| Popeye | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Produced by | Robert Evans |
| Screenplay by | Jules Feiffer |
| Story by | Robert Altman |
| Based on | Comic Strip: E.C. Segar |
| Starring | Robin Williams Shelley Duvall Ray Walston Paul L. Smith Paul Dooley Richard Libertini |
| Music by | Harry Nilsson Tom Pierson (additional music) |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| Editing by | John W. Holmes David A. Simmons |
| Studio | Paramount Pictures Walt Disney Productions |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (U.S.) Buena Vista International (Foreign) |
| Release date(s) | December 12, 1980 |
| Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 |
| Box office | United States: US$49,823,017[1] Worldwide: US$60,000,000[2]:88 |
Popeye is a 1980 live-action film adaptation directed by Robert Altman and adapted from E. C. Segar's Thimble Theatre aka Popeye comic strip.
Marketed with the tagline, "The sailor man with the spinach can!", the film is a musical. It stars Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.
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The film begins with an animated cartoon slide of Popeye on his ship with the words "MAX FLEISCHER presents" at the top; the cartoon is "Blow Me Down" (1933). When the doors open, he is quick to say, "Hey! What is this, one of Bluto's tricks?! I'm in the wrong movie!"
One night, Popeye (Robin Williams) rows his dinghy into the harbor of the Sweethaven. When he arrives there everyone seems to fear him. He rents a room at the Oyls' boarding house, where he falls for their daughter, Olive (Shelley Duvall). Olive's hand has been promised to Captain Bluto (Paul L. Smith), a bully and ruffian who is in charge of collecting taxes for the mysterious Commodore. Popeye and Bluto are quick to dislike each other and fight.
Popeye, who was orphaned at an early age, is searching for his missing father. Along the way he encounters George W. Geezil (Richard Libertini), J. Wellington Wimpy (Paul Dooley), "Oxblood Oxheart" (Peter Bray), and a greedy, unnamed taxman (Donald Moffat). Popeye and Olive are brought together when they find Swee'Pea (Wesley Ivan Hurt), a foundling. Swee'Pea can predict the future, whistling when he hears the right answer to a question.
Popeye allows Wimpy to take Swee'Pea on a walk, but Wimpy takes him to the horse race. Wimpy uses Swee'Pea's power to find out which horse will win. Popeye and Olive Oyl are mad at Wimpy. Popeye then throws the tax collector into the sea, making the entire town happy. While the town is celebrating Popeye's victory, Wimpy steals Swee'Pea and gives him to Bluto. Popeye hurries to find Swee'Pea, but it is too late.
When Swee'Pea is kidnapped, Popeye and Olive Oyl go looking for him. Olive and Wimpy learn that Swee'Pea was taken on the Commodore's ship, and it turns out that the Commodore is Popeye's father, Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston). Bluto has tied up Pappy, and is going to use Swee'Pea to find Pappy's treasure. When Olive and Wimpy tell Popeye what they have discovered, Popeye thinks it is a joke and goes to the Commodore's ship to prove them wrong. He finds the Commodore and sees the family resemblance. He learns from his father the secret to gaining great strength by eating spinach, but states his dislike of it, infuriating Pappy.
Bluto kidnaps Swee'Pea and Olive Oyl, then sails to an island on which the Commodore has said his treasure is located. He tries using Swee'Pea's predictive ability to locate the treasure. Popeye, Pappy, Wimpy and their friends chase Bluto to Pirate's Cove. Using a cannon, Pappy tries to sink Bluto's ship, but, in the end, has to ram it. Olive is trapped in a tube that is tossed in the water, and Pappy manages to get up on the cove with Swee'Pea and Popeye's friends.
Bluto and Popeye get into a sword fight. Bluto, being bigger and stronger, knocks Popeye into the water. A giant octopus tries to eat Olive. Pappy calls to Popeye and tells him that if he ate spinach he would not be losing. Bluto attempts to add insult to injury by forcing Popeye to eat a can of spinach, then wrapping him in chains and dropping him into the water. Popeye, now with extraordinary strength, shoots up from the water and defeats Bluto with a mighty punch. He then rescues Olive using a "Twisker Punch", sending the octopus flying into the air. Now beaten, Bluto turns yellow (literally) and swims out to sea, never to be heard from again.
Pappy finds his treasure, containing items from Popeye's infancy, including a picture of "Me Son". The characters sing "Popeye The Sailor Man", while Popeye dances and falls back in the water, only to pop back up smiling. The credits then play through a scene of the cove showing Bluto still swimming out to sea.
Popeye premiered on December 6, 1980 at the Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.[3]:123
The film grossed US$6,000,000 on its opening weekend in the U.S., and made US$32,000,000 after 32 days.[3]:123–124 The film earned $49,823,037[1] at the United States box office—more than double the film's budget—and a worldwide total of US$60,000,000.[2]:88 It received overall mixed reviews: some favorable, from critics such as Vincent Canby and Roger Ebert; others unfavorable, from critics such as Leonard Maltin, who described the picture as "...Astonishingly boring. The beloved sailorman boards a sinking ship. A game cast does its best with an unfunny script and cluttered staging. Tune in a few hours' worth of Max Fleischer cartoons instead; you'll be much better off."[4] Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 57% "Rotten" rating with the critical consensus stating [that] "Altman's take on the iconic cartoon is messy and wildly uneven, but its robust humor and manic charm are hard to resist."
| Popeye (Soundtrack) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Harry Nilsson | ||||
| Released | 1981 | |||
| Recorded | 1980 | |||
| Genre | Pop Music | |||
| Label | Boardwalk | |||
| Producer | Bruce Robb | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
| Harry Nilsson chronology | ||||
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Popeye is a soundtrack composed by Harry Nilsson for the movie Popeye. 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 the original songs and co-produced the music with producer Bruce Robb at Cherokee Studios. Harry Nilsson took his band of musicians to the island of Malta where they had a purpose-built studio constructed for them. In general, the soundtrack was unusual in that the actors sang some of the songs "live". For that reason, the studio-recorded soundtrack album did not quite match the tracks heard in the film. On the end credits, Van Dyke Parks is credited as music arranger. He also acted in the movie in role of a piano player.
(All songs written by Harry Nilsson except "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man," which was composed by Sammy Lerner for the original Max Fleischer Popeye animated cartoon.)
The soundtrack is now available either as a digital download from music retailers such as iTunes and Amazon MP3 or as a CD-R through Amazon.com. Again, "Everything is Food" has not been included on the soundtrack.
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