History Film / Popeye

* JerkAss: Oh yes:

** Poopdeck Pappy is a thoroughly unpleasant, bitter jerk towards everyone except maybe Swee'Pea.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: The diner toughs, after a fashion. They all are (understandably) uncomfortable when they next see Popeye (at the engagement party), but when he exiles the tax man, the jubilantly carry him aloft. Later when he goes to have it out with the commodore, they shout encouragement to him.

The plot is effectively the origin story of the two-fisted sailor man. After years on the sea, Popeye arrives in the ramshackle town of Sweethaven searching for his [[LongLostRelative long-lost pappy]] (Ray Walston) and winds up not only caught in a LoveTriangle with Olive Oyl (Creator/ShelleyDuvall) and Bluto (Paul L. Smith), but also becoming an adoptive father to an abandoned baby he names Swee'Pea...

** At Olive and Bluto's engagement party a man can be heard complaining about Olive getting married. This man is Ham Gravy, who was Olive's fiance in the original ''Thimble Theater'' comic strip before he was PutOnABus and Popeye took his place.

** One minute, Popeye and his adopted kid are being congratulated by the entire town for [[spoiler: getting rid of the hated tax collector]]. And suddenly, he realizes that somewhere in the crowd, ''Swee'Pea has disappeared''.

** Popeye ''destroys'' the six bar toughs single handedly and doesn't even break a sweat.
** Popeye initially fights Oxblood for entertainment and is obviously having no trouble. Then Oxblood tries to fight dirty, which riles Popeye - who ends the fight very decisively shortly after

* EvilDebtCollector: The Tax Man will come up with all sorts of frivolous charges to get arbitrary amounts of tax. And he demands exact change!

* NoSell: During their boxing match, Popeye tanks two haymaker shots from the gigantic Oxblood Oxheart without even blinking before flattening him with one shot.

* "Jerkass" may be a little harsh to describe Wimpy, but he's a supremely selfish doofus who doesn't care a whit about who may be hurt by his shenanigans and shady dealings. Which perfectly captures his character from the comics.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** The "house of ill re-pukes" that Wimpy takes Swee'pea to in order to bet on horses is not only a place of gambling but has overtones of being a brothel. It's never directly ''stated'', but the following dialogue as Popeye and the Oyls enter the place leaves very little room for doubt:
-->'''Popeye:''' What is this, a house of ill re-pukes? Ooh, who'd bring me infink to this den o' immoraliky? ''(to Olive)'' Don't touch nothin', you might get a [[{{Malaproper}} venerable disease.]]\\
'''Lady of "ill re-pukes":''' Oooh, is that a bed pole you got in your pocket, handsome?
** The entire reason Bluto goes sideways on seeing Popeye, Olive, and Swee'pea together is that he thinks that she had sex with Popeye and produced a child with him!
** When he first arrives at the Oyls, Popeye's seabag keeps bumping Nana Oyl's boobs, to the point where she starts covering them every time he turns.
** Upon arriving in Sweet Haven, Popeye sees La Verne the Waitress straightening her stockings. Popeye mutters "[[AllMenArePerverts Nice lookin' knees...]] that does it for me!"
** Alarmed at Swee'Pea's rattle, Olive jumps into Popeye's arms her legs emphatically around him. Popeye notes "We should at least have dinner first!"

A 1980 [[TheMusical Musical]] LiveActionAdaptation starring Creator/RobinWilliams as the [[ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} eponymous character]] and directed by Creator/RobertAltman, with a song score by Music/HarryNilsson, and a screenplay by Jules Feiffer.

Though a financial success (the movie grossed more than twice its enormous budget in the U.S. alone), the film was widely reviled and panned by critics. Popeye fans were upset that the film was nothing like the Fleischer/Paramount cartoons and instead drew heavily from the Thimble Theater comic strip which birthed Popeye. The film derailed Altman's directorial career for a decade and was largely disowned by Robin Williams

The movie grossed more than twice its enormous budget in the U.S. alone (it took two studios to mount it -- Paramount and Disney). It was also a TroubledProduction; between that and its inability to live up to Paramount's high expectations, Robin Williams came to see it as something of an OldShame and it derailed Altman's mainstream directorial career for well over a decade. It hasn't yet been outright VindicatedByHistory, but it does have a growing CultClassic following.

