Use code HATSOFF50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/46jVEcK! Written, Presented & Compiled by Joe Ramoni / joeramoni / hatsoffjoe Please consider supporting me on Patreon: / hatsoffentertainment
I grew up watching this movie, I never knew it was considered "bad" until relatively recently. I loved the hell out of this movie and I STILL love this movie
Shelley was clearly just made to play Olive Oyl- she looks exactly like the drawing once she's in costume, and her large eyes just work so well in terms of the cartoon aesthetic.
It's interesting that she appeared in two movies that year which were number 11 and 12 on the list of top domestic box office; one was Popeye and the other is a certain movie about a haunted hotel. I enjoy Shelley in Altman's movies; Three Women is a strange gem, and Nashville is a great piece of American cinema.
@@beckigreen Nice! The movie starts off so confident and so brimming with satire, you can't help but love its whole vibe. I like movies that make it seem as if I'm a fly on the wall, with natural-seeming conversations and moments. Plus, I'm a big fan of Lily Tomlin, Shelley, Henry Gibson, and Karen Black.
I was a professional circus clown back when Popeye came out. This movie was greatly admired by me and my fellow clowns for the delightful quality of the slapstick. Bill Irwin, who played Hamgravy, was a particular favorite of ours and came from our world, so that was thrilling. He and so many others in this film were just great and I see Popeye as a wonderful film with many touches that make it impeccable.
Thanks for the insight! If it wasnt for the internet I would not get insights from the professional above. Especially remembering a time period from 40 years ago. Thanks again!
Something I never noticed as a kid was the tonal difference in the movie before and after Popeye and Olive connect. When Popeye is alone, the movie is kind of depressing in this little shanty town. When Olive pulls a runaway bride, runs into Popeye and they find Swee' Pea, the rest of the movie is funny, the mood lightened and the cartoon-level gags started hitting. I don't know if that was on purpose or if it was intentionally set to show that Popeye's life is better when he's not a wandering, solitary sailor. This movie is so full of charm and it's a shame it hasn't gotten the same attention as other older pop culture movies.
I visited Popeye Village in Malta two days after Robin passed. Back in 2014, social media was not in your face like it is today so I only found out on the morning that me and my family were going to visit the set. Atmosphere round the place was slightly off, but it was great to see how well it is preserved. A unique tourist attraction worth going too.
I never had a problem with Popeye's strength in the movie. The early cartoons made it clear that Popeye was stronger than most, but Bluto was just a little stronger. The spinach always gave Popeye the edge he needed. I've always loved this movie. It's slow pace gave it time to take in the universe it's set in.
Yeah. The cartoons that I remember set up their dynamic so that Popeye needed spinach in order to defeat Bluto in a fight. Even if the bit had Popeye do stunts that showed him stronger than Bluto even without spinach, their eventual fight would keep Popeye on the verge of defeat before he gets spinach. (Either because Bluto cheats or because he is a better fighter pre-powerup.) So the film kept true to this dynamic.
i love how Robert Altman decided not to go the easy route (adapt the cartoons) and went for deepest Popeye lore (most of the stuff in the movie is straight from Thimble Theater)
The set was built by Italian crew , we used to feed them at the hilltop restaurant mellieha . Once filming started, we would do deliveries to the set .I remember they brought an old ship from Valletta, brought it to Anchor Bay, and sank it .Wow, that was 40 yrs ago
When I was a child in the 90s one of my fondest memories of my holiday to Malta was visiting the set of the movie, it was so cool being able to run around popeye's town.
This movie is precious to me for personal reasons. It's always heart warming to come across someone else who's seen it liked it and remembers it. But I find that's rare. This meant a lot to me that you covered this in detail and with a level of appreciation I feel isn't shared enough for this film. Thank you.
I love the part where Bluto sees Popeye, Olive, and Swee'Pea all in red with fury and that they actually had the actors wear red and dressed the set in all red just for that quick shot... it's not an optical effect or lighting trick... it's all in-camera. @0:42
Robin Williams performance as Popeye and the set design of the town with the best parts of the movie. I'm glad that the set is still used as a theme park today.
