Popeye

This movie marked the debut of Williams, in a role suited to his skills at the time as an actor. He looks the part and has fun with the silliness, making the title character likable. Shelley Duvall matches his ability to make her role as Olive Oil likable and she gets some well-deserved laughs in some scenes. It's just good, clean fun.

This project was reviled by critics and disowned by Altman and Williams. It corresponded to DuVal's breakdown, and was all but the end of the heavy drinker Nilsson's adventures in film.

But I think its great. You have to remember that it predates every comic/cartoon to film project except 'Superman,' which really was a version of the TeeVee show. And you have to appreciate that 'Popeye' the cartoon is one of the very few that featured humans and therefore was more abstract than most.

Watch it now, and see that it was well ahead of its time and now stacks up as extremely introspective: along the lines of 'Alphaville.'

It had Robin Williams and Ray Walston, both famous TeeVee aliens, or so they were known at the time. It was penned by the notoriously ironic, cartoonist Feiffer, someone who specialized in personal social angst. The songs - a major element here - were by the self-destructive genius Nilsson, and directed by Altman when he was interested in social commentary.

All, plus Duvall, were at the height of their powers. Even the quirky Van Dyke Parks appears.

What makes this project so interesting and appealing is that everyone is completely simpatico with Feiffer's Jarryesque vision, which is disconnected from reality and had no cinematic model.

How so many talents could be so adventuresome and coordinated at the same time is a real puzzle.

The bit about how 'large' Bluto is - and how Shelly mentions it - makes me smile every time I recall it. The social text is a bit heavy, but so what?

This is what made Tim Burton possible.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

When I first saw Popeye around the early 80's(Im 26 now), I was hooked. I found the whole production to be amusing. It seems that I'm one of the few that enjoyed the soundtrack to the movie(I recently picked it up on LP). The songs fit the mood and had some good humor to them. Musically performed well also. I thought the set(Sweethaven), was very comical yet useable,liveable and the "no sense of time" previously mentioned just brings it out more. I'd visit it if I were ever to travel near Malta. Shelley and Robin are the perfect pair to bring their characters life. Of course can't leave out Swee'Pea. The whole cast rounds out the picture well. I guess I could get in depth and go on but I just wanted to quickly sum up my thoughts. Believe it or not--there are some big fans of this flick. I recommend this movie for anyone with a quirky sense of humor and fun. I wish this movie would be released on DVD. Behind the scenes extras would be neat.

It is very nice to see a revival of interest in this quirky little film. The art direction of this film is simply amazing, and deserved to win an Oscar for being able to completely capture the homely innocence of the story's setting, in rich detail.

Many have derided the story as unfocused, but there is an epic sweep to the storyline, which requires an episodic approach. This film requires paying attention on multiple levels, and rewards viewers who do so, as few other epic films have.

There are some detractors who can't handle the fact that the film is part Musical, but this is definitely in keeping with original cartoons, which frequently featured music in their storylines. In any event, the half-dozen or so songs come at appropriate intervals, and in some cases are Broadway quality set-piece showstoppers, like the scene in the Rough House Diner, and Pappy's diskgruntlement about Kids!

I will leave it to others to comment on the all-round fine ensemble acting, but I would like to finish by saying, that this is truly a film where the whole is greater than its parts. From the rich tapestry of Elzie Segar's original imaginings, to the lush production values brought to this vision by Robert Altman and company, this is a film that fails on some levels but succeeds on many more.

Wow, again "the worst movie ever made". At least when you go by those self proclaimed internet-movie-critics on IMDb who never bother to bestow upon the heavily bored public their highly imaginative musings like "Two hours of my life I will never get back", without even having one (a life that is) in the first place. Fact is: Every movie in this database is "the worst ever made" ... for someone ... then scroll up or down a bit and suddenly the same movie will become a "never fully appreciated masterpiece". What does this teach us? The truth, like always, lies somewhere in between and is highly subjective. Go and see it for yourself. Don't be interested in what I have to say. Well, if you still are: I quite liked it.