A 1980 [[TheMusical Musical]] LiveActionAdaptation starring Creator/RobinWilliams as the eponymous character and directed by Creator/RobertAltman, with a song score by Music/HarryNilsson, and a screenplay by Jules Feiffer.

* MegatonPunch: Both Bluto and the octopus are on the receiving end of one by Popeye once he's empowered by spinach.

** The killer octopus is first pummeled silly by a spinach-powered Popeye, and then it gets hit by an uppercut of such ridiculous power that it is launched not just out of the ocean, but ''several hundred feet in the sky.'' It's difficult to think of another movie monster who was annihilated *that* badly in the final fight.

The plot is effectively the origin story of the two-fisted sailor man. After years on the sea, Popeye arrives in the ramshackle town of Sweethaven searching for his [[LongLostRelative long-lost pappy]] (Ray Walston) and winds up not only caught in a LoveTriangle with Olive Oyl ([[Series/FaerieTaleTheatre Shelley Duvall]]) and Bluto (Paul L. Smith), but also becoming an adoptive father to an abandoned baby he names Swee'Pea...

* CurbStompBattle: Bluto brutally and decisively trashes Popeye at the engagement party.

*** And when the brawl goes down, Popeye lays waste to the toughs. At the edge of the frame, Spike can be seen grabbing a ketchup bottle [[GrievousBottleyHarm to use as a club]], then realizing this isn't gonna do much good against ''this'' guy, and sheepishly placing it back on the table. He opts to smash Popeye with a chair instead, which doesn't [[EpicFail work out very well either]].

*** And when the brawl goes down, Popeye lays waste to the toughs. At the edge of the frame, Spike can be seen grabbing a ketchup bottle [[GrievousBottleyHarm to use as a club]], then realizing this isn't gonna do much good against ''this'' guy, and awkwardly places it back on the table.

** Hoagy, a piano player for the Rough House, is played by Van Dyke Parks, who arranged and conducted Nilsson's songs, including "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" at the end of the film.

* VictoriousChorus: At the end of the film, a chorus triumphantly sings "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" along with Popeye himself.

* ChildHater: Downplayed with Poopdeck Pappy; his misanthropic "Kids" song focuses on the fickleness and ingratitude of human nature:
-->'''Poopdeck Pappy''': Bless their little hearts, if they was made out of gold, I'd like to sell 'em on the open market. I could make me a fortune. Kids! Eh, they don't know what they're doing. Kids, dadblast 'em! They're gonna lead you to ruin. That's what they're gonna do, lead you to ruin. They cry at you when they're young, they yell at you when they're older, they borrows from you when they's middle-aged and they leave you alone to die. Without even paying you back! Children, phooey. You give them everything they want, and what do you get back in return? You get nothing! Why they're just smaller versions of us you know, but I'm not so crazy about me in the first place, so why would I want one of them? I'm asking ya. Children. Ah, children. Little children. You'll pour your heart to them, you give them everything they want. Give them candy and a lot of toys, and what do you get in return? You get a lot of noise: "Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, my poppa's a mean old man!" I'm through with children, I'm through with kids. They ain't nothing I'm never gonna do about it.
** However, when he sees Swee'pea in the clutches of Bluto, who's using him like a human treasure detector, he sees hope for the future generation and goes on a rescue mission, and starts bonding with Swee'pea and Popeye.
* ChildrenAreAWaste: Poopdeck Pappy's "Kids" song.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Swee'pea.

** The "house of ill re-pukes" that Wimpy takes Swee'pea to in order to bet on horses is not only a place of gambling but clearly also a brothel. It's never directly ''stated'', but the following dialogue as Popeye and the Oyls enter the place make very little room for doubt:

* AllThatGlitters: The treasure that everyone is hunting in the final act turns out to be...Pappy's mementos of his son, making for a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming when he shows the items to Swee'Pea.