Yep the director that drove multiple actors to quit, the writer to quit, made production miserable for everybody involved, and went massively over budget (directly after being in Hollywood jail, for losing studios tons of money) all in the service of making a critical and fiancial bomb that almost killed Robin Williams movie career before it started... yea this really shows he's a great director.
@@uwaeliteprowrestling9570 Well, if you keep pressing on despite all the insanity, you gotta be a good director. Last time that situation came up with Altman, we got M*A*S*H.
@@uwaeliteprowrestling9570 Popeye was not even close to a financial bomb, and it has been critically re-evaluated. As for making the production miserable, Altman wasn't even the most difficult director Shelley Duvall had to work with _that year._ That was Stanley Kubrick, who made a less profitable movie that was also coolly received by critics and was extremely hard on the cast and crew. That film, The Shining, is now largely regarded as a classic. Now, this isn't to say that Popeye is as good as The Shining, or that Altman didn't create difficult situations, or that Altman is a better director than Kubrick, or anything like that. It's more to point out that your total dismissal of Altman is at best based on a flawed metric. Many of the problems Altman created were a byproduct of the interesting elements he brought to the film. Sometimes even great directors make bad movies, and sometimes only great directors can make a certain kind of bad film. Even Ingmar Bergman - incontestably one of the great filmmakers of the 20th century - made The Serpent's Egg.
Thank you so much for giving this movie its due. It was clearly made with a great deal of respect for the source material. The sets, the casting, the costumes, the whole "prequel" storyline was inspired. Yes, it was like nothing we'd seen; that doesn't make it bad. See also: Dick Tracy. Olive Oyl and Popeye were so perfectly done. Never before and never again.
Watching the live action Popeye with subtitles turned on is hilarious, because they spell Popeye's words the way he pronunsciates them. I watch it all the time. Fun, well made in the very deliberate cartoonish style, and faithful to the source material.
I was 18 and an enormous Altman fan, and a huge Nilsson fan, when this came out. I took my 6 year old brother to see it with me. He loved it so much I stopped on way home and bought him the soundtrack album, which was my favorite part of the film. I also thought Shelly Duvall was wonderfully enchanting and she made me realize why these two goofs would fight over her. And honestly, this film and Romero’s Creepshow best capture visually the mediums of cartoons and comics that they pay homage to better than any movie or TV show I know of.
You have to admire the world building they did for this film. Popeye is another one of those movies I watched over 100 times on HBO back in the day, and I would never consider Popeye bad or a bomb. Lots of great moments and wonderful performances. Plus the darn Sweethaven set is still standing in Malta!
I got the opportunity to visit the set when I visited Malta back in may! What incredible work that team did! To build such an intricate, living set on the side of a cliff must’ve been immensely difficult. I’m glad Malta has preserved it.
This movie was bad for adults but, as a kid, I loved this movie and William’s and Duvall’s performances were a major reason why. Duvall never gets her credit but damn, she literally made a cartoon drawing come to life so perfectly.
Yeah kind of sad she's only recognized for the shining when that performance mostly came from her being tortured the whole movie but in this she's actually acting and doing one hell of a job!
Popeye is a great movie. About two thirds of the movie in, there is a tax collector that taxes everything- and Popeye pushes him into the ocean and the whole town runs out to celebrate Popeye. Snifff. Popeye is a true hero.
I've always admired how grounded, and well casted this film was. The costuming, and gags were also well done. This is what I imagine when I think of a live action adaptation. My only crit for the movie is it needs a fulll score. The silence drags the film down to a snails pace. A score throughout would up the tempo.
I remember loving this movie as a kid, and it holds up so much better than people give it credit for. Glad to see people are finally giving it the love it deserves.
As a kid I never thought twice about this film being bad. It was so faithful to the cartoon and comics and even as a dumb child I could tell the set design and overall production was something special. To this day I dont know how anyone can look at the movie and think its bad.
The Popeye movie is not "Not That Bad" ... I think it is actually really good. I don't care what anyone says. I loved it as a kid, and I find it to be an adorable movie to watch as an adult with good direction. It's a movie that's pretty spot-on with representing the source material if you ask me. And Robin Williams and Shelley DuVall knock it out of the freakin' park as Popeye and Olive.
