Popeye (1980)
"The sailor man with the spinach can!" For this week's episode, we are discussing 'Popeye' based on the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip. The movie stars Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall and Ray Walston. Directed by Robert Altman.
Popeye - IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081353/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_popeye
Popeye - Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1016534-popeye
Popeye Village Malta: https://popeyemalta.com/
Bill's Letterboxd Ratings: https://letterboxd.com/bill_b/list/bills-all-80s-movies-podcast-ratings/
Jason's Letterboxd Ratings: https://letterboxd.com/jasonmasek/list/jasons-all-80s-movies-podcast-ratings/
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(The transcript has been slightly edited for clarity)
Bill Bant:
Hello and welcome to the "All 80s Movies Podcast", the podcast where we talk about the blockbusters, the flops and everything in between from one of the freshest decades for movies, the 1980s. I'm your host Bill Bant. Along with me in this journey revisiting 80s movies is my co-host, Jason Masek. Hello, Jason.
Jason Masek:
Bill Bant, I am what I am and I am what I am that I am. And I got a lot of muscle and I only got one eye and I'll never hurt nobody's and I'll never tell a lie. Top to me bottom and me bottom to me top. That's the way it is till the day that I drop. What am I? I am what I am.
Bill Bant:
That's right, listeners, we are discussing with spoilers aplenty the 1980 comic strip adaptation Popeye, produced by Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Productions, Robert Everett Productions, and King Features, and distributed by Paramount Pictures in North America and Buena Vista International everywhere else. It stars Robin Williams, Shelley DuVall, and Ray Walston. Directed by Robert Altman, this movie is rated PG with a running time of 1 hour and 54 minutes.
So what is this movie about? What's on the box? If you grew up in the 1980s and went to your local video store to rent this movie, you would find this description on the back of the VHS box. It is What's on the Box? Take it away, Jason.
Jason:
The legendary, beloved, Anvil-armed sailor of the Seven Seas comes magically to life in this delightful musical starring Robin Williams as Popeye, who meets all challenges with the unshakable philosophy, I am what I am and that's all that I am. Shelley Duvall is Popeye's devoted, long-limbed sweetie, Olive Oyl, one of the familiar and lovable characters, who joins Popeye in his adventures in the harbor town of Sweet Haven. Meet Wimpy and Bluto and all the other cartoon favorites in this happy, tuneful, fun for the whole family movie. Popeye.
Bill Bant:
Yes, and we're going to be talking about Popeye's 1980 cartoon adaptation or comic strip adaptation. So Jason, start us off with your Earliest Memories of Popeye.
Jason:
Well, you just said it yourself, Bill Bant. It's the cartoon for me. I wasn't as familiar with the comic strip itself because this goes way back. I mean, all the way back to the 1930s, right, Bill Bant? Is that right? So I was thinking about what do I know or remember about the Popeye cartoon? And of course I remember the theme song and the toot toot and the huge forearms of Popeye, the anchor tattoo on his forearms.
The sailor costume, the corn cob pipe, the voice, Olive Oyl and Bluto, all the famous characters. Yeah, of course I loved it as a kid. And I did watch the cartoon, you know, somewhat religiously. I, you know, I don't have like an attachment to all of the side characters, but the main characters, sure. So very fond memories. I was very entertained as a kid. As for the film from 1980, I may have actually seen this in the theater with my family. I think I did. I just can't say for sure, but I definitely saw it a few times when I was, gosh, seven or eight years old. This film was released in December, 1980, if I'm not mistaken. So there are vague images that stay with me, mainly, of course, of Robin Williams as the protagonist, Popeye, in his sailor costume and those huge made up as in makeup forearms and Shelley DuVall amazing as Olive Oyl as in amazing casting. I have some thoughts on her performance, but I mean she plays the character as it is in the cartoon. Anyway, just like the cartoon. I remember enjoying this film as a kid. I thought it was goofy for sure. I recognize that as a child, but that's what was attractive about it. The silliness, the visual gags. It was a simpler time. I was just looking forward to seeing Popeye eat spinach and kick some butt. I really got a kick out of Robin Williams' performance. I was impressed by him. And I thought, again, Shelley Duvall, I thought it was great casting. I thought she looked exactly like Olive Oyl. So great. OK, that was pretty neat. And at age seven, speaking of Robin Williams, I probably only knew him from anything else but Mork and Mindy, I just knew him as Mork from Ork. That's about it. Now, other early memories from the movie, I mean, I recalled digging the location of Sweet Haven, thought that was pretty cool. I remember the finale or pieces of it, I should say. And of course, you know, always looking forward to the fight between Bluto and Popeye. Popeye finally getting his spinach at the end. And after rewatching it today, there were, of course, little things that did come back to me as I was watching it. Speaking of the finale, good old octopussy, the octopus. It's like, yeah, that's right. There's the octopus. This is fun. So, that really did bring the child out in me in rewatching it, which added to the fun. You know, I'll say this much, too. I'm not as familiar with the side characters from the actual cartoon or comics rip, of course, but as far as side characters in this movie, an early memory of mine is Ham Gravy. I love that character as a kid. He's not in it that much, but the little that he does do, it's just this guy kicking his hat around in the beginning, which is a great gag that I tried to do as a kid. I tried to mimic that. And I guess he's supposed to be like the old boyfriend of Olive Oyl. I think that's how he's credited, some great physical comedy from that character. And I thought he was funny, really amusing. Those are my early memories. That's all I got. I remember yeah, enjoying this as a kid. That's it. What do you got Bill Bant?
Bill Bant:
Yeah, so for 'Popeye,' I almost saw this in the theater. My dad was taking me to see this at the AMC Orleans 8. And when we got there, because I didn't know we were seeing 'Popeye' until we were going, I saw 'Flash Gordon' on the marquee and I told my dad I wanted to see 'Flash Gordon.' I don't think he wanted to see it, but after some strong begging, he checked the movie times and we end up seeing 'Flash Gordon,' which was one of the greatest movie experiences of all time. So, my dad never took me back to see 'Popeye.' So, I didn't see it until it came on HBO. And side note, my wife informed me that 'Popeye' was the first movie that she ever saw on HBO. That was kind of funny. So my dad really built up that we were going to see 'Popeye' for the first time on HBO. And then we watched it. And to be honest, even back then as a kid, I was not impressed. I was pretty bored. I found myself leaving the living room a lot, especially during the singing. Why doesn't Popeye like spinach? I didn't understand that. I do remember Sweet Pea and his whistling, Popeye meeting his father, the octopus at the end, and then finding out the treasure wasn't really a treasure, which I found really disappointing.
Jason:
Sure.
Bill Bant:
I would catch bits and pieces of this movie over the years, but I don't think I ever sat through the movie from beginning to end again. Honestly, I was happy I did not see that in the theater. I might have missed out on 'Flash Gordon' because of it. And I don't think 'Flash Gordon' would have had the same impact on me if I had waited for that to come out on cable. So thank goodness 'Flash Gordon' was at the theater instead of 'Popeye.'
Jason:
Right?
Bill Bant:
That's my Earliest Memories.
Jason:
I absolutely love it. I'm imagining this sliding door scenario where you actually do go to see 'Popeye' with your dad and do not see 'Flash Gordon' and how you would be a different man today because of it. Would I have actually met you? Would you even have gone to film school? Because 'Flash Gordon', pretty influential, honestly, as kids. Absolutely. I love the earliest memories. Now, had you...
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I know. That really could have changed me. Big time.
Jason:
Did you mention this story earlier on our podcast about begging your dad to see 'Flash Gordon'? Did you? Okay, of course on the 'Flash Gordon' episode, right?
Bill Bant:
Yeah, on the 'Flash Gordon' episode, I did mention it. Yeah. Okay, Initial Thoughts. What do we got all these years later?
Jason:
All these years later, Bill Bant, holy shit, this movie is wild. Here comes my enthusiasm in a weird way. You know, I always talk about movies being a type of fever dream, a lot, especially like some of these 80s movies. Well, here is one of those, holy cow. I don't know how to describe this strange, hyper real comic, cartoon come to life. That's exactly what it is though. And this one definitely takes a couple of viewings to digest and try to understand and that I failed at really haven't totally understood it, but I'm glad I watched it again because It was like being on drugs. I mean, it's an absolute trip. Let's get into it.
Here comes my above the line segment. We'll talk about our director just briefly, Robert Altman. That's right, that Robert Altman directed this movie. And his career goes back to the 50s. He is known for directing the 'MASH' movie in 1970. 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller'
He does 'The Long Goodbye', 'California Split', 'Nashville', hell of a 70s for Robert Altman. And in the 80s, he's working. Not a lot of notables, obviously this in 1980, but he does 'Secret Honor', 'Fool for Love.' He does 11 episodes of the TV miniseries, 'Tanner 88.' He's also known in the 90s for 'The Player', 'Shortcuts', a couple of good ones, 'Gosford Park' too. And then his last film was 'A Prairie Home Companion' in 2006 because he did pass away then at age 81 in November 2006. Let's move on to our producer Robert Evans. Yeah, that Robert Evans, producer, actor, head of Paramount Pictures in the late 60s. I'm just going to say this. Look him up if you don't know his name for any reason in association with the movies. Lots and lots of stories, some of them including cocaine trafficking. 'The Cotton Club.' Seven marriages, famously married to Ali Mcgraw. So yeah, just look him up. He is a big, big player in Hollywood for a long time. And he did pass away not too long ago. I didn't realize in 2016 at age 89. And then of course, our big, big star Robin Williams, we talked about him a bit on our 'Good Morning Vietnam' epispde. And where is he at in 1980? Well, we know he had his beginnings in the late 70s. He did a couple episodes of 'The Rich Pryor Show' and an episode of 'Eight is Enough.' Some appearances on 'Laugh-In' and he was on 'Mork and Mindy' as we know. He was actually Mork on 'Happy Days' before that. But you know, Robin Williams's first credited film role was a small part in the 1977 comedy 'Can I Do It? Till I Need Glasses?' However, his first starring role was this, as the title character in 1980. So, here's my thoughts with Robin Williams in this movie. The major problem. As in its glaring and you'll know what I'm about to say is that if you do not have the captions on. You're not going to understand a damn thing. You'll hear what Robin Williams is saying most of the time, and even if you do hear it, you just you're not going to understand it. I grew up with Robin. He was my favorite comedian. I love his quick witted fast talking quippy delivery. I adore him. I miss him. But in this performance, a lot of it is so under his breath and so fast you miss it. And because they're doing Popeye's language from the cartoon, and I mean like as how Popeye actually speaks in the cartoon by inserting the letter K and a lot of words are simply making a lot of words plural. It's funny, but again, it makes the dialogue increasingly difficult to understand. For example, here's a couple of quotes, a couple of lines that he speaks very quickly in the film are, here we go. Another thing I got is a sense of humiligration. Now maybe you swabs can pull your intelligence and seize that I'm asking you for an apology key. Or here's another line. what is this? A house of ill repukes? Ooh, who'd bring me the infant to this den of immorality? So it's that type of language throughout the film.
