Popeye Rating: Release Date: 24 June, 2003 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Robin Williams Shelley Duvall Robert Duvall David Dixon Complete Cast (9 total)

Popeye Reviews

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Better with age
Whoever thought of hiring Robert Altman, whose films up to the making of "Popeye" were excoriating examinations --and critiques -- of American society (someone called them "poison letters to America"; no such thing), get to direct "Popeye," a disarmingly charming film with no other pleasure than itself. In fact, it is somewhat disorienting at first; as with any genre film that Altman helms, it is a deconstruction of the original. For one, "Popeye" doesn't like spinach. Anyway, he has found in Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall the perfect incarnations of Popeye and Olive Oyl. For once Williams's worst traits -- maudlin sentimentality that begs the audience to love him -- is kept in check. And Duvall --whatever happened to her?!!!-- is simply adorable and touching. But as far as I am concerned, the world Altman has created on the island of Malta is amazing. The set decorations and the feel of the photography are like none I have ever seen before or since--a combination of the cartoonish and the natural that really grows on you. Which is much like the film: it grows better as it goes along despite the music, which is not about to leave anyone humming after the lights come up. All in all, this is a strange film in the Altman cannon--one of the most pleasant, and perhaps shallowest ones; certainly there is no anti capitalist meassage. But it is a joy. Take it for what it is. A strange melange indeed. It's gotten better ith age.

Popeye-Greatest Character Treated With Care
So many little things in this movie that go unnoticed by the Rosanne crowd that make this movie so fantastic. Bluto's "She will!!!...She won't!!" ceremony while waiting for Olive. Popeye's "I Yam What I Yam" song with pretty much nobody paying attention to him. The Oyl family and their "appropriate" first names. Coal Oyl telling Castor to "Give Em Oyl!" before Castor does battle with Oxblood Oxheart.
So many people I know just don't get it and I can only imagine so many reviewers didn't get it either. It has nothing to do with intelligence or intellect, it has something to do with the sweet subtleties of the subject.
Popeye is the pinnacle of morality in a cartoon character. The man is a saint and that's what I have loved about him since when I first watched the cartoons back in the 70's. I noticed he was one of the few characters that didn't have a large flaw or a kind of a devlish side to him. Barney Rubble could rate up there to but Popeye was honest, loyal, trustworthy and kind....unless he was dealing with Bluto, The Forty Thieves and sometimes his nephews.
This film was made with care by someone who understood the cartoon's greatest trait. Its sweetness.

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