I agree 100%, and I also like the subtle character development of Pappy starting when he rescues Swee Pea from the boat, restoring his proper father figure motives, thus helping Popeye properly defeat Bluto. As for the Bluto himself, I don't look at that one punch by Popeye as anticlimactic, I feel like that one punch was strong enough to make Bluto's life flash before his eyes, making him regret everything that he ever did.
You hit the nail on the head -- it was true to the source material, i.e. the comic strip. I think that was both its biggest selling point, and its biggest drawback, because lots of folks assumed it was going to be based on the cartoon.
My grandfather adored this film. I got around to watching it once, about a year ago. Watching these clips, and this review, has me wanting to watch it again. Yes, there were pacing issues, but the imagination and performances of this little film can't be ignored.
I watched it back in the early 90s during the Disney Film parade on German TV and always loved how well they got every character to look like their comic Original. It was also my first contact with Shelly Duvall, who gave us the BEST Olive Oyl we could have ever asked for. 🥰 I just absolutely adored the production quality of this movie and still do.
Before release, a lot of people in Hollywood were expecting it to fail and were united in celebrating it tanking. The cast had already dismissed it and had a miserable experience filming it. So many were taken aback that the movie was still a commercial success, but it was already hip to hate the movie after the fact. Hollywood shunned Altman for a long time anyway, despite the film being a cult hit. I think it's one of the most unique blockbusters out there and I'm glad it exists
I always thought it was a great adaptation of the cartoon. It stayed close to the source material and the casting was great, especially with Robin Williams as Popeye.
I saw this movie in the theatre when it came out, I was pretty young but it had a lasting impression on me and has always been a special memory. The octopus scared the hell out of me as a kid. Great video and thank you for showing this movie some love. Hoping we can get a 4K release!!
I love this movie. Always have. I think at the time the critics savaged it because there used to be a stigma about television actors versus film actors. The perception was that people who worked on television shows weren’t good enough to be in movies. Robin Williams was known for being Mork from Ork. This was his first film. It was an expensive movie to make and there are many stories about what went down during the making of this film. However, I think it was perfectly cast and if it had come out a decade later I think most critics would have been more favorable towards it.
The way this movie is always talked about in William's career retrospectives, I did not know this wasn't a flop in theaters, even accounting for marketing it made 3x its budget. And knowing the home video market for kids during the 80s/90s it probably PRINTED money! (There was a shortage of high quality children's media due to Disney hoarding the majority of its legacy movies in the famous _vault_ , making films like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" among others MEGA-HITS in home video.)
Your videos are really something special. I am a very jaded person, but you have this way of rekindling the kid I used to be that hadn't yet gotten chewed up and spat out so many times. Only thing I allow myself to watch on the entire internet for the "feel good" factor. Hats off, to YOU, sir.
This movie defined, DEFINED my childhood for me as well as my two older brothers when we were kids. I'm thrilled it's finally getting the acknowledgement it deserves, warts and all.
This movie means so much to me, I don't even know where to begin. It was because of the stellar performances of Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. It was around 2008, I discovered my love for Popeye with both the cartoon and the movie. I remember when this movie came on television and my father recorded it for me as a surprise. I also remember I used to make my own Popeye pipe from a marshmallow and I'd stick either a straw or pencil in it (the pencil was stronger). I was so sad when Robin passed on, I hoped that one day I'd meet him and tell him how much this movie means to me and how he became part of my childhood because of it. I love Popeye because of Robin Williams.
I love hearing about this movie in a positive light. I saw it in the theater when I was 7 and it totally sucked me in. Sure, as a child, I didn't understand the tax subplot, but the visuals and the music kept me highly entertained...even to this day!
literally my favorite Robin Williams movie, ever made, of all-time❤! I've seen it hundreds of times, it never gets old, the songs are just so much fun to sing along to... so much charm this movie has, and I honestly think that Robin Williams did Popeye immense justice. I cannot even think of any other actor that could have brought Popeye's character to wondrous life as Robin did. I really do appreciate this video upload... Popeye's just awesome!☺️
Agree. The songs are quirky and awkward. Like Olive's song "He Needs Me". They don't roll the way songs in musicals are supposed to. That song shouldn't work, but it does somehow. To me that makes them all more endearing, memorable and fun to sing along to. The kids used to ask me to sing Popeye's "Everybody Needs Somebody" when they were going to bed. You're right all the casting was so spot on, especially one character which is never highlighted. The baby that plays Swee' pea. Some of the reactions they get out of that kid for the movie brings joy.
