't on the up and square. I biffs 'em and always out-roughs 'em and none of 'em gets nowhere. So keep good behavior, it's your one lifesaver, with Popeye the Sailor Man."
Popeye: "How come carrots is a dollar?"
Geezil: "$1.50. You buy what I don't feel like selling will cost you $2.00."
Popeye: (Takes the carrots and tosses Geezil a nickel)
Geezil: "Ah ah. Nope, this is a nickel."
Popeye: "I'm payin' what I feels like payin'."
Tax Man: "You're not up to no good are you? Because if you are there's a 25¢ up to no good tax."
POPEYE is a big-budget musical comedy directed by Robert Altman. It is suitable for kids, rated PG, and should also be classified as a cult film. With the strange and awkward set design, it is fascinating to watch and is often lots of fun.
The songs by Harry Nilsson are: I Yam What I Yam; He Needs Me; Swee' Pea's Lullaby; Everything is Food; Din' We; Sweet Haven; Blow Me Down; Sailin'; It's Not Easy Being Me; Children; He's Large; I'm Mean; Food, Food, Food; and Kids. "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" was written by Samuel Lerner.
Nilsson took his band to Malta, where a special recording studio was constructed for the movie. Music was also recorded and mixed at Cherokee Studios, co-produced by Nilsson and Bruce Robb. Some of the songs are sung live in the film, and do not match the studio-recorded CD soundtrack. Shelley Duvall sings all her own songs.
Songs are cute and charming, and they advance the plot quite well. Examples are: "Sailin'", "He's Large", "I'm Mean", "Food, Food, Food", and "He Needs Me". There are very few rhymes in the songs; instead there is very much repetition. And Altman's style of cross-cutting to non-musical scenes during songs is quite evident.
One major criticism is the lack of action until the very end, when Popeye finally eats some spinach. Popeye dislikes spinach, and therefore Bluto forces him to eat some. This is ironic considering he is supposedly "strong to the finich, 'cause he eats his spinach!"
The cast also includes: Richard Libertini (Geezil), MacIntyre Dixon (Cole Oyl), Roberta Maxwell (Nana Oyl), Donovan Scott (Castor Oyl), Allan F. Nicholls (Rough House), Bill Irwin (Ham Gravy), Robert Fortier (Bill Barnacle), David McCharen (Harry Hotcash), Sharon Kinney (Cherry), Peter Bray (Oxblood Oxheart), Linda Hunt (Mrs. Oxheart), Geoff Hoyle (Scoop), Wayne Robson (Chizzelflint), Larry Pisoni (Chico), Calrlo Pellegrini (Swifty), Susan Kingsley (La Verne), Judy Burgess (Petunia), Saundra MacDonald (Violet), Michael Christiansen (Splatz), Van Dyke Parks (Hoagy), Dennis Franz (Spike), and many others. Jules Feiffer wrote the script.
This is one of my favorite Robin Williams films, but most movie reviewers do not like it. They write it is "astonishingly boring", "cluttered", and "uninspired and often pointless". I believe they simply do not like the Popeye character. If for some reason they did not like Shakespeare's Hamlet character, they would pan it as well. They are not being fair in their criticisms and honest about their prejudices.
POPEYE earned $50 million at the US box-office, more than twice its budget, and is still raking in money. It was filmed almost entirely on the Mediterranean island of Malta, in the village of Mellieha. The well-constructed set is now a popular tourist attraction called Popeye Village.