Now, I think Robin Williams actually is quite good in this. I think he's excellent. It's just his delivery is near impossible to understand. So I watched it with the captions on and I was watching it today without the captions and it's like, okay, yeah, so much of it goes over your head or right past you if you don't have the captions on. So ladies and gents, if you revisit this and I hope you have for this pod, I hope you had the captions on. If you watch it again, turn them on. You'll get a lot more out of it. I do respect the attempt and what he was going for for sure. And this much, his physicality is totally intact. I mean, he's an amazing physical comedian and I'm watching it the whole time going, How does he keep his one eye shut the entire time? Did he glue it shut? I mean, acting with only one eye open the entire time, from action to cut. Regardless, the makeup with his huge forearms is pretty cool. You can see it a little more in some areas in the film than others, but I appreciated that. I thought they did a pretty good job, even though it's really weird. It looks really weird in live action is because Robin Williams is a hairy dude. You watch the cartoon. It's like Popeye has bare forearms and you can see the tattoo on his formarms. He's got the big old forearms and in this he's got big old hairy forearms. It's just. Kind of gross. It's kind of weird, but you get it. You go along with it. This is a cartoon come to life almost literally. That's the good and bad thing about this movie. Moving on, Shelley Duvall talked about her. She's pretty awesome, but I talked or we talked about her on 'The Shining' episode. So well cast because she looks like Olive Oyl. The costuming in this whole movie is great.
She sounds like Olive Oyl and holy crap is she annoying. I'm sorry, it's not her fault. Just watch the cartoon. She talks like that. So that's what I mean where this is a cartoon come to life and there's the good and the bad with it. So a lot of her kind of nagging throughout the film and the constant the "Ooh, Popeye", "Popeye" is nails on a chalkboard, but that's just my opinion. Is she good in the role? Is she nailing it? Yeah, but is that a good thing? I don't know. Hey, we got a great supporting cast in this. We got Richard Libertini, Ray Walston, and Linda Hunt in her debut? Are you kidding me? Wait, wait, who's that? Dennis Franz? Detective Sipowicz is in this? By the way, I love to hate character actor Donald Moffat who plays the tax man in this. Shout out to that actor. We get our music by Harry Nilsson, sometimes credited as just Nilsson, who was an American singer songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. His work characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments and returned to the great American songbook, Infusions of Caribbean Sounds, or Caribbean Sounds, if you will. So for me rewatching this today, this movie is unquestionably obnoxious.
We know, we get it. It's going to be that way. So I was expecting that. Here's a question, Bill Bant, are all the townsfolk of Sweet Haven just clumsy people that have a habit of breaking stuff all the time? Apparently. That's part of the obnoxious equation in this. Anyway, the decision to make this a musical. I was like, why? Because I didn't recall the cartoon having that much sing songy aspects of it or music in it, but apparently it did. I did a little research on that more later, maybe. So, the songs themselves are pretty short and some of them aren't really songs. Sometimes the lyrics rhyme, sometimes they don't. Sometimes there's a chorus, sometimes there's not. Sometimes it's just a character kind of sing talking and almost all of it is bonkers. Like B -A -N -A -N -A -S bananas. I did discover a YouTube video by someone calling out the top 10 Popeye the sailor man songs. so yeah, I guess there were songs in the cartoon. I got a scroll through I was like, holy crap there were. Anyway, that set is amazing. I want to live in that set or I want to visit it. I want to walk around it. I'd love to go to Malta where they shot this and where a lot of this set still stands and I just want to visit. I just want to be a fly on the wall for this incredible production
The moments regarding the storyline of Popeye looking for his Papa actually got to me a little bit. I'll admit that much. When he's saying good night to a picture frame that turns out just to be the words me and Papa. I don't know, I just got me. I thought it was funny and bittersweet at the same time and there's a nice callback later with poop deck Pappy, his actual Papa with the same like picture frame, but it says, I think it says "Me and Son" instead. There were little moments in this. It just tugged at my heartstrings. They got me. It just was like, OK, this movie works on some level. So I have to admit, I sort of warmed up to the movie after a while and a couple of viewings for this pod. I have respect for the time and effort put into the making of this, but it is a wild one. The more you research it, the more you respect you'll have for the dedication to being true to the comic strip and the cartoon. But it's a pretty tough translation, literally and figuratively, to live action. So, just some of my initial thoughts, Bill Bant, what say you, my friend?
Bill Bant:
Yeah, this is my initial thought. Who was clamoring for a Popeye musical at the time?
Jason:
Great. Great question. Why did we need this? Yeah.
Bill Bant:
So, in the research, we learned the studio lost a bidding war to the rights of 'Annie,' but that doesn't mean take another comic strip character and make a musical out of it. 'Annie' at least had a Broadway show that was hugely successful. And for me, I don't understand why this movie was not geared towards kids in which adults could enjoy. It felt like it was more towards adults that maybe kids couldn't enjoy. I still find the movie boring. And the story to me is paper thin. Popeye comes to Sweet Haven to reconnect with his Pappy after 30 years. Why of all places, Sweet Haven? I mean, this is the one place I would go to hide from someone, but we don't know if that's Popeye's father's intention. Yet here he is. What a guess! Anywhere in the world, he just happens to be here. Then Popeye meets the Oyl family in which the daughter Olive is going to marry Bluto, but she really doesn't want to because she's only doing it to keep her family from paying taxes. And then we have Popeye finding Sweet Pea who was abandoned and decides to be his "mudder." And then this starts a bond with Olive. Then we find out Popeye's father is behind the town getting crazy taxed and Bluto is the muscle and Bluto only works for Popeye's father because he talks about this amazing treasure he has. And that's the story and it's strung out over two hours with terrible songs throughout.
To me, the real tragedy of this movie is the casting. They nailed this cast and it makes the movie more disappointing. Robin Williams is great as Popeye. Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl is even better. Paul Dooley is an excellent Wimpy. And Wesley Ivan Hurt as sweepy is super adorable. Loved every time that kid was on the screen.
Jason:
Hmm, yeah.
Bill Bant:
I really enjoyed the cast and I would cast them all again. But the issue is they cannot overcome this script. It felt to me, it was depressing when it should have been lighthearted. I never felt uplifted throughout this movie. Even when Robin Williams is singing the "I Am What I Am" in the gambling hall, which is one of the better songs of the movie. He is being ignored by everyone in the hall and to me it takes away the impact of the song.
I would have opened with that song when he arrives at Sweet Haven as he walks through the town. Get the audience behind this movie and then have us realize, Sweet Haven isn't such a great place and Popeye has a lot of obstacles he needs to overcome. It feels depressing right from the get go. This isn't 'Les Miserables'. This is Popeye. Keep it lighthearted. The other thing I want to mention is, like you, Sweet Haven. This has to be one of the coolest movie sets ever captured on film. And everything happens in 'Popeye' on this set for three fourths of the movie. It is a believable set, is a functional set, is a practical set. It is amazing. For being a small harbor town, Robert Altman used every inch of that set and did an amazing job with it. I wish this movie lived up to the level that it's casting and the set did. If it did, we'd be saying Popeye was one of the greatest comic strip movies of all time.
Jason:
Nailed it. Wow, I love it. Drop the mic moment there at the end. Impressive. I couldn't agree more. Speaking of the set, I look at it, I think I may have been saving this for additional thoughts. I'll just say it now is that it could be a theme park unto itself. Obviously, it's a big tourist attraction for Malta, but you just watch it and there's so many moving parts that you're just like, wow, somebody created this and crafted it and built it just the time and effort. But you're right. If they put the amount of detail into the story and the writing and the character development, relationship development that they put into the set. It would have been one of the greatest movies of all time, probably. But, I look at the set and I watch the set pieces in this film and I'm like, why isn't this a major attraction slash show at a Disney Theme Park or a Universal Theme Park?
Because it's like when you go and you see like the Waterworld show or something like that, how great would it be for kids to see the Popeye show? Just recreate the finale from this movie and put that on with stuntmen and the water, because half of it takes place in the water and on the rocks. Like it's the Scab Island show. It would be so much fun, especially with the big rubber octopus and stuff. Man, that would be just great.
Bill Bant:
Yes.
Jason:
I'd go see that as an adult. The kid in me coming out when I look at this set, it's like anytime you go on to a backlot, if you've had an opportunity, or even you take the backlot tour, like at Universal, and you see whether it's the the clock from 'Back to the Future,' or it's Amity Island, and you have the shark from Jaws, right? You feel in it, you're like, my gosh, how cool would it be, to be in the middle of it? I had an opportunity to be on the Jurassic Park location at one point and I'm like, my God, I'm in Hawaii on set and there's a dinosaur about to come around the corner. It just invokes such imagination and this set is wonderful. It's so detailed. So yeah, great commentary Bill Bant especially regarding the songs. The song writing, the writing in general the depressed nature of it. It's like everyone was enduring a bad high. When creating this, they were all on drugs and they were having a bad trip and they decided to make this. From just the the idea itself just having like you said, why make it a musical? Okay?
Bill Bant :
Yeah.
Jason:
Great stuff. Let's move on.
Bill Bant:
All right, so let's move on to Favorite Scenes or Moments. What are some of our favorite scenes or moments from 'Popeye'? And I'm going to start it off with the very opening of the movie. And it starts off, we have a black and white cartoon version of the old Popeyes on the screen, and we hear the classic "Popeye the Sailor Man" song playing in the background. And then if you don't remember how the Popeye cartoon started or for the ones that I mostly remember. It was usually of a ship and they would show the credits and then one of the doors of the ship would open up and then we see Popeye and he pokes his head out of the ship and he looks around. And then he addresses the audience, he breaks the fourth wall and he says, "Hey, what's this one of Bluto's tricks? I'm in the wrong movie!" And then it does a hard cut to the actual movie itself, where we see Robin Williams rowing in a storm.
