MovieChat Forums > Popeye (1980) Discussion > Popeye is definitely UNDERRATED in my op...

Popeye is definitely UNDERRATED in my opinion


Anyone else agree that Popeye a joint collaboration from Paramount and Disney in an underrated movie and was quite good for being made in 1980?

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I agree with you. I think the reason it failed was that viewers were expecting a movie based on Popeye cartoons, but the movie was based more on the original Thimble Theatre comic strip where Popeye first appeared.

Many people had never heard of Geezil, Ham Gravy, Rough House, or Olive Oyl's family. Just about the only concession this movie made to the short cartoons was using Bluto as the villain. In the comic strips, the Sea Hag was Popeye's main enemy; Bluto only appeared once (although the fight lasted two weeks), and the Sea Hag's son, Sonny Boy, was the major heavy.

I admit that I was somewhat baffled by it, at the time. It was only later, when I started to discover Popeye's pre-cartoon history, that I really began to appreciate this movie.

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drunkbear thanks for the reply and what a great reply. I didn't realize all of that, I figured that they just added the family, like her brother Castor Oyl. I still believe they were ahead of their time in making this movie. I'm glad they did however.

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Williams was so great as Popeye

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I whole heartedly agree. I grew up watching Popeye cartoons, and I love Robin Williams in this movie. To me, he was the embodiment of Popeye

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This is one of those Robert Altman adaptations that just didn't play out well. Maybe it had too much studio interference during production but the flow of the story and editing felt very off to me. I saw it as a kid when it came out and it didn't leave an impression, then saw it again about 20 years later with an adult eye and a developed appreciation for Robert Altman's directing style and it still felt like a stale movie to me.

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