Popeye (1980) Online
Buff sailor man Popeye arrives in an awkward seaside town called Sweethaven. There he meets Wimpy, a hamburger-loving man; Olive Oyl, the soon-to-be love of his life; and Bluto, a huge, mean pirate who is out to make Sweethaven pay for no good reason. Popeye also discovers his long-lost Pappy in the middle of it all, so with a band of his new friends, Popeye heads off to stop Bluto, and he's got the power of spinach, which Popeye detests, to bust Bluto right in the mush. Watch as Popeye mops the floor with punks in a burger joint, stops a greedy taxman, takes down a champion boxer, and even finds abandoned baby Swee'pea. He's strong to the finish 'cause he eats his spinach.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Robin Williams | - | Popeye |
 | Shelley Duvall | - | Olive Oyl |
 | Ray Walston | - | Poopdeck Pappy |
 | Paul Dooley | - | Wimpy |
 | Paul L. Smith | - | Bluto |
 | Richard Libertini | - | Geezil |
 | Donald Moffat | - | The Taxman |
 | MacIntyre Dixon | - | Cole Oyl |
 | Roberta Maxwell | - | Nana Oyl |
 | Donovan Scott | - | Castor Oyl |
 | Allan F. Nicholls | - | Rough House (as Allan Nicholls) |
 | Wesley Ivan Hurt | - | Swee'pea |
 | Bill Irwin | - | Ham Gravy, the Old Boyfriend |
| Robert Fortier | - | Bill Barnacle, the Town Drunk |
| David McCharen | - | Harry Hotcash, the Gambler |
Robin Williams's starring movie debut in a major role.
The many sunken ships in the harbor were actually seaworthy vessels that were rented or bought and then sunk.
The make-up appliances for Robin Williams's fake forearms were not ready when filming began, so in early shots, Popeye wears a long-sleeved raincoat to hide his normal-sized arms.
At Olive and Bluto's engagement party, a man can be heard complaining about Olive getting married. This man is Ham Gravy, who was Olive's fiancé in the "Thimble Theater" comics before he was written out and Popeye took his place.
Most of Robin Williams's muttered Popeye voice was discovered to be inaudible once filming wrapped, and he had to re-dub much of the dialogue.
In a print interview released around the same time as this film, Shelley Duvall admitted that children used to call her Olive Oyl when she was in grade school.
Swee'Pea is played by Wesley Ivan Hurt - Robert Altman's grandson.
The set for the small town of Sweethaven was built at Anchor Bay on the Mediterranean island of Malta. After filming, it became a popular tourist attraction.
Shelley Duvall sang most of her own songs.
This movie was criticized for not being very faithful to the original cartoons, but this actually has a great deal in common with E.C. Segar's original "Thimble Theater" comic, where Popeye first appeared.
Linda Hunt's debut cinematic appearance.
Everyone tried to dissuade Robert Altman from working with Harry Nilsson, saying that he would be constantly drunk. Only Robin Williams supported him in this decision. As this turned out, Altman found Nilsson to be delightful to work with.
Many of the citizens of Sweethaven, especially those who had to do some physical gags, were recruited from European circuses.
Most of the film's budget went towards the Sweethaven set. This explains why the octopus seen at the climax is less than convincing.
Paramount green-lit this film after losing a bidding war with Columbia for the screen rights to the musical Annie (1982). When producer Robert Evans found out that Paramount had lost the bidding for "Annie", he held an executive meeting in which he asked about comic strip characters that they had the rights to, that could also be used in order to create a movie musical, and one attendee recommended Popeye.
During production, producer Robert Evans was arrested for trying to buy cocaine.
Harry Nilsson took a break in the middle of production of his album "Flash Harry" to create the music for this movie. He wrote all of the original songs and co-produced the music with producer Bruce Robb at Cherokee Studios.
A 200-250 foot breakwater had to be constructed at the mouth of the harbor to prevent the set from getting flooded during high seas.
Around 1977, Robert Evans had wanted Dustin Hoffman to play Popeye, Lily Tomlin to play Olive Oyl and John Schlesinger to direct.