And when I'm watching this now, I'm thinking, that's what the whole movie should have been. The whole element of breaking the fourth wall and poking fun at itself and it kind of got my hopes up. Then it doesn't really go back to that because then we have that opening where Popeye rows in and he gets to Sweet Haven and everyone's singing this depressing Sweet Haven anthem. I'm like, wait a second. This was kind of funny in the beginning.
As a kid, I'm thinking, okay, here's Popeye. He's addressing the audience. He's talking to me and then we don't get anything like that again throughout the rest of the movie. I think it just sets you up for failure, but this is what I wanted. What that opening represented, that's what I wanted throughout the movie. And I really thought that was smart, what they did, but then they didn't do it again.
Jason:
There's no follow through with that tone. Yeah, that's a really, really good point. And it was lingering in the back of my mind somewhere because as immediately after the cartoon stops and goes to live action and we see the gloomy cloud ridden sky and the lightning and the thunder, you're like, Whoa, what happened? We're we're gonna start off with Popeye and a dinghy and lost at sea in the middle of nowhere. And it's just thunder and stormy. And it's like what happened to the lighthearted nature here? It goes from light to dark almost immediately. I think that's a pretty good insight. It's weird to start the movie that way. But great to see the cartoon version of Popeye and hear the Bluto playing a joke on me again kind of thing and that voice that just the iconic voice, you know, which Robin Williams does very well, but to hear and we'll give him credit later on.
Bill Bant:
Jack Mercer
Jason:
But to hear the original voice, it is one of a kind. One of one. So a real talent. So thanks for calling that out. My first favorite scene I am calling a rumble in the Rough House Cafe. Yeah, this is where the kitchen is. This is the main cafe in the middle of Sweet Haven. And Bill Bant, this is actually where I felt like, this might work as a proper musical because the music begins and this features the song. "Everything is Food," which is nonsensical at best, but still fun, super lighthearted. And this is where the movie for me, there was an injection of energy, maybe a little bit of that light heartedness you're looking for, Bill Bant. Whereas there's some fun choreography.
You've got the Rough House as a character himself, I believe, who runs the kitchen and the cafe and all of his cooks, they're getting prepped for the meal service for that day. And you have different characters running around and there's some fun choreography and some gymnastics. They're jumping over one another. And then you have the cooks inside. We moved to the interior of the cafe. And again, the set deck is just amazing. You've got Popeye sitting by himself at a table in the corner. You've got a guy flipping burgers and all the while they're singing and dancing and doing the whole thing. This feels like a real musical because you have all the side characters moving about, milling about, bustling about and being their charactery selves and doing a lot of site gags. This movie is loaded with site gags and gags, even sound design gags. So it's all the kind of like almost like the Three Stooges in a way. Constantly, constantly throughout. So we get a lot of that in this scene. And then the scene comes to focus on J. Wellington Wimpy, good old Wimpy, who was a major character of the cartoons. And of course, he's attempting to get his first hamburger for the day. And we get the famous line, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." And lines like "I'm buying he's paying." Love that. Lots of silliness. We get the tax man coming through taxing everybody, we get to see Bluto who's sitting on a higher platform area growling in between eating what appears to be like a giant turkey leg or something. Anyway, after the song, "Everything is Food" concludes, we get a like an actual brief quiet moment here with Popeye and Wimpy sitting at a table and Popeye explains why he was lost at sea. I believe after a fight. Was it a battle on Guam or something or something was happening on Guam and he got lost at sea ended up seeing a vision of his mother and realized his pappy was still alive and that gave him purpose to stay alive himself. Thus he ends up drifting upon Sweet Haven and now is looking for his pappy and all the while he's talking about this search for his pappy.
There's a table of the town ruffians behind him eavesdropping and constantly laughing at him. And as Popeye's going to leave the ruffians, mainly Dennis Franz, well, they begin to throw verbal insults his way, making fun of his eye and his arms that are like a baboons. And at first Popeye takes it, then he asks for an apology and the thugs instead of apologizing, they actually pick up all of the other characters in the bar or the cafe or what Popeye calls them inasinks (innocents). It's hard to even say the words. Anyway, the thugs use the inasinks to apologize for themselves. And they end up beating them up. Then Dennis' friends puts the icing on the cake by insulting Popeye one last time with, and I'm paraphrasing, "I bet your pappy is as ugly as you are." And then Popeye has finally had enough. It's time for what I was waiting for this whole time. Popeye kicks some ass. He ends up basically boxing the crap out of all of our ruffians. And my favorite moment throughout this fight sequence is when he's boxing one of the guy's face like he's boxing a speed bag.
I remembered that as a kid and I was looking forward to seeing it. And it's pretty amusing today because it's very cartoony. I don't know, it works for me. So again, some fun choreography. He gets the best of the ruffians and that's it. So I found this particular scene lighthearted and entertaining. It's good to see Dennis Franz too.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I was kind of on the fence with this scene. I liked it and I didn't like it. I didn't like the song it opened up with. So that kind of took me out of it. I do like the small interactions with all the characters. The whole thing with Wimpy trying to get a hamburger, I thought was pretty funny. But I didn't like the fight either. I did like when everyone knew a fight was going to happen and we have the hostess and she brings down that bird cage contraption to keep her protected and the kitchen walls itself off and you can see everybody trying to sneak out real fast. But I didn't like the fight itself. I just didn't think it was choreographed well. The punching bag aspect I did like when he beats up that guy. I kind of wish he did that more to everyone else.
Jason:
Right.
Bill Bant:
There is that one when the guy's trying to hit Popeye with the chair and he gets caught on the ceiling fan. I was like, okay, that's kind of cool. So I was on the fence on this one. There was aspects about it I liked. There was aspects about it that just didn't do it for me. So that's why I didn't put that in my favorite scenes or moments.
Jason:
You're entitled to your opinion. That's just fine, Bill Bant. I know I just thought it was fun in the way that I actually thought some of the choreography was pretty good. But this was more like, I could see this is more of the kids' version of the movie. Instead of being a super adult. It's really goofy. And yeah, the song's terrible. But as a kid, I could totally see myself singing. Like this is this portion of it is made for kids.
Bill Bant:
And I think even then as a kid, I was thinking, why didn't Popeye eat spinach first before he kicked the crap out of everybody?
Jason:
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me. It's such a huge, huge part of the cartoon. We know that Popeye needs to eat his spinach to get strong in order to fight. And there's no spinach. I have no idea what they were thinking. It's such a huge swing and a miss, you know?
Bill Bant:
Yeah. And I know when you look at the history of Popeye, he wasn't always eating spinach in the get go, but for the majority of the movie audience, they did not know that. They would not know that aspect of Popeye. So why leave it in there?
Jason:
And also what I have to understand or think is that what they did purposefully is hold out on the spinach until the end. That's like, that was their twist in this particular iteration of this tale is that Popeye hates spinach and that he just then happens to be force fed spinach at the end and finds out that's what gives him super strength.
Bill Bant:
Right. Which we don't find out until two thirds into the movie that he doesn't like spinach.
Jason:
Right. What do you got next?
Bill Bant:
All right, so this takes me to a moment. So we find out that Olive Oyl is engaged to Bluto and they're going to have a big reception at the Oyl's house. And Bluto shows up and the whole town is afraid of Bluto. Bluto basically is the muscle of the town. He's the one that initiates all the taxes that are happening. He calls the curfew out on the town.
So everyone is just super, super scared of him, but they're all at this party. And Bluto shows up and he's waiting for Olive. And we find out that Olive really is not in love with Bluto. And she wants to sneak out of town and avoid getting married. But the reason that she is possibly marrying Bluto is just so her family doesn't have to pay taxes. That way they can stay afloat.
So, Bluto's downstairs with all the party guests and all the party guests are on edge and Bluto brought some flowers to give to Olive and he takes one of the flowers and starts picking the petals doing "She loves me, she loves me not" scenario. And I thought the scene was funny. Like I said, everyone from the town is there. They're all on edge and he picks the first petal. "She loves me." and everyone cheers. Yay.
And then he'll pick the next one. "She loves me not." And everyone's like, ooh. And then he'll pick another one says "She'll marry me" and everyone was like, yay. And then he picks another one. "She won't." And then he's going back and forth. "She will. She won't. She will." And then he gets to the next to the last one and he picks the petal and he says "She will." So meaning the last petal on the flower is supposedly she won't.
And everybody, all the guests in the house are like, crap. And he's standing right in front of Castor Oyl who's Olive Oyl's brother. And he just turns ghost white. He looks like he's about to crap his pants and he just kind of mutters out. "I guess that's a faulty flower. Huh?" And right before he's about to pick the petal and say "She won't." and God knows what's going to happen. All of Olive's friends come running in the room and interrupts.
And Bluto asks "Where's Olive?" and they reply, "She'll be down in a minute. She's getting ready." And then Bluto turns back to Castor with the final pedal. It's like, where were we? And he goes, it's kind of funny because Castor goes, "She won't marry you..." and then points at the pedal, meaning the next one's supposed to be She will. And Bluto agrees and picks it and goes, "She will." And everyone starts cheering and it's a big sigh of relief. So, I found that moment pretty funny. I did like the actor that was cast as Bluto. And like I said, just the comic tension in the room was pretty good. And we see later in the film, Bluto loses his mind anyway, tears up the house. But up to that point, I thought that was a fun little moment slash scene.
Jason:
Sure, absolutely. You know, credit to Paul L. Smith who plays Bluto. He's a big guy and he's got the gruff nature and he has the look. I wish that they had him wear lifts though. I wished he was bigger, even bigger, like a huge imposing Brian Dennehy type of brute like just towering over people because in the cartoons he's enormous and really kind of imposing. So, I even wish he was bigger. I am surprised they didn't go that direction. Although you know they've got Oxblood running around in the background the whole time who is huge. And I'm like what I'm about to get to him here shortly. But yeah so that scene in particular. Yeah also kind of bookended by a couple of really weird songs too where you have Olive Oyl upstairs having a back -and -forth with I think those women who are friends are called the "Wallflowers." I'm not positive, anyway, she begins a song as to trying to call out the positive characteristics of Bluto and why she's once again I think like for the fourth or fifth time trying to get engaged to him and all she can come up with is he's large and it's really odd and in the middle of the song she realizes, he doesn't have that many great qualities and decides to pack up in the middle of the song and ditch her friends and get the hell out of Dodge. But, that's a weird song and then you mentioned Bluto's song just after this when he realizes that Olive Oyl has taken off on him and it's like a song called "I'm Mean" or something like that and it's just weird because throughout all of this...
Bill Bant:
Yep.
