Popeye

Noticed there was a distinct lack of spinach-eating sailors on the forum.

Does anybody remember any of the shorts?

Yeah, I used to watch the shorts on DVD. I don't know where the DVD is now. But I am interested in Genndy Tartakovsky-directed film coming out next year.

edited 3rd Jan '14 2:58:23 AM by I-Block

Awww shit! I can't tell if I should be excited or worried that it will be the same as the 1980's Robin Williams movie.

Does anyone here like the IDW comics that came out recently? I thoroughly enjoy them.

I haven't had Boomerang in a few years, but that's where I started watching Popeye a lot. Though they only showed the horribly-animated recolored shorts. I'm not even sure if they still show Popeye.

edited 4th Jan '14 12:01:29 AM by Surenity

They don't.

And if they did, it would only be for a brief month to promote said movie. I had no idea IDW was also doing Popeye. Seems to be the company to turn to for non-DC & Marvel licences.

I remember a lot of Popeye stuff, and I don't think I dislike a single bit of it. Even in Robin Williams' case, they tried to catch some of a very simple but fun premise. Whereas a lot of other animation franchises lost it in the 60's, the Popeye shorts from that era still had a lot of what makes it work. Even the very silly 80's stuff stayed mostly in line. The one Christmas special threw me briefly with him and Bluto being pals, but a lot of the old ones had them getting along for parts of the film, so not so off. I remember an anniversary comic written by Peter David, art a bit odd-looking but also reverent and explaining some of the mechanics of that world while marrying off him and Olive.

My faves are some of the really weird old ones, like the live-action kid being bullied but somehow aided by animated Popeye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KAv_qnOaeY

edited 4th Jan '14 3:14:03 AM by Gojirob

The only bad taste I can think of in the franchise is that one series that had him married to Olive and most of it was basically his equiviant to The Flintstones.

I like how the live-action kids were just as badly overdubbed as the cartoons.

I also like that you can sing limericks along to the theme song.

I just keep singin' "I'm popeye: The sailor man".

Necroposting to report that this is a thing:

Appears to be a kinda-sorta Spinoff Babies kid-oriented version of Popeye?

Why does it look like a crappy bootleg from one of those weird You Tube kids' channels?

At least they remembered Eugene the Jeep.

I think someone remembered Popeye turns 90 in a few months and decided to just throw something together.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 2nd 2018 at 7:17:40 AM

What is with these really cheap looking Flash rehashes of Golden Age cartoons getting revealed right now?

I mean sure Mickey Mouse got a Flash series but at least its crudeness was actually a design choice and the drawing and animation is effortful. Even The Tom and Jerry Show looks halfway professional.

I'm placing heavy bets that Casper is next. He's due another cheap-ass revival show.

Edited by Psi001 on Dec 2nd 2018 at 5:09:14 PM

Follow the Leader, basically. People copying the concept but not the substance.

People like milking old propertiez because they have fanbases already. Generations like Popeye, so they think brand association with help. I just wish more sequels had at least some care taken into them. Even the 1990s Yogi cartoon looked a little like the people enjoyed Yogi Bear.

Yeah, but I mean, they could have at least gotten someone who can draw the old Popeye style or even just has a cool unique art style. That's just really lazy and mechanical Off-Model vector art.

Hell I could argue the old Fleischer style Popeye cartoons could have been replicated well in Flash, giving it was more about funny key poses than fluidity.

Edited by Psi001 on Dec 3rd 2018 at 3:40:40 PM

Me upon looking at the thumbnail alone:

First Woody Woodpecker, now Popeye?! Inconceivable!

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Dec 3rd 2018 at 11:42:30 AM

Oh for fuck sakes.

I really wish we got that CGI Popeye movie over this...

Me too...

Yeah, I don't need to beat a dead horse that Flash Animate/ Toon Boom is more than capable of making great digital puppetry animation, frame-by-frame animation, or both. (Just watch any notable web gen animators on Youtube or Twitter).

This is more so just a series staff doing the absolute bare minimum to produce original content for their Youtube archive channel. Clearly the result of, as Known Unknown perfectly put it, seeing the success of Mickey Mouse 2011 (and similar shows, like Wabbit/New Looney Tunes, The Tom and Jerry Show).

Thankfully, since this is hosted on an official Popeye archive channel, one doesn't have to look too far to support content they prefer.

The worst part about this is, the more I became a fan of Popeye, the more I felt like if you're not bringing a certain level of vibrancy and motion to the character, you're doing it wrong.

It's not just about seeing Popeye punch things in cartoony ways: even if you're doing the rough action of the comic or the fluid zaniness of Fleischer, the character has to be very visual. Even Famous Studios (whose shorts imo aren't as good) covered Popeye being less expressive by ramping up the color of the world around him and going bigger and bigger with the cartoony affects of his adventures.

On paper, a Popeye cartoon in the style of Mickey Mouse 2013 is a really good idea. But just look at Mickey Mouse: even at its worst animated, it's extremely energetic and visually expressive, for everything from the way the characters move and express themselves to the nods and details in the background. It's an extremely visual series, which is what makes it so endearing.

This? This is just bland.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 3rd 2018 at 1:47:25 AM

This was in the business section of the New York Times today and when I saw it I was like "oh hell no!! Nobody WANTS this!" The article claims that Popeye is now eco-friendly and that he's "not young but not old either" which sounds half baked.

That "not young, but not old either" statement rather sums up the problem here. What they're left with isn't much of anything, really. They've excised just about everything about Popeye that makes him distinct and original. The designs make it look like even the artists don't really care anything about it.

Given the success of something like Adventure Time, I think there are probably lots of ways to remake Popeye for the modern era, if you ignore the real world and just establish Popeye in his own world.

And as far as "not young, but not old either" goes, Popeye's official age was put at 36 (which, depending on your point of view, I suppose is not young and not old).

Popeye is 36?

I always thought he was an old man...

Apparently we'll be seeing something a little more (or rather, a LOT more) faithful to classic Popeye sometime next month.