The Problems with Popeye

[sadoeuphemist]

You can read the complete saga at http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/12/19/24-hours-popeye/

Also, the movie's actually looking pretty good.

"Genndy Tartakovsky's POPEYE Animation Test" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[sadoeuphemist]

Also, mods, I noticed we have a tag for E.C. Segar, and also a tag for just Segar. That's one tag we can free up!

[icon_uk]

Thanks for that, now merged,

[icon_uk]

Good thing it's not Mickey Mouse meets Popeye, those always visible round ears and the missing eye would be a killer combination

Not a huge fan of the movie in general, but Robin Williams's performance in th 1980 Popeye is perhaps as lifelike as you could hope for... and Shelley Duvall as Olive is approaching the uncanny.

[katefan]

According to what I read yesterday they are removing Popeye's corncob pipe, his anchor tattoos and spinach. It's like taking away Captain America's shield, or the "S" on Superman's chest.

[sadoeuphemist]

Where did you read that

[katefan]

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/watch-popeye-get-ready-for-his-first-big-screen-turn-in-97897854257.html

I confess I might be interpreting it incorrectly, but if Gennady is planning on being faithful to the character, why remove key elements from Popeye's look?

[sadoeuphemist]

"Even so, it seems impossible that the final film will exclude Popeye’s signature snack."

That article is just saying, 'hey these things aren't in this test clip that's not even going to be part of the final movie, but maybe they also won't be in the final movie??? (nah they probably will be)"

[alicemacher]

The last two Bouletcorp strips there remind me of this bit from Harvey Kurtzman's Popeye parody in Mad #21:

[mishalak]

In the animation sequence the only part I found actually funny was Eugine the Jeep fooling the pirates bit and then it was right back to being rather bored by it. The physical humor was... meh. This was really just an animation test, but given this history of Popeye adaptations and the expressed enthusiasm for the humor of Hotel Transylvania by the animator I am going to bet this movie stinks if it actually gets made.

There is a curse on projects by people who want to revive something they loved from their childhood. John Carter (of Mars), The Lone Ranger, and The Song of the South just to name a few. Those projects tend to turn into an unholy mix of all that was bad in the original along with the worst of the present.

[icon_uk]

They remade The Song of the South?

[mishalak]

I meant that the reason it got made was that Walt Disney made it because he loved the Uncle Remus stories from his childhood and he was having it made as a labor of love in the same way as Andrew Stanton really wanted to make a great John Carter movie because he loved it as a kid.

[icon_uk]

Isn't the reason that most of the Disney movies of that era got made was that he was a fan of them from his childhood?

[wizardru]

I thought John Carter was a great movie that got sunk by a lot of negative buzz and a poor marketing campaign. The movie itself was a fun sci-fi romp. Albeit one that was a few decades overdue.

I could easily point to many examples of the opposite being true. Joss Wheedon's Avengers being one example and Gendy Tartakovsky's Clone War animated shorts being another. I don't think it's an immediate predictor of success or failure, honestly.

[tcampbell1000]

Boulet!

[raspberryrain]

I can't be the only one who looked at the caricatures of "Daniel Radcliffe" and "Tom Cruise" and saw a young Mark Hamill and Liev Schreiber.

[icon_uk]

Yes on the Mark Hamill, but generally I just saw "not terribly impressive caricatures"