Jason:
Listeners, if you're familiar with the movie, you know what I'm talking about. And it's different if you just watch the movie listening to the volume from your television set, or you have headphones on. There is so much redubbing and ADR in this movie. It's almost disconcerting. Because when Bluto sings his song, which is odd when he just goes on a tirade and destroys the house.
John Wallace is Bluto's singing voice, so it's a different voice and it's weird. And again, it's kind of like this disembodied voice that you hear and there's disembodied voices you hear throughout the movie because there's so much ADR. Because a lot of the recording of this was live and it didn't come out so good, so they had to redub a lot of stuff. It's just very weird. Just puts you in a weird place, but that scene when he's doing the "She loves me. She loves me. She loves me not" basically is fun. And Paul L. Smith as Bluto does pretty good, especially with a lot of the the growls in between everything he's doing. So that's a good call. It's a good call. I want to say one brief moment in there when he's going around pulling the petals off of the flower. He comes up again to Ham Gravy, one of my favorites and I'm going to be talking about him a little bit later. Hint hint.
And Ham Gravy is credited as the old boyfriend. So I don't know if there's something, you know, we're supposed to understand here, but Bluto pushes Ham Gravy down like an accordion. And that actor playing Ham Gravy is wonderful. His physical comedy is great. And he's like squishes down and he puts his head down into his shoulders like an accordion. It's just really cool. So that's another little fun moment in that sequence.
Bill Bant:
Yeah. And then, for me, for another favorite scene, favorite moment is when Popeye and Olive Oyl find Sweat Pea. So, after Olive Oyl sneaked out of the house during this engagement party, she runs into Popeye who's outside because Popeye tried to join the party, but all the townsfolk, just dislike strangers and they pretty much let it know that they are not fans of Popeye. So Popeye felt really uncomfortable and he leaves.
So Olive Oil runs into him outside. She's asking him why is he not at the party? And of course he goes back and says, why are you not at the party? And that's when Popeye realizes that she's trying to skip town and she's not really in love with Bluto. So they take a little walk, sit down and Popeye explains to Olive Oyl the reason he's there in Sweet Haven is that he's looking for his pappy and all the amazing things he used to do with his pappy, which are not that amazing when you listen to him. Whereas Pappy would throw them in the air and then forget to catch them and put him in his rocker after he ate and make them throw up and not some good things.
Jason:
He used to bounce him on his knee but he'd miss.
Bill Bant:
Yes. So, while they're having this conversation, Olive has packed a suitcase and a basket and the basket is sitting behind them between Popeye and Olive Oyl. And then we see this woman carrying down some stairs, another basket, and she swaps baskets out. And we don't really know why she does this. But after Popeye tells a story, Olive Oyl says she wants to get going and Popeye picks up her basket and starts walking with it. And then Olive questions Popeye like, "Why are you carrying that basket? That's not my basket." Popeye's like, yeah, this is the basket I just picked up. She's like, "That's not my basket. That basket's ugly." She loves the word ugly.
And all of a sudden we hear some rattling coming out of the basket. And I thought this was funny because it kind of comes back to the cartoon where Olive gets very scared. And she jumps on Popeye and she's kind of running around in circles yelling rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattlesnake. And she runs up some ladder to try to hide from the snake. And then Popeye gets all, I'll take care of this. I'll take care of this vermin. And he's doing all his mumbling, grumbling.
And then he goes to open the basket and punch out this snake and what we find in there is baby Swee'pea little Swee'pea. And Swee'pea was rattling his rattle, and that's why it sounded like a snake and Popeye looks at Sweat Pea and Sweet Pea has a note pinned to his little outfit. And this is the part that gets me. I love it every time.
Popeye takes the letter and he's about to read it and it says that it's addressed to the One-eyed sailor. And when he's about to read it, we hear Swee'pea go, "I'm a baby." And Popeye's responds, "Yeah, you're a baby. It says so right here." And just, just the way he says, "I'm a baby." That was one of those moments, it's so sweet.
And then Popeye reads the letter and we find out that the woman is leaving Sweet Pea in Popeye's care because she's financially unstable right now and she thinks it'll take about 25 years for her to pay off her debt. And once she pays off the debt, she'll take the baby back. But in the meantime, can you please be the baby's mother and Popeye doesn't hesitate to take responsibility. He instantly falls in love with Sweet Pea and so does Olive Oyl. And I thought it was probably one of the few, to me, sweet moments I thought in the film. But as a kid, it didn't do anything. As an adult, I was like, that's kind of cool. I do like it.
Jason:
Agreed. I love the fact that the mother's going to come back in 25 years to reclaim her son. 25 year-old. That'd be pretty funny. The kid, the baby is adorable. Absolutely. It's a bittersweet scene. Both Shelley Duvall, Robin Williams, very sweet in it. And you're absolutely 100,000% correct. As an adult watching it, you sense a shift in the film. You're like, the movie just started because... We get some relationship development now we see Olive Oyl and it's like an inciting incident. Now we've given some characters some purpose and there's maybe a plot or something to fight for something to protect and it's going to bring our protagonists together in their relationship that being Olive Oyl and Popeye so all that good stuff and yeah very sweet so good call.
Good ol' little Swee'pea.
Bill Bant:
I'm a baby.
Jason:
Yeah, I know you're a baby. It says right here. Like he wouldn't know it was a baby until he actually read the letter. And I love the fact that Popeye always calls himself the mother. "I'm his mudder."
Bill Bant:
Yes. What do you got next for scenes or moments?
Jason:
Absolutely, going on to the Oxblood Oxheart boxing match. Dun dun dun. This is fun. One of the... I forget who it is. It might be Wimpy. I don't think it's Wimpy. Someone else. Anyway, one of the side characters posts a poster that says 10 days tax exemption plus $15 to any challenger that lasts one round with Oxblood Oxheart. The Dirtiest fighter alive. Love it. So, that's we we know, that there's a big boxing match about to happen in town with this big brooding giant known as Oxblood Oxheart, whom for some reason has already been floating around in the background, is like a background character. He exists within Sweet Haven. It's very strange, very strange...
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I found that weird.
Jason:
Now all the pomp and circumstance surrounds this floating boxing ring that comes into town. And there's a lot of hoopla and celebration, but Oxblood Oxheart is this giant that will be in this boxing match. And anyone who dares to get in the ring with him gets a chance to win 10 days tax exemption. The taxes are a big deal in this movie. Do not want to be there. They're kind of under this kind of a choke hold on the town. The taxes, yeah, then the tax man. So, everybody can't really make any money, but they'll get 10 days tax exemption plus 15 whole dollars if they can just last one round with Oxblood. So, cut to the actual boxing match and we got the giant Oxblood, Oxheart in one corner and who's his corner man? It's not a man at all. It's a woman. It's his mother, whom is the one and only Linda Hunt making her feature film debut in this, which is just pretty wild. And so it's fun because there is the juxtaposition between the giant Oxblood and his mother, Linda Hunt, who is a very diminutive woman. So we know now that Castor Oyl, Olive Oyl's brother, had decided to get into the ring with Oxblood, which is a huge risk. Castor is much smaller, of course, but he's taking this risk because he feels it's worth it in order to make a little money and help his family out. So, he gets in the ring with Oxblood. Wimpy is playing the ref. And he brings them together, the fighters, Oxblood and Castor, and he says, this is a fight to the finish. The first one who is dead loses. Kind of funny. So Castor's in the ring, gets his butt kicked. He ends up literally going flying out of the ring. Oxblood sends him flying out of the ring. And who's going to come in to save the day and stand up for Castor in the town? Well, yeah, it's Popeye. He literally gets out of the crowd. He's been sitting with Olive Oyl and Swee'pea looking on enjoying the celebration. But then when Castor gets his butt kicked, Popeye literally jumps into the ring magically appearing in his boxing shorts. And he does some fancy dancing around in his goofy cartoon shoes. They all, all the characters you have to imagine are wearing these giant poofy like goofy cartoon shoes that are featured in the actual cartoon, which is kind of funny. So we realize quickly now without even having any spinach, Popeye can still get the better of Ox from his just super forearm strength, I guess. But he realizes that Ox's corner guy isn't a guy, it's Ox's mom. So Popeye won't fight Ox while his mom is there. He thinks it's disrespectful, but amidst the fight, Ox accidentally knocks out his mom, Linda Hunt.
And thus Popeye resumes the fighting and kicks his butt. Popeye gets the best of Ox. We get some goofy sight gags like the pipe twirling in his mouth and Popeye literally winding his boxing hand up like the boxing glove on his hand. He winds it up to punch Oxblood. And so again, you have to realize a lot of silly sound effects everywhere.
It's again, one of those things and the kid in me was like it's all glitz and music, the band is playing. It's just fun. It's over the top. It's ridiculous. It's gaggy all that stuff, but I thought it was fun.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I think I should have put this in one of my favorite scenes because it does have some cartoony aspects to it, which is what you're looking for. And the kid in me wants to see Popeye fighting. But I think watching this time, what confused me was the whole premise of the fight, because as a kid, I thought this was like a traveling fight show that just happens to come into town and then watch it. I'm like, wait a second.
Jason:
Right.
Bill Bant:
I've seen these characters already. Why? Why are they coming on the boat? Is this a yearly thing that they do?
So the premise of it in the movie was confusing to me, but the scene itself does work. And I should have just said, yeah, the scene itself as a whole has worked. The way it's put in the movie to me doesn't work.
Jason:
I couldn't agree more. I was confused watching it going, there's like a traveling boxing match slash circus of some kind that's coming into town, right? You see that often in the movies. And that's just a reason for the town to congregate as community and celebrate and have popcorn. And the band is there playing music and everybody's having fun. But I'm like, they're all there already. They all live on the island. Oxblood's there and his mom.
Bill Bant:
Right..
Jason:
They all live there. So it's really you don't have a sense of place in a way. It's off putting.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, yeah, it just seems weird because I mean the town's all afraid of Bluto And now the town's all afraid of Oxblood and then the town's all afraid of this other gang. I don't remember the name of the gang is I'm like it's like almost too many It's like the the Batman movies. You have too many villains. You should have just had Oxblood come in from wherever Do the fight thing get him out.
Jason:
Right. He's the the the menace, you know, from out of town. It's like maybe there's a legend that has followed him around the seas or whatever. And he just appears at the island. But he's been in the background the whole movie already. We've seen him around like he's just hanging out. And now he's this big brooding boxer. It's like, yeah, what? Okay, moving on.