You've yet to fail to impress, Mr Ramoni. You're not merely one of my own personal favorite channels for cinephiles. I would argue it's one of the BEST among such channels across this vast platform. A venn diagram of our respective personal tastes, sensibilities, and perspectives would almost be just a circle.
Oh, I love this movie. Straight up an underrated gem. The casting was spot on, the jokes are great, the music is great. It's an actual live action cartoon, and as a fan of cartoons, you can't beat that. Also, Robin Williams having to dub over his performance is legitimately how the original animations were done, where a lot of Popeye's rambling was improvised by the voice actor watching some of the footage.
I was 12 or 13 at the time, and loved it. Loved the soundtrack, too. Amazing they essentially built a whole town for the movie. Great cast, especially Shelly as Olive Oyl. The whole thing was very authentically a cartoon come to life!
I remember watching the movie so many times as a kid. I thought it was good and funny. One of Robin Williams best movies. This was a good live action remake, unlike all the Disney and Anime live action remakes we get now.
One of my favorite facts about this movies is Robin telling the story when he and Christopher Reeve got recognized on the street and instead of calling them by their names, the ladies who saw them went fangirl mode and just shouted "IT'S POPEYE AND SUPERMAN! OH MY GOD!" And bad? Hardly. If anything, I think the problem was the director was TOO DEDICATED to the story and just wanted to show his love for the series but as a result that means there's a slow burn in the movie where a lot of us who grew up with reruns of the shorts EXPECT a Popeye adventure to be over in 10 minuets with a lot of that time spent doing very high energy things. This movie really wanted to be more narrative with the story BUT-! There is one thing that actually helped that and that was the physical and cartoonish level of comedy. I *LOVED* these aspects of the movie because while the movie is live action, it wasn't ashamed to be from the basis of a comic and cartoon and as such it took advantage of pulling so many visual gags as they could. The whole Bluto seeing red things was one of my favorite gags and even if his fight with Popeye was too short, him 'going yellow' was another visual gag I liked. I actually wish we got more movies like this that aren't scared of being more comical and taking a break from being 'realistic' because with the right writers and directors you can land visual gags like this smoothly. Maybe I'm just a sap for movies that don't take themselves seriously and 'realistic' while at the same time show their love for the source and the people who love it. A big problem with a lot of directors/writers now is they get far too cynical with their sources, especially if it takes liberties with fictional physics and all that and as a result you get movies that try too hard and fail to be meta. Popeye knew what it was, what it wanted to be and wasn't ashamed of that. It just sometimes felt VERY awkward but despite the hiccups that are there, this is just a fun movie and sometimes that's all we need.
Did he like being "Popeye?" I know he had a lot of fun on Mork & Mindy, but it really bugged him when, throughout his _entire_ life, people would just casually call him "Mork." To be fair, he was ever so much more than that, like several orders of magnitude more.
Agree 100%!! I loved it as a kid of the late 70s and still have nostalgia for it today. I still find myself singing the songs when something triggers them.
I watched this movie in the theater so many times when it came out. I laughed so hard and my parents were so embarassed because of my incessant laughter. I still love this movie and it has a place in my heart forever.
It's not that it's bad. It's the fact that it isn't as good as it should be. Every actor fits their character perfectly and it's set design is spectacular.
The movie does great with set design, costume, casting, and acting. Feels like a cartoon brought to life! But I agree, the movie has its flaws with how it lacks story direction and some scenes feel very dragged out.
I love this movie. I can watch it as an adult and I still love it. The songs, the performances, the absolutely wackiness of it, it's great to me. I didn't know people thought it was bad.
