Popeye biscuit
Popeye biscuit article is about the 1980 live-action film. Popeye standing back to back with Olive, swee’pea crawls at his feet. Popeye is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions.
The film premiered on December 6, 1980 in Los Angeles, California and opened in the rest of the United States the following week. Popeye, a strong sailor, arrives at the small coastal town of Sweethaven while searching for his missing father. The next day, Popeye discovers that Swee’Pea can predict the future by whistling when he hears the correct answer to a question. Wellington Wimpy, the constantly hungry local mooch and a petty gambler, also notices this and asks Popeye and Olive to take Swee’Pea for a walk. Wimpy kidnaps the child at Bluto’s orders.
Later that evening, when Olive checks in on Popeye privately, she overhears him lamenting that Swee’Pea deserves to have two parents and he regrets leaving the way he did. The next morning, Wimpy informs Popeye about the kidnapping after being threatened by Olive. Popeye catches up to Bluto and fights him but, despite his determination, Popeye is overpowered. During the fight, Pappy recovers his treasure and opens the chest to reveal a collection of personal sentimental items from Popeye’s infancy, including a few cans of spinach. Evans commissioned Jules Feiffer to write a script. In 1977, he said he wanted Dustin Hoffman to play Popeye opposite Lily Tomlin as Olive Oyl, with John Schlesinger directing. Principal photography commenced on January 23, 1980.
The film was shot in Malta. Evans insisted the screenplay reflect the comic-strip Popeye and not the “distorted” cartoon version. Feiffer’s script went through several rewrites, and he expressed concern that too much screen time was being devoted to minor characters. Feiffer also disliked Nilsson’s songs, feeling they weren’t right for the film. You can help by adding to it. Popeye premiered at the Mann’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on December 6, 1980, two days before what would have been E. Paramount Home Entertainment released the first Blu-ray Disc edition of Popeye on December 1, 2020, in honor of the film’s 40th Anniversary.
The reception with the public and critics was “so toxic” that “Altman was left unemployable and exiled to Paris, directing micro-budgeted indie theater adaptations for the remainder of the decade. Film Comment wrote “Before the film’s release, industry wags were mocking producer Robert Evans by calling it ‘Evansgate'” but “Apparently the film has caught on solidly with young children. Although the film’s gross was decent, it was not the blockbuster that Paramount and Disney had expected, and was thus written off as a disappointment. It had “an astonishingly lucrative home video run that continues to this day “. Reviews at the time were negative but the film has been more positively reappraised over time. Roger Ebert gave the film 3. 5 stars out of 4, writing that Duvall was “born to play” Olive Oyl, and with Popeye Altman had proved “it is possible to take the broad strokes of a comic strip and turn them into sophisticated entertainment.
Other critics were unfavorable, such as Leonard Maltin, who described the picture as a bomb: “E. Segar’s beloved sailorman boards a sinking ship in this astonishingly boring movie. A game cast does its best with an unfunny script, cluttered staging, and some alleged songs. Several authors have contrasted Popeye with later comic book movies. One article calls it a “road not taken” in comic book adaptations. The film won the Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Picture in its original ballot, and again in the expanded ballot in 2006.
The soundtrack was composed by Harry Nilsson, who took a break from producing his album Flash Harry to score the film. He wrote all the original songs and co-produced the music with producer Bruce Robb at Cherokee Studios. I Yam What I Yam” from the soundtrack album, not the film’s live performance. I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” was composed by Sammy Lerner for the original Max Fleischer cartoon. In 2016, a vinyl-only limited-edition version of the album was released with two bonus tracks by Varèse Sarabande for Record Store Day Black Friday. In 2017, Varèse Sarabande released a deluxe edition that places the songs into the original order of the film, reinstates “Everything Is Food”, and includes a second disc of demo versions of the songs sung by Nilsson and the cast. Popeye Is the Best Movie Robin Williams Ever Made”.