Bill Bant:
All right, so another moment I actually liked in this movie was when Wimpy steals Swee'pea to take him to the gambling hall for Derby Day to bet on horses. So we find out after the boxing match that Olive Oyl was talking to Swee'pea and found out that Swee'pea can predict the future. And when you ask him a yes or no question, if he thinks it's the truth or the future, he does this whistling sound. And the whole family is impressed with it. And one of the people that are certainly impressed with it is Wimpy. And the Oyl family is in big trouble right now because that Olive has broken off the engagement with the Bluto.
The Oyls have been taxed to the max and they owe over $12,000 in taxes. So Wimpy thinks if he takes Swee.pea to the gambling hall, he could win a bunch of money. But unfortunately, he's not winning the money for the Oyl family. He's winning it for himself so he can buy hamburgers. And just the whole aspect of how he sweet talks Popeye into taking Swee'pea for a walk.
And then they go on the boat and then they go to the gambling hall and he just starts mentioning the horses. It's like, Holy Moly. And then you just hear Swee'pea do this high pitch whistling. The whistling effect I thought was pretty cool. And now he's winning all these races and then Popeye and Olive Oyll. Can't figure out where Wimpy is because you should have been back for a long time now. So they go to the gambling hall and then that's when Wimpy confesses, I'm using Swee'pea to bet on horses.
And at first they think it's a bad idea, but then the Oyls realize, man, we need a lot of money. So let's use Swee'pea to do gambling and then Popeye's upset about it. And then he takes Swee'pea away, even though it really could save the Oyls, but he doesn't want his newborn. Well, his adoptee son for nefarious reasons and walks off. So I did like aspects of it. Of the scene.
Paul Dooley as Wimpy wins like a hundred and forty dollars at this point. He's to Olive Do you know me hamburgers that could buy? You're gonna be homeless in a minute if you don't pay all these back taxes, but always thinking about yourself and the damn hamburger, so I thought it was kind of funny
Jason:
Yeah, this is a great scene. And I love that Wimpy calls the dollars simoleons, which is just one of those, you know, how we all have different words that we call money, you know, whether it's a delora, might be greenbacks, it could be simoleons, it could be wampum, I don't know, whatever nickname you have for your own money. But simoleons, I don't know if that came from this movie or where that originated from.
But yeah, there's a lot of funny high jinks that ensue in the scene. You get, "I am What I am." It's, you know, this moment of self actualization for Popeye, but also importantly from above, once again, it's almost as if Bluto is sitting on some sort of perch on a balcony or always looking down upon a scene, overlooking things as the captain, right? He's captain Bluto in this, and the enforcer, enforcing taxes or just being brooding and growling.
But he is keen to the fact that Swee'pea is able to predict the future basically, or can see who the winner is going to be in these races and knows this could benefit him as well. So, at the end of this whole scene, he actually calls Wimpy over and then we know they're about to hatch some plan together, which then leads to all the tomfoolery and the whole finale.
Did you have something else that you want to mention? A moment here?
Bill Bant:
Nope, that's it.
Jason:
All right, then moving on. Getting into the finale at Scab Island There's a side commentary Bill Bant it's funny because the location is so great and it does really have sort of the in the middle of the ocean island feel and then we get the shot of Scab Island, which is an island off in the distance separated from the island of Sweet Haven or the town of Sweet Haven. And we know that this was all shot in the area of Malta in Europe. I always wonder if the Maltans or any Europeans that obviously live there and are very familiar, you know, here's my point is that as Americans, we watch these movies and they use these locales because they seem so foreign. And so we're all like, wow, it's such a like such a distant land and it inspires the imagination. I've just never seen this before. It seems so remote. Did Europeans just watch all these movies going, yeah, that's my backyard? You know, like how sometimes we'll watch it, we're like, that's, I know that building in Los Angeles, or I know that house, what block it is. And we're always fascinated by movie locations, but so many movies in the eighties, you know, were used like these European, did the Europeans themselves go...
Bill Bant:
Right.
Jason:
That's nothing. That's just my island right off of Malta. I know where that is. I always wondered from their point of view, was it not very original? Anywho, as far as location choices. So, the finale, let's just get into it. We know that at this point, Bluto has kidnapped both Olive Oyl and Swee'pea and he's making a run for it because what's been revealed at this point is that the Commodore who's been behind the curtain and behind the scenes this whole time has actually been revealed to be Poopdeck Pappy, the father of Popeye and the Commodore. Poopdeck Pappy was again, like I said behind the scenes running things, but Captain Bluto decided to tie him up and he's kidnapped Olive Oyl and Swee'pea and he's made a run for Scab Island because what's at Scab Island? Well, supposedly the Commodore's buried treasure and that's what Bluto's been after this whole time. So he takes his own Steamboat if you will and makes a run for Scab Island to find the buried treasure meanwhile holding Olive Oyl and Swee'pea hostage and Now Popeye has reunited with Poopdeck Pappy his dad and they decide to join forces alongside basically everybody else in town I think who else is on this boat that the Commodore, Poopdeck Pappy runs?
Bill Bant:
I think it's everyone that lives in the Oyl household.
Jason:
Right, so you have Castor Oyl and Cole and Nana. Right. So the whole gang's on the Commodore Poopdeck Pappy's ship and they give chase. So they all end up at Scab Island. And now a whole bunch of hijinks ensue where Bluto goes after the buried treasure.
So, Bluto gets the buried treasure, but then of course, Poopdeck Pappy and the gang show up and they're shooting cannonballs and all hell breaks loose, and we get a moment where Poopdeck Pappy actually saves Swee'pea. Okay, I'm all over the place here. Okay, sorry, man.
I mentioned Bluto gets the buried treasure. But yes, Poopdeck Pappy and the gang interrupt Bluto and his plans. And we also understand that at Scab Island, there is another resident under the water and that's Octopussy, the octopus, this giant purple rubbery octopus, which is absolutely fantastic. So we got a lot of things going on. And long story short, Popeye ends up fighting Bluto in the water. They go climbing up onto the rocks. There's a sword fight, a couple of swords that they find from some skeletons. That's all fun. Meanwhile, Olive Oyl is just watching from the sidelines. What is she in exactly? It's like a vent pipe off the steamboat. Like a smokestack. I always think of 'Raiders of Lost Ark' when Indiana Jones is one of those, right? Captain Katanga...
Bill Bant:
Correct. Yes. Smoke stack, I think.
Jason:
In this we have Olive Oyl who's stuck in one of those and she's screaming from the sidelines. And like I said, we finally get this fight sequence between Bluto and Popeye because they're in the water actually sword fighting, which is kind of fun. Very much like a Disneyland show, like our event show, like you would go and watch. So we got that and from above we have a really bittersweet moment where Poopdeck Pappy ends up actually saving Swee'pea from the octopus. He gets his hands on the buried treasure, which belongs to him. And to the disappointment of Bill Bant, there's actually no treasure in the treasure chest, but the belongings of Popeye when he was a kid. So his son Popeye's belongings are in the treasure chest as if that was what was most important to Poopdeck Pappy. So I thought that was bittersweet. He's going through the little items that once belonged to Popeye.
And then, Poopdeck Pappy, in an order to help Popeye, I believe throws one of the cans of spinach that he finds in the treasure chest down to Popeye in the midst of the fight with Bluto. And of course, Popeye doesn't want to eat the spinach and Bluto's like, you don't want to eat spinach, opens the can of spinach. And in one of the most gross moments in cinematic history, force feeds Popeye some spinach, which of course inadvertently then gives Popeye his ultra superhero strength and Popeye kicks the crap out of Bluto, which is what we've been looking forward to this entire time. And in the end, Bluto actually turns yellow, funny enough, and swims off into the distance and literally swims throughout the entire credits. I'm like, wow, whoever was standing in for the actor must have been an Olympic swimmer because he just keeps going and he doesn't stop. I don't know how they did that. But yeah, so tons of things here, fill in the blanks for me, Bill Bant. Lots going on in the finale. The point I bring up as a favorite scene is because it's a blast. It's a big show.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, for me for the ending, I love the octopus. Love the octopus as a kid. Still even love the octopus now. The design of it is awesome. It's got these really menacing yellow eyes. And while all of this is going on, while Popeye's fighting Bluto, Bluto was in a little rowboat with Swee'pea and he abandoned Swee'pea in the rowboat to get to the treasure. And now the octopus is about to attack the boat. Poor Swee'pea's in there and then Poopdeck...
Jason:
Right.
Bill Bant:
Poopdeck Pappy saves Swee'pea before the octopus pulls him under and then the octopus goes after Olive Oyl and the Octopus grabs a hold of Olive Oyl and pulls her down into the water.
And then luckily at this point, Popeye ate the spinach and after he takes care of Bluto, he just beats the living crap of the octopus and then punches it so hard, he launches it almost into orbit. And yeah, to me, the big highlight was the octopus. I know there's a lot of mechanical problems and you have your classic Olive Oyl is being attacked by the octopus and she's literally wrapping herself in the tentacles to make it look like that she's being attacked when she's the one that's actually...
Jason:
Yes.
Bill Bant:
pseudo attacking herself, but I thought the octopus prop was cool. So kudos to the octopus.
Jason:
It is cool. Again, very much the the child in me was enjoying this where it's like that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disney. Where you know it's completely fake but it works because it's supposed to be cartoony and there's that moment. Yeah, the moment when Popeye actually punches the octopus in the face and it literally dents inward like a giant rubber inflatable suit. It's amazing.
Bill Bant:
Yeah.
Jason:
And the octopus goes flying 1000 feet into the air is wonderful. But there are little moments in here you have to understand listeners that this movie really does attempt to be faithful to the cartoon in a lot of subtle ways. So if you are a huge fan of the comic strip and cartoon, you will see so many little Easter eggs. And there's one moment in this finale where Popeye, I believe with his super strength now after eating the spinach is like a speedboat going through the water where he kind of puts his head down and he can swim super fast. And you hear like that motorboat, I guess, sound element. But if you look at the cartoons, like he does that in the cartoon, I actually caught an episode where he does something like that.
Bill Bant:
And I like when he uses his pipe as a periscope. And I was like, okay, there we go. That's what I want to see.
Jason:
Right, yeah. A lot of fun moments in the finale.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, unfortunately by then I was just too bored and I just wanted to get it over with, but the octopus to me saves it.
Alright, anything else for moments or scenes?
Jason:
No, that's it.
Bill Bant:
OK, let's move along to our Swiss Cheese and Complaint Department. And what do we call it Swiss cheese?