Wow, I’m glad you featured this little gem! My parents took my brother and I to see it when we were kids and I showed it to my children when they were little. We still quote lines from it today.💕
This is actually my favorite Robin Williams role (and I was a huge Mork & Mindy fan as a kid). I wish they had made more. All of the cast absolutely shine in their roles.
It grossed $60 million worldwide, got 3.5 star reviews from Siskel and Ebert, had Robert Altman as director, and Harry Nilson's music. Maybe people REALLY thought it was going to be Animal House levels of success?
One of the rare live action musicals that I actually like. It’s a classic to me. I remember going to see this flick at the theater as a kid. As for Popeye being able to whip Oxblood and assorted thugs while losing to Bluto, that’s actually how the Fleischer Bros. cartoons used to portray Popeye. He was already tough with incredible superhuman level strength but he always had issues with Bluto until he ate his spinach.
This movie was a big part of my childhood and, still, now at 52, I go back and watch it here and there. It's an amazing movie, with memorable songs and Robin Williams giving the part his ALL, and winning it. Duvall was also awesome in it, seemingly made specifically for the part. It's an excellent movie that doesn't deserve the rep it's apparently garnered over the years.
Robin Williams redubbing the audio for Popeye actually works in this movie's favor since the original cartoons are filled with obvious ADR that act as part of the charm.
I love this movie, and I can confidently say that this was and still is my father’s favorite movie. So much so,he can recite line for line and reenact the entirety of the bar fight scene.
I LOVED the Popeye shorts as a kid (and even liked the very 80s spin-off show) POPEYE & SON, but for some weird reason, I never saw the POPEYE movie until I was well into college. I'm not sure why I just never watched it as I was aware of it, but upon seeing it, I honestly do like it. The randomness of the songs honestly work well, as it gives a very DIY feel to the performances. Duvall was born to be Olive Oyl and despite having issues with the production, Williams was also solid as Popeye, emulating the character enough while giving his own sympathetic turns with his mannerisms. Doug Walker (The "Nostalgia Critic") also gave this a positive review, saying it had such a laidback atmosphere to it, but that makes it unique and something to be admired for.
I grew up with the cartoon. It gave me strength to fight against bullies in my school(s). Watching Popeye get beat up at first, then rally and defeat his bully(s), gave me the resolve to get back on my feet and fight even harder than before. "I'm strong to the finish, because i eat my spinach!"
Altman described it perfectly when he said the video was "a good babysitter." This was one of two kid-friendly tapes my grandmother kept at her apartment when I was little; the other being Annie. For most of my childhood I was literally raised on this movie and I loved it. IMO it's the best example of a cartoon world brought to life. I can only imagine the reason for it still having a bad reputation, has to do with the all around "goofiness" of the picture. But that's the idea! It's a live action cartoon! I love that Sweet Haven still stands, too!
Popeye is kid friendly. Though I loved Annie, the end scared the crap out of me when Rooster says, “I’m gonna kill her,” and you completely believe it. The look of terror in Annie’s eyes is genuine.”
I don't personally think it is a very good movie but I can certainly respect the work that went into it, the dedication of the actors and staff, and look back with nostalgia at a time when movies were actually "made" and not "drawn" on green screens.
I remember in the 80's this would play on TV once a year, but my family could never find it for rent or purchase until about 20 years later. It was a great treat to luckily catch it on TV back then!
a childhood classic for me that I still can't believe is considered bad by so many people- Altman and everybody on board could elevate any material and, honestly, their sensibilities work so well with each other- the whole movie's just a neverending gagfest cartoon come to life where nobody shuts up and I love it!
Robin Williams bought a bike from the Seattle shop I worked in. I think it was the mid/late-‘00s while he had several nights doing stand-up at the Showbox. Everything people have said about how in person he was humble, warm, generous, and kind is true. As I shook his hand I secretly wanted to tell him that Popeye was a childhood favourite of mine.