An international construction crew of 165 worked seven months to construct the set. Tree trunk logs were driven across the European continent from the Netherlands, and wood shingles were imported all the way from Canada. Eight tons (7,257 kilograms) of nails and 2,000 gallons (7,571 liters) of paint were used to complete the set. When they finished, the fictional village of Sweet Haven consisted of 19 buildings, including a hotel, a schoolhouse, a store, a post office, a church, and a tavern.
Jules Feiffer's screenplay originally included Popeye's magical pet Eugene the Jeep. Though the Jeep was ultimately left out, Feiffer gave some of its magical characteristics to Swee'Pea, hence the baby's apparent clairvoyance.
The producers wanted the role of Olive Oyl to be played by Gilda Radner. However, Robert Altman held out for Shelley Duvall.
The name of the character "Nana Oyl" is a play on the 1920s-30s comment "Aw, banana oil" which was used to express disbelief. Much like today's comment "Yeah, right".
This film premiered on December 6, 1980, just two days before what would have been "Popeye" creator E.C. Segar's 86th birthday.
In the 1940s, William Hanna and Joseph Barbara were working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; their main goal was to beat Walt Disney with family animation. Four decades later, Hanna-Barbara animated the Paramount opening intro for this film, thus working for a Disney co-produced film.
Jack Mercer, Popeye's most well-known and prolific voice actor, provides the voice of Popeye in the animated introduction.
Harry Nilsson took his musicians to the island of Malta where they had a purpose-built studio constructed for them.
Robin Williams was considered for Jack Nicholson's role in the horror classic The Shining (1980), also starring Shelley Duvall.
This movie won Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 3rd Stinkers Bad Movie Awards (1980).
This was not only the first joint production between Paramount and the Walt Disney Company, it was also the first time Disney had co-produced a film with another major studio. In the following years, most Disney/Paramount joint productions would involve Disney's Touchstone and Miramax brands rather than the flagship Walt Disney Pictures label.
This is the first film released by Disney in which the word "shit" is heard (said by Popeye during his huge fight with Bluto). Disney did not start Touchstone Pictures until later that decade.
After so many other directors had said no, Robert Altman said he wanted to make this film, loved the screenplay, and would not change a word. "I laughed when Evans reported this to me," Jules Feiffer wrote in his memoir. "I was a friend of Altman's and a fan. As a fan I knew what was coming. Altman didn't believe in scripts except as a necessary evil to get films financed. He didn't much believe in words, he didn't care if you heard the dialogue or not. And he didn't believe in story. But I could imagine no one better to give credibility to Segar's outlandish creations on-screen."
Robin Williams nicknamed Robert Altman "Stalag Altman".
This film ended Paramount's involvement in the "Popeye" franchise, having released the 1933-57 animated cartoons, and outsourced production on some of the 1960s television cartoons from King Features. In 2012, Paramount licensed American/Canadian home video rights to much of its catalog to Warner Bros., and this film was among the titles that were licensed to them. Warner Bros. has owned the Fleischer/Famous "Popeye" cartoons outright since 1996.
One of the storefronts in Sweethaven reads "O.G. WATTASNOZZLE", Professor O.G. Wottasnozzle was a character who appeared in the "Thimble Theater" comic "Sappo".
This film is was a joint production between Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions; the former released the film in the United States, and the latter had overseas distribution.
Released the same month as another film adaptation of an American comic strip icon, Flash Gordon (1980) (which had premiered December 5, 1980). Ironically, both films were poorly received in the United States at the time, although later considered cult classics.
This was Robin Williams' only comic book movie.
Nearly every time someone informs Olive Oyl that they owe her an apology, she says "what?!"
Screenwriter Jules Feiffer asserts that while Dustin Hoffman was attached to the project, he tried to get Robert Evans to fire Feiffer, but even though he was good friends with the actor, the producer refused. "This is not done in Hollywood," Feiffer writes, knowing the project would lose its financing as soon as Hoffman stepped away.
This movie, and Mork & Mindy (1978), are the two projects that helped launch Robin Williams' career, yet in stand-up comedy, he constantly jokes about trying to distance himself from both, though he brings both up.
The 1930s Fleischer Studios intro came from Blow Me Down! (1933).
Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn and Hal Ashby were each originally slated to direct this movie.
In the movie, Popeye routinely says he's a "mudder" (mother) after finding Swee'Pea. He was also called a mother initially by Jonathan Winters' character, Mearth, in the fourth season of Mork & Mindy (1978).