Jason:
Because although this movie is delicious, it does have corn cob pipe holes.
Bill Bant:
Yes, if it doesn't have those corn cob pipe holes, we just file a complaint with the Complaints Department. Jason, what do you have for Swiss Cheese or Complaints?
Jason:
Well, a lot of our complaints, I believe we've already listed and they are very general. I do have a few more questions and thoughts here in this particular segment. However, I think in general, we've talked about the writing. We've talked about the ADR and some of the sound design I kind of took issue with, which is very kind of distracting to say the least. But also, yeah, just the...Confusing storytelling structure of the film. So a lot of that are just the general complaints with the film. Not to mention the basic question of why did they choose to make this as a musical? So, I think that covers that, please delve further into it if you'd like to Bill Bant. Is there another general complaint I'm missing here?
Bill Bant:
I just think most of the songs in this are just terrible. It's almost like they... Nilsson found like a good line. It's like, okay, this is the line of the song and then doesn't do anything else with it.
Jason:
Right. I was just gonna say that, right.
Bill Bant:
I was like, okay, that's catchy. And then let's just repeat that line 18 more times.
Jason:
1000% yeah, Everything is food. Everything is food. Everything is yeah, we got it.
Bill Bant:
Right. Everything has like one good line and then the rest of the song is garbage and none of them are memorable to me, except for "I am what I am." And I already said my complaint about that. It's not impactful, it was used at the wrong time.
Jason:
Yep, and there's probably someone out there that's going well, what about "He needs me?" Now that song is memorable. For certain people and that being one Paul Thomas Anderson, which will get to in our fun facts, but that's not memorable for me.
Bill Bant:
I do remember that song, but the whole thing is she constantly repeats, "He needs me." And then the other lines are, da da da da da da da da da da. That's it.
Jason:
I know.
Ladies and gentlemen, it literally sounds like the laziest songwriting of all time. It just feels really lazy. And this is a talented artist that wrote the songs. I mean, maybe your mileage may vary as far as your taste in music regarding Harry Nilsson, but he did the Midnight Cowboy song. It's famous, it's a great song, you know?
Bill Bant:
Yes.
And then even another one, which is the "Stay with me, sail with me," and like that song's okay. But the issue is you have Shelley DuVall singing the song who has an irritating voice. So she cannot save the song with her singing, but she has to sing it that way. So I don't blame her for singing that way. But then, it ruins the song. And it's just kind of the two of them.
Jason:
Yes.
Bill Bant:
You almost need like background or more instrumental to kind of save it. Because I thought the idea of the song was really good, but the execution of the song is terrible.
Jason:
Couldn't agree more. And I was almost tempted to put that into one of my favorite scenes because this scene almost is clever. It almost brings Olive Oyl and Popeye together as far as relationship development, but in the end, missed the boat. No pun intended because what a great opportunity, Bill, as you said, if they had built the song out and wrote actual verses and chorus and lyrics,
Bill Bant:
Yes.
Jason:
This is meant to add on the surface level. You're supposed to feel like, they're competing for the affection and maybe even ownership of this boy of the little boy, the baby, right? Of Swee'pea. They each want Swee'pea to themselves. And so it's a competition song at first. You think, Olive Oyl saying stay with me and Popeye saying sail with me. Go come away with me. She's saying stay with me. OK, great.
Bill Bant:
Yeah.
Jason:
And it's actually the music itself is kind of sweet and very pretty. But then you may realize if you look into a little deeper, you're like, maybe they're actually coming together as parents of this child and Popeye's falling for Olive Oyl and vice versa. And they're actually singing the song to each other. Popeye is actually saying to Olive Oyl sail with me, be with me in essence, and Olive Oyl saying to him stay with me, be the dad, be my partner in taking care of this child, which is where that should have gone. That's where the song should have gone. That's where the scene should have gone and it never does.
Bill Bant:
Right.
Jason:
There's an opportunity there that was missed.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, the problem is your two main stars, one is a mumbler and the other one has a squeaky high annoying voice and you're making them sing all these songs. No, doesn't work.
What else?
Jason:
What else you got here?
Bill Bant:
All right, so Bluto, okay, at the end of the movie, you know, he swims off yellow. I think he gets off pretty scot-free. Think about it. Over the course of the movie, attempted murder, kidnapping, theft, assault, vandalism, corruption, child endangerment, extortion, hijacking. And all he does is get one punch in the jaw from Popeye and swims off yellow.
Jason:
Nailed it. Yeah, absolutely. I love that you listed off all of his crimes. That's great. Like as if he was in court hearing all of his list of infractions. But yes, that lends itself to one of my major complaints with this is that this is just a general complaint with movies altogether. I've talked to you about this offline Bill Bant. When you do something like this that's an adaptation. We understand you don't necessarily want to make a carbon copy of the original story. You want to pay homage, right? Okay, fine. But you can't ignore certain precedents or the thing that made the original what it is. And one of the biggest elements of the original cartoon is it's always Popeye versus Bluto, right? I mean, that's kind of the big thing. It's Popeye eats his spinach and beats up Bluto. It's like we want to see him overcome the big bad bully. That's one of the central themes of the cartoon. And in this, we see Bluto kick Popeye's butt once near the beginning, and then here once even in the finale, spinning him around in that life preserver ring and such and all that stuff. And we only get to see Popeye really get the best of Bluto in a brief moment. And like, what are you doing? We just, I just want to see Popeye beat up Bluto. You know what I mean?
Bill Bant:
The octopus got it worse than Bluto did.
Jason:
A thousand percent. Yeah. Like where are the fight scenes between Popeye and Bluto? We needed more of that.
Bill Bant:
Yes. Anything else?
Jason:
I love that at the beginning of this finale, or at least the beginning of the sequence that occurs at Scab Island, we got Poopdeck Pappy on his steamboat or ship with everybody else approaching. And he says he's going to fire across the bow because he's shooting a cannon at Bluto who has both Olive Oyl and Swee'pea captive. But Poopdeck Pappy just shoots right at the boat endangering everybody. It's like, what are you doing, man? You could kill Olive and Swee'pea. Come on, Poopdeck.
Bill Bant:
Yeah. And Popeye even calls them out on this and he doesn't care. Just keeps firing away.
Jason:
Anyway, there's one little nitpick I had also is with the that horse race sequence, the Derby Day sequence, which is a lot of fun. You get the great song "I am what I am." And Popeye has his moment
of realization and such. And he's like, I'm a dad and I'm going to get Swee'pea out of this nefarious situation and take care of my son and do the right thing. And he takes the money that Wimpy and Olive have won. Granted, they won it kind of using, you know, exploiting Swee'pea. But Popeye just takes the money and tosses it everywhere. And everybody else grabs it. I'm like, why would you do that?
Bill Bant:
I didn't get that. I didn't get that either.
Jason:
Keep the money, man.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I agree.
Jason:
Money won is money one is better than money earned.
Bill Bant:
All right, so here's my last question. Don't you think they could have easily found out who the real mother of Swee'pea was?
Jason:
That's a great question.
Bill Bant:
Sweet Haven's a pretty small town. They're not very kind to strangers. So probably the mudda is a resident of Sweet Haven. They do a little investigating. They know who Swee'pea belongs to.
Jason:
Sure, small town.
Well, I don't need to say anything else regarding complaints, so I'm ready to move on if you are.
Bill Bant:
Alright, moving on, it's Hey, It's that Actor! So in this segment we spotlight a character actor you have seen in many other films, an actor making their big screen debut, or an actor that makes an uncredited cameo. It's Hey, It's that Actor! Who do we choose this week?
Jason:
All right. Bill Bant. I was so tempted to say his name earlier because I brought up the character of Ham Gravy a couple of times. So I decided to highlight Bill Irwin as our Hey, It's That Actor! this week. I really kind of wanted to do Paul Dooley as well, but so many great Hey, It's That Actors! in this, including Linda Hunt. But sticking with Bill Irwin, credited as Ham Gravy, the old boyfriend.
IMDB has this as Bill Irwin's feature film debut in 1980. After that, he is uncredited as The Dancing Man on an episode of 'Saturday Night Live.' He did a short by the same name, 'The Dancing Man', after that. He did do an episode of 'The Cosby Show,' then he was in 'Eight Men Out'. Also, Bobby McFerrin's music video, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in which he starred alongside Robin Williams. Moving on to the 90s, he's in 'My Blue Heaven', 'Hot Shots,' a couple episodes of 'Northern Exposure,' some other TV episodes here and there, several under the radar movies. From 1998 to 2017, he does 34 episodes of the TV series, 'Elmo's World,' as the character Mr. Noodle. He was also in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' as Lulu Who. 'Rachel Getting Married.' He was the voice of TARS in 'Interstellar,' which is really cool. I'm a fan of that movie. I'm a fan of his voice-over work. I like the character TARS in 'Interstellar,' the robot. He also does 17 episodes of 'Law and Order, SVU' does 27 episodes of the acclaimed show 'Legion,' a couple episodes of 'This Is Us' recently, and he was just in the Academy Award nominated film 'Rustin' in 2023.
He did a lot of theater back in the day. This is kind of cool. Bill Irwin in 1989 was nominated for four Tony Awards for 'Largely New York' as author of a Best Play nominee, Best Actor, Best Director, and with collaborator Kimi Okada, Best Choreographer. And in 1999, his show Fool Moon, that's F -O -O -L, Fool Moon, won a special Tony Award for live theatrical presentation. Talented.
This is my funny little tidbit about Bill Irwin. He was selected for the International Clown Hall of Fame and was inducted August 7th of 1999. Bill Irwin is our Hey, It's That Actor! this week.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I did like his kicking this hat bit throughout the movie. I wish he did more of that. It was pretty funny.
Jason:
Yeah, my favorite.
Bill Bant:
So, let's move on to Facts and Trivia. Where are some facts and trivia we have about 'Popeye?' And I'll start since we were just talking about Bill Irwin. So most people aren't aware that Olive Oyl was one of, if not the main character of "Thimble Theater" and had been around for much longer than Popeye, 10 years before he even appeared in the comic. So, a nod to this was at Olive and Bluto's engagement party when we have Harold Hamgravy, who's at the party and is trying to give Bluto a gift and then Bluto smashes him like a accordion. So Harold Hamgravy was actually Olive's fiance in the original "Thimble Theater" comic strip before Popeye was introduced. And after Popeye became one of the strips breakout characters, Hamgravy was demoted to an extra. So Harold Hamgravy used to have really a bigger role in that universe. And then Popeye blew all that up.