The treasure doesn't come out of nowhere. Bluto had kept the Commodore captive for years because the Commodore had been leading him on about a secret treasure and its location. This is the reason why Popeye has been searching for him for so long. Bluto kidnaps Sweetpea in order to use him to locate the treasure. However in the end the "treasure" is really just memories and keepsakes of his son Popeye when he was a baby. The reason why the ending was so abrupt is because they had delays with the mechanical octopus (not unlike another set on water movie from the '70s) and Paramount was going to shut down the production.
Popeye is a great movie. A comedy, musical, love story and has good morals. The set is insane. Still relatable today is the tax man. The city, state and government tax us on everything and try to figure out to tax us more.
Thats back when movies were made with good morals, a hetero love story, and just a decent movie over all. Hollywood dont make good movies like that any more.
@@blueduck9409 bro literally said they don’t make movies as good as Popeye anymore 😂 Edit- I don’t even dislike the movie, but there are better films released released every year even with those criteria
I have never seen this movie, but this video just skyrocketed it to near the top of my watchlist! I am a huge fan of elaborate sets and costume designs. I also really love special effects and especially how much effort Robin Williams clearly put into this role. Great video as always!
It boggles my mind that anyone says this movie is "bad." It may not be Oscar worthy, but it absolutely succeeds at being what it set out to be and has such charm and creativity. I always cry when Swee'Pea is kidnapped and Popeye can't find him. I will never not love this film.
I too never knew it was considered “bad”. My friends and I watched it at least 5 times in the movie theater!! I am over 50 and I still to this day watch it. Robin was one of the greatest ❤ from Ohio🇺🇸
as a kid, i loved the movie. as an adult, i still love it but appreciate how much detail was put into the movie to make it match the energy of the cartoons. the visual gags still made it look like a live action toon and the actors were spot on.
I always thought this movie captured the essence of the comic and the cartoons perfectly. It's how to do cartoon to live action properly. As far as how Popeye beat Oxblood and no Bluto... I just figured that was an indication that Bluto was in a different league than Oxblood and the Gang members... thus requiring the spinach.
Watched this one as a kid. Even though it was never one of my favorites, it has a nice place in my heart. Also, the soundtrack is unironically one of my favorite movie soundtracks ever
@@quintessenceSL I saw this movie when I was 5, and watched it frequently when I was young on HBO. To this day, I sing Everything is Food while I cook. It's just that catchy and a great song.
I actually managed to find a VHS copy of this years ago. Still sitting in my collection infact. Definitely made my childhood more enjoyable. Oh and thank you Dustin Hoffman for not making it into production!
I saw it in the movie theater when it was released, I thought it was brilliant. I especially liked Paul Smith playing Bluto, an actor who used his sheer physical presence to great effect also in Dune as Rabban Harkonnen and as the prison govenor in Midnight Express
I saw this in the theater at 7 years old. Though it seemed to me at the time another episode of a Popeye cartoon and so no more remarkable than others, I somehow had a sense that Olive Oil was perfect. Later when I understood what acting was, I had a profound reverence for Shelley Duvall. And I'm thrilled to learn Hoffman walked. Williams was the guy for this role.
My grandmother took me to see this when I was five. I loved it. Then, I loved it when I saw it on the Disney Channel, and I love it now! As a matter fact, I appreciate it a lot more as an adult, knowing how faithful it was to the Max Flesher cartoons! Last I checked it’s free on RU-vid
I loved this movie as a kid and I still appreciate it as an adult. It's not a "great" movie, but it's definitely good, for all the reasons this video outlines. As a fan of both the original comic strip and the early Fleischer cartoons, I think it comes closer to successfully recreating the overall feel of that bizarre world than any live action adaptation could be expected to (especially for the time it was made). That's largely thanks to the performances of Williams and Duvall. It's definitely one I put in for a re-watch every now and then!
In case anyone wonders why they picked spinach: it was due to an error. Way back when scientists were analyzing food and coming up with nutritional values somebody misplaced a decimal point and everybody thought spinach had 10 times the iron it actually did. So spinach became associated with iron and consequently strength.
this movie is so much fun, and is one of the most unique movies made. The Harry Nilsson songs, the incredible set, and as you point out, the casting and the costumes... it's great! Also... it's a G rated kids movie based on a comic strip. What the hell were people expecting?!! Kubrick?!