The Sweethaven anthem has the first few notes of The Star Spangled Banner used throughout the song.
The original vinyl soundtrack contains a song that never appeared in the final film. The song, "Din'we (Bill Barnacle lament)", sung by actor Robert Fortier, was never heard or seen so where this fit in the film is unknown.
The town drunk is named Barnacle Bill, after a 19th century drinking song "Barnacle Bill the Sailor". There was a Popeye cartoon named Beware of Barnacle Bill (1935).
The Rough House roughnecks - Spike, Mort, Gozo, Bolo, Slug and Butch - are all named after various thugs Popeye encountered (and defeated) in the "Thimble Theater" comic strips.
During the song "Everything Is Food" in the Rough House Cafe, a bearded man is reading a newspaper with a Popeye comic strip on the back page.
Fans of The Andy Griffith Show, might recognize Doug Dillard, who plays Clem the Banjo Player. He was in a band called The Dillards who all played the Darlins in The Andy Griffith Show.
Dustin Hoffman was originally set to play the title role opposite Lily Tomlin as Olive Oyl.
Bill Irwin's debut cinematic appearance.
The Sweethaven newspaper is called "The Sweethaven Daily Poop".
Robin Williams and Richard Libertini later appeared in Awakenings (1990).
Other directors considered for the project, according to Jules Feiffer, were Louis Malle and Jerry Lewis.
"Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor" (1936), the first animated Popeye special in color, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. It is also routinely called one of the best cartoon shorts of all time, having recently been placed #50 in the Greatest 100 animated films of all time list. It was also deemed "culturally significant" by the National Film Registry. Conversely, Robert Altman's 1980 live action version of Popeye was slammed by the critics and was a box office bomb.
Paul L. Smith and Linda Hunt later starred in the sci-fi epic Dune (1984).
Popeye was filmed in Malta. Two years earlier, actor Paul L. Smith (Bluto) had played the lead antagonist in Midnight Express (1978), also filmed in Malta.
Roberta Maxwell, who portrays Nana Oyl, is only seven years older than Shelley Duvall, who plays her daughter, Olive.
Popeye's arrival in Sweethaven and Popeye getting into a fight with the gang at the burger bar, when the gang insults him is a nod to the western genre.
Oxblood Oxheart was taken from the original comic strip, where he first appeared as Bullo Oxheart (with a full head of hair). In the strip, he is depicted as a brute with an appearance similar to that of Bluto himself, save for being clean shaven.
Richard Libertini and Donald Moffat later appeared in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).
Along with Dragonslayer (1981), this Disney/Paramount co-production foreshadowed the studio's future. At the time, Ron Miller was head of Walt Disney Productions. Michael Eisner, who ended up taking his place, was in charge of Paramount at the time. As Miller became head of the entire Disney company, Miller wanted Eisner to be his successor and just run the studio, but Eisner wanted to run the whole thing and eventually did from 1984 to 2005.
Eight years after this film, Robin Williams and Bill Irwin would appear together with Bobby McFerrin for the music video for McFerrin's hit song "Don't Worry Be Happy".
During filming the scene at the end where Pappy throws Popeye the can of spinach, Ray Walston hit Robin Williams in the head so hard, that he required several stitches in his scalp and delayed filming for several weeks.
While this may seem odd to most fans that the movie's portrayal of Popeye does not like spinach, this was a theme used in the original comic strip by E.C. Segar. Popeye originally boosted his strength by rubbing the hairs on the head of a magical Whiffle Hen called Bernice when he first began appearing in Segar's "Thimble Theatre" (1929). The consumption of spinach to explain Popeye's strength was introduced in the early 1930s, and was only infrequently referenced until it became a staple of the 1930s animated shorts from Paramount Studios and Fleischer Studios.
In nearly every scene, Bear the Hobo can be seen in the background.
The book Poopdeck Pappy retrieved from his treasure chest is "How to Raise an Orphink" by Dr. Speck. Chapter 1 says "Feed it spinach". This is a spoof of Dr. Benjamin Spock, an American pediatrician famous for writing insightful and enabling books on child care.
The brand of spinach that Poopdeck Pappy feeds Swee'Pea and Popeye is Iron Fist and bears a green and yellow label. Coincidentally, the costume of the Marvel superhero known as Iron Fist is primarily green and yellow.
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