So another fact we talked about, the amazing set on Malta. And today the set still exists and is known as "Popeyes Village," and it's one of Malta's major tourist attractions. So, this is from the "Popeye Village" website. The set was constructed in Anchor Bay during the last seven months of 1979 to construct this authentic wooded village.
Tree trunk logs were trailered over from Holland and wood shingles used in the construction of the rooftops were imported all the way from Canada. 165 international construction crew consumed 8 tons of nails and 2000 gallons of paint to finish off the massive set. No less than 20 wooden structures had to be built. Before construction could begin, an access road leading to the set had to be constructed. Also, Anchor Bay needed a 200-250 foot breakwater at its mouth to protect the set from high seas during the shooting months of the film production. Filming commenced on the 23rd of January in 1980.
Some of the highlights of "Popeye's Village," if you were to go today to visit, include the Souvenir Shop, a Schoolhouse Robin Williams Museum, a Popeye the Comic Museum, Bluto's House, which is the film information room, a splash pool, a winery, the cinema which shows a documentary of the construction of Sweet Haven and the making of 'Popeye' and a mini golf course. So that's everything you can find in "Popeye's Village" in Malta. If you were to visit it today.
Jason:
Alright, that's pretty awesome, thanks for doing that Bill Bant. Okay. So I mentioned this earlier, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is a noted fan of the film. Even listing it as a favorite and using Duvall's song, "He Needs Me" in his own film, 'Punch Drunk Love'. And you can find the scene on YouTube. If you're not familiar with the movie, you want to be refamiliarized with the movie. Good old Adam Sandler. It's good movie.
Bill Bant:
That's a good one. I love that movie. I think the song actually works better in that movie than in 'Popeye'.
Jason:
It works in the background as part of the soundtrack actually. It's cool. Yeah, it's appropriate.
Bill Bant:
Correct.
So Robin Williams had to re-loop all of his dialogue twice because test audiences could not understand what he was saying. Robin was having trouble speaking the lines because of Popeye's unique cadence and with a pipe in his mouth during filming. Also, many of the diner toughs were dubbed in post-production because most of them were Maltese. They did not speak English very well. And as Jason mentioned, there is some very major heavy dubbing and looping in this film and it is hard to listen to if you're doing it on headphones or whatnot. I didn't think it was too bad listening to on TV with the regular volume, but I think because I had the close caption on, I was paying more attention to that than listening to it. It could have been worse, but it's not too bad. Yeah.
Jason:
Right.
It's tough. Yeah. It's tough. You hear it more when you are listening with headphones on. It's clear where the ADR and dubbing is. Also, I'm glad you said Maltese because for some reason I called the people of Malta, Maltans earlier. So forgive me Malta and the lovely people of Malta, the Maltese. Just wanted to clarify.
Bill Bant:
Yes, we are fans of Malta since we showed some of our short films over there.
Jason:
That was going to be an additional thought. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, didn't we win a short film competition back in... Okay for both 'Over Cards' in 2010, and then I'm assuming was it 'Desolate Road' after that in 2012. Excellent.
Bill Bant:
Yes, We've won twice over there.
Jason:
Here's a little fun fact. Jules Feiffer, writer, screenplay. Well, the 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.
Bill Bant:
I don't know how they would have worked that character into the movie.
Jason:
Can you imagine on top of everything else, a magical pet Eugene the Jeep in the middle of Sweet Haven?
Bill Bant:
Yeah, that certainly would not have worked.
Jason:
You mentioned the great Jack Mercer earlier, just real quick. Popeye's most well-known and prolific voice actor. He did provide the voice of Popeye in the animated introduction that Bill Bant talked about, and it would prove to be his final voice role before his death in 1984.
Bill Bant:
Yeah. So here's some 'Popeye' backlash. So even with the high gross, Paramount and co-producer Disney considered this movie to be a flop due to not reaching the expected gross target. Plus it received mixed reviews from critics. Subsequently, Paramount bosses Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Kassenberg would jump to Disney within five years. Screenwriter Jules Feiffer did not have another screenwriting credit on a full length feature film until the end of the decade with 1989's 'I Wanna Go Home'. Classic, we remember that one, right? No. And it's the last film Robert Evans produced before a cocaine trafficking conviction sent him and his life downhill for the 80s and he even admitted that he regretted making this move.
Jason:
Hey, on a lighter note, this is the first film released by Disney in which the word "shit" is heard, which is said by Popeye during his huge fight with Pluto.
Bill Bant:
Do you have anything else?
Jason:
Yeah, I gotta talk about Jay Wellington Wimpy. His best known catchphrase started in 1931. Holy cow, 1931. The phrase was, "Cook me up a hamburger, I'll pay you Tuesday." In March 1932, this then became the famous, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." The phrase was also slightly altered in the 1957 animated short "Spree Lunch" to "I'll have a hamburger for which I will gladly pay you Tuesday." This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate financial irresponsibility and still appears in modern comedies as it was in the 'Drew Carey Show' in 'The Office.' And the initial part of the phrase was the title of episode six of the fourth season of 'Cheers' called "I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday."
Bill Bant
Moving on to Box Office. So, 'Popeye' was released on December 12th, 1980 in 901 theaters on an estimated budget of 20 million dollars. It grossed 49.8 million dollars domestically. It debuted number two at the box office behind 'Stir Crazy', which also debuted that week. 'Popeye' ended up being the 11th highest grossing movie in the United States in 1980. And yet it's considered a flop.
Moving on to Reviews, when growing up in the 80s, we would watch 'Sneak Previews' with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert to hear the reviews and watch clips of upcoming movies. Their review of 'Popeye' was unanimous, Two thumbs up. Roger was impressed with how Robert Altman was able to capture the universe of a cartoon character without animation. He also thought the film was true to the spirit of Popeye and that Shelley DuVall was the real star of the movie, being born to play the role of Olive Oyl. Gene found it to be a terrific movie and thought it really encompassed the world of the script, but was concerned it isn't the movie children are expecting. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a Tomatometer score of 58%, with an audience score of 39%. It also has an IMDB rating of 5 .4.
So this takes us to Additional Thoughts and Questions. What are some additional thoughts and questions we have about Popeye?
Jason:
This was interesting to me only because there's so many side characters and then upon doing further research finding out that a lot of these side characters were featured in the comic strip and cartoon and In the beginning of this movie and throughout maybe maybe the first third or so there's what looks like a homeless guy lurking around the corners of Sweet Haven
Bill Bant:
I loved him. I was like, if I could play a bit part in that movie, that's the character I want to play.
Jason:
Well, who is this guy? Why is he there? And I was so hoping and was thinking that I had forgotten and that he would come back later in the movie to be someone mainly Poopdeck Pappy. I thought maybe that was because I forgot that Ray Walston, who is the Commodore of the town, hiding behind the scenes is actually Poopdeck Pappy. But yeah, don't know who the homeless guy was creeping around. It was weird. Yeah.
Bill Bant:
No idea. I loved him though. It's just that he's just peering like, what's going on? just move away. So I don't know.
Some questions I had about the movie. So did Popeye's dad abandon Popeye because he went to jail? Is that what happened?
Jason:
Right?
It's not clear but yeah, I guess sure I'll go with it.
Bill Bant:
Because he kind of mentions it when they first meet that he's going to steal spinach for who? His son who doesn't like spinach. And then he says something about being arrested. So was he arrested and went to jail? And then that's why Popeye became an orphan?
Jason:
I don't know if I missed anything, but that sure I'm just going to go with it.
There's a lot of stuff that is, you know, there's a lot of holes and I'm sure that they had some filling in to do with not everything is explained in the cartoon either. I don't even know if Poopdeck was Poopdeck Pappy an actual character?
Bill Bant:
I think so. Yeah, I believe so.
Jason:
Forgive me. I didn't come across that particular character. Okay. That would make sense.
But clearly not a great dad. They poke a lot of fun at a lot of stuff and gloss over things. Relationship wise and otherwise, that's not actually very good. That's not a good thing. Abandoning your baby in a little basket and things like I mean, I don't know. It's all supposed to be comical though.
Bill Bant:
No. All right, so here's my other big question. So did Bluto know the whole time who Popeye was?
If he's working for the Commodore and the Commodore ends up being Poopdeck Pappy, I'm sure the resemblance is quite striking.
Jason:
Good question.
You would think so.
Yeah, I don't know. You would think so, but it doesn't seem as though Bluto after the initial fight really targets Popeye for any reason.
Bill Bant:
But I was always wondering, because the way we always have shots of Bluto observing what's going on, especially after the fight with Oxblood, that I was like, does he kind of know? And is he worried, if Popeye finds his dad and they team up against him, he's in trouble. I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
Jason:
Right.
Sure.
Yeah, it's a good question. Again, there should have been a much more of an antagonistic relationship situation, scenario between Bluto and Popeye throughout they should have been crossing paths like intimately throughout, you know.
Bill Bant:
Yeah.
Jason:
I wished all of the Oyl family were named after actual oils. That's just, and that's not a flaw of the movie or anything. It's just a fact. I wish it were the case in the actual comic strip too, but we have Olive Oyl and we have Castor Oyl, but then the parents are Cole and Nana. And I was like, shouldn't it be like peanut and corn or maybe motor or flaxseed, canola, coconut, anybody?
Bill Bant:
Yeah.
Jason:
But then I did discover in the research, the name of the character, Nana Oyl, is a play on the 1920s, 30s comment, banana oil, which was used to express disbelief, much like today's comment, Yeah, right.
Bill Bant:
OK, I did not see that. I did like the baby oil joke. That was pretty funny.
Jason:
Yes, that was in there. That's right.
Bill Bant:
Yeah.
Jason:
Here's a weird one for you. It's not weird actually. It's just we don't expect to know this, but what does Popeye do for work? He's just a sailor that just sails, does he?
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I guess so. There's a shipment, makes money doing that. But I don't know specifically. Is he a fisherman, crabber, cargo? No idea.
Jason:
I don't know. Somebody tell us maybe that is explained at some point but not that we need an explanation again it's just he wins some money after the boxing match with Oxblood, but how else was he making money? I don't know.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, just curiosity.
Yeah, because he had enough money. Well, yeah, how was he making a living?
Jason:
I mean, he would get hired to sail ships to captain boats, I would assume maybe or something like that to sail people from one place to another. I don't know.
Bill Bant:
But yeah, you think about in the beginning of the movie, he gets off his dinghy the taxman hits him up for two bucks kind of pays it and then he ranks (rents) a room and he's talking about living there for a year or two. So he's got to make a living somehow, but we never see him
Jason:
Right, he's got some change on him.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, forget it. I'm not going there. I'm not going there.
Jason:
Yeah, it's totally unnecessary.
Bill Bant:
Jason, did you see in the credits during the end titles there was a credit that was called "Mr. Williams Dance Style created by Lou Wills?"
Jason:
I believe I did see that, yeah.
Bill Bant:
What major dancing did we need Mr. Wilson there for?
Jason:
You mean like, cause it's so specific. The credit is so specific that someone actually had to create a dance style for Popeye in this.
Bill Bant:
Yes, I mean that credit just jumped out like, whoa, what the hell is that?
Jason:
I did notice it. Yeah, we got to bring in a specialist for this guy. We need a technical consultant.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, not dance, choreography, not choreography, dance style. And specifically for one person. Where was Mrs. Duvall's dance style?
Jason:
That's right.
I don't know, but she certainly had a walking style at one point. There's a point in the movie. Maybe you can answer this question for me. Where when she's making a run for it during the engagement party to Bluto. And she's wobbling in her ankles and are like folding in and she's doing a wobbly. What was going on there? What was happening? Was that a reference to what Olive Oyl does in the cartoon? Because I was like they kept focusing on her shoes and her ankles.
Bill Bant:
Doing that spinny thing.
Jason:
Kind of being wonky and caving like in inward. I don't get it. I'm missing something here.
Bill Bant:
I did too. I mean, we all know she's very tall, lanky. but yeah, at that moment I was like, what are we doing?
Jason:
Yeah.
We are saying that a lot. Saying it a lot watching this movie. This is pretty funny. This is just a little fun thing. I swear to God I was watching this. It doesn't make any sense, but I thought Oxblood was Butterbean for sure, I was like wait, is that just they just use Butterbean for this part? But no, it's the actor Peter Bray.
Bill Bant:
Yeah. I thought the same thing.
Jason:
Peter Bray played the role of Oxblood Oxheart and Butterbean doesn't come into the public conscience until like the early 90s, mid 90s.
Bill Bant:
Or I thought it was King Kong Bundy from WWE Wrestling. Yeah, I thought it was maybe one of those two.
Jason:
Okay.
There you go. Yeah, Butterbean is also his. That's Eric Esch. Professional boxer, kickboxer, professional wrestler. Yeah, I thought that was funny. I got one more question. What else you got Bill Bant?
Bill Bant:
All right, here's a question. Jason, do you like spinach?
Jason:
I meant to write that question down myself and no, I do not.
Bill Bant:
Really?
Jason:
I'll take it one step back though. Let me say that I like cold spinach. I can eat it as lettuce. You know what I mean? Like spinach salad.
Bill Bant:
Okay. Yeah, I do like a nice spinach salad.
Jason:
But once it gets, I do not like spinach on a hot sandwich, then it turns into warm, goopy spinach and gag me with a spoon. Yeah, yeah, I feel it. Well, that's why you're big and strong, Bill Bant.
Bill Bant:
OK, I like spinach, I'm a fan of spinach.
I am what I am.
You got another question?
Jason:
Yeah, here's the big question regarding best comic slash cartoon movie adaptations, excluding DC Marvel and well, I was going to say Disney, but obviously Buena Vista Disney is part of this. So I think you get what I'm saying. You're picking up what I'm putting down here. So I'm going to throw out a whole bunch. We've got movies such as in no particular order, 'Scooby Doo.'
Bill Bant:
Mm-hmm.
Jason:
'Garfield,' new Garfield just hit the theaters. 'Transformers,' 'The Flintstones,' 'Eon Flux,' 'Dick Tracy,' 'The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle,' 'Alice in Wonderland,' 'Annie,' 'The Crow,' 'Dennis the Menace,' 'Judge Dredd,' the 'G .I. Joe' films, 'Inspector Gadget,' 'Jonah Hex,' 'Masters of the Universe,' 'The Phantom,' 'Paddington,' 'The Smurfs,' 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' 'Watchmen,' and of course, 'Flash Gordon.'
Is there a favorite of yours in there or one that you thought was done the best?
Bill Bant:
Man, there's a lot of terrible movies on that list.
Jason:
Yeah, no doubt about it.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I think it goes without saying 'Flash Gordon.'
And then I would go 'The Crow.'
Jason:
Yeah, pretty solid.
Bill Bant:
And then one that you missed because it was a comic I used to read a lot as a kid was 'Richie Rich,' which was with Macaulay Culkin. Not that that was good, but just one that you missed off the list. Yeah, but man, when you read off like the first seven, it's like, no, terrible, terrible. Yeah, that's been a major miss. They really haven't gotten good comic strip movies made into good movies.
Jason:
Right. Yeah, to differentiate them from like Disney Marvel, like comic book or graphic novel adaptations. Yeah. Remember when 'The Flintstones; came out, man? That was a big deal.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I actually did enjoy both of those. I even liked the sequel. But yeah, they were good. But yeah, 'Flash Gordon', I mean, granted, it's super campy, but love it. And I would probably say 'The Crow' is probably the best made one and it's got a killer soundtrack too.
Jason:
Yeah, yeah, it's up there. I remember going to a midnight showing of 'Dick Tracy'. I got a t-shirt out of it. That was pretty cool.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, 'Dick Tracy.' I like that one.
Jason:
Yeah, it's it's a little tough. That's a little slow as I recall as well great makeup effects The production yeah, the look of it is fantastic But real quick quiz spell Flintstone'
Bill Bant:
Man, so FLIN, it's supposed to be Flint. So FLINT...
Jason:
You got it. You passed. You already passed. That's it. A lot of people forget the T. Flintstones. As I did when I was spelling it in my notes. I was like, I'm an idiot. That's all I got for additional thoughts and questions. You got anything else?
Bill Bant:
Last question. Were you a fan of the Popeye video game in the arcade?
Jason:
I don't recall it off the top of my head. Remind me.
Bill Bant:
OK. This this was actually created by Nintendo and originally I think they tried to get the rights to Popeye and they didn't and they ended up making Donkey Kong, because if you think of Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong's Bluto. Mario Jumpman is Popeye and then the girl is supposed to be Olive Oyl All right, so in the Popeye video game it's three stages.
Jason:
Sure.
Bill Bant:
How can I explain this game? In the first stage, Olive Oyl is like tossing hearts. I guess it's like in Sweet Haven and then Popeyes has to collect them all before they landed to the water. And while he's collecting the hearts, Bluto's giving chase. And if he catches up to you and hits you, you die. If one of the hearts lands into the water say for like 10 seconds, you end up dying.
Jason:
-huh.
Bill Bant:
Sometimes when you pick up the hearts, the Sea Hag appears and throw some bottles at you and you have to punch the bottles. And then each level you have one can of spinach that you can use. And once you eat the can of spinach, of course you can clear everything on the screen. And then there's another second level. She throws musical notes and you have to catch the musical notes and Wimpy's in that one because Popeye can't jump in the game. So if he wants to jump from one level to another, he has to fall down into like a seesaw and then it pushes them up to go in the higher level. It's a pretty popular game. I know they made a NES versions of it and stuff like that. But like I said, it was a Nintendo property.
Jason:
Right.
Wow, I missed that. I was in the arcade a lot and I don't recall playing that one.
Bill Bant:
I did like that one. That was a fun one. But yeah, it was one of those that repeats the same three stages over and over again each time I got harder. Yeah.
Jason:
It sounds fun. Gotcha. Okay. I may have to look it up. Sure. There's some screen grabs or some gameplay on YouTube. So I got to check it out.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, and the music was kind of catchy too.
Jason:
Was it supposed to be based on the movie?
Bill Bant:
No. It's just Popeye in general.
All right, this brings us to Our Rating. So Jason, on a scale of one to five, cans of spinach, what do you give 'Popeye?'
Jason:
I'm giving this 2.5, that's two and a half cans of spinach. Look, you can't deny the production value of the sets, the set deck, the costumes, the casting, but the movie is just downright strange. It's based on the comic and the cartoon, which is a strange premise unto itself in a way, and certainly worked as a long running comic strip and cartoon. So I guess, you know, what do I expect?
They would make a film adaptation, but a musical, question mark. So it's just so over the top goofy and constantly slapstick and constantly ad libby. And improv and it just overwhelms the senses. It's a simple story that does stay faithful to the, I guess the comics, but it's just really gimmicky. There's not a lot added to it that gives it much depth or layers.
Not that it's totally necessary, but they did miss a couple of bets here and there. As we mentioned, it's just one gag to the next in relentless fashion and stuff just kind of happens, especially in the first half of the movie. It's a visual feast, but I'm not connected to anything except the little nostalgia I have connected to the cartoon. I gotta admit it did get me in a couple of moments between, you know, Poopdeck Pappy and good old Popeye. I was constantly in awe of that set in Malta kind of wanted to be there as a fly in the wall for the making of this. There are fun moments Bill Bant did a good job listing a lot of the moments. So this movie is harmless It's not awful. It's just plain off the wall slapstick. It's the comic come to life. I recommend it be put on in the background if you need to distract your own personal Sweet Pea for a while So two and a half cans of spinach for me Bill Bant.
Bill Bant:
Yeah, I'm giving this two cans of spinach, which is probably a higher rating than the 10 year-old me would have gave this movie. But yeah, one can for the set, one can for the cast. I was actually looking forward to watching this movie thinking, okay, maybe being an adult, I'll appreciate it more. I did a little bit more, but overall, even watching it to do the notes for this, I kept drifting off. I kept getting bored. It just wasn't doing it for me.
The musical numbers, I just think are terrible. Most of them just aren't catchy. I understand for most musicals, they're not all gonna be winners, but you need to have more than one or two. And the fact that they wait all the way till the end to hear them sing the "Popeye the Sailor Man" theme song, it's just too long. I don't know, it just didn't do it for me. So two cans of spinach.
Jason:
All right, there you go.
Bill Bant:
So that about wraps it up for this week's episode. As always, thank you so much for listening. Please take the time to follow us on your preferred streaming platform, gives a review and rate us. If you want to learn more about our show, you can visit us at All80sMoviesPodcast.com. For our next episode, we will be discussing 'Peggy Sue Got Married', starring Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage. We hope you can join us. Have an excellent week, everyone.
Jason Masek:
What is that glop you're eating? It's a soup burger. These are difficult times. Burgers can't be choosers.
Thanks for staying up with us. Good night, world.
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