Movie Review: Popeye

by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com

I'm going to do something that probably shouldn't be done. I'm going to review a movie I haven't seen for over two decades. The movie in question is “Popeye,” and stars Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, and the octopus who got cut from “The Goonies” (I'm being told by the weatherman that it wasn't the same octopus (I'm further being told that I neither work for a newsroom, nor is there anyone actually informing me of anything (awkward))).

My reason for reviewing this movie now is because I watch, mostly listen to, Mark Bishop on Minty Comedic Arts. I enjoy his takes on movies of the 80s. Many of his videos are "10 things you didn't know," and he often picks things that I actually didn't know.

What struck me as odd about his video on “Popeye” is that he referenced himself and a number of others having fond memories of this movie, but also disappointment and a general feeling that it didn't hold up. I decided I was in a good position to review it with complete nostalgia and without a recent revisit.

In this case, the 10 things you didn't know is mostly how difficult the production was.

We owned “Popeye” on video disc when I was around eight or nine years old. I want you to note that I didn't say laser disc. Oh no! My parents were warned of the problems of video discs and enlightened on the advantages of laser disc, but they chose to go with video disc. I wrote about that purchase here.

This movie really didn't hold up well. I mean the movie itself did, just not the video disc it was put on.

I watched “Popeye” a lot as a kid, and when watching Minty's video, as not so much a kid, I was in a rare situation where I wasn’t just listening. I was able to see many of the clips. I was reminded just how unique Popeye was, in ways too numerous to count (I can probably count the ways on one hand, but I really wanted a heaping teaspoon of hyperbole). Minty talked about how the movie was perhaps boring, and I'll have to admit that as a young boy I also felt that way. It just wasn't so boring that I disliked it. Another movie we owned on laser... lase... *sigh* on video disc was “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was also a bit dull at points, and yet I loved watching it. Being a bit dull doesn't necessarily make a movie bad.

So what did “Popeye” get right? We'll start with the acting. “Popeye” had incredible acting by a super talented cast. I remember that my mom loved Shelley Duvall as Olive Oil. I have no idea what Justin Bieber's mom thought of Shelley Duvall, but as I understand it she likes everyone. I enjoyed all the actors portraying major characters: Robin Williams as Popeye, Shelley Duvall as Olive Oil, and those guys who played Bluto and the Commodore as Bluto and the Commodore. Chemistry is important to love stories, and the chemistry Williams and Duvall portrayed was brilliant, nothing phooey about it.

The movie got the setting right too. There wasn't really a consistent setting in the cartoon shorts, leaving the production to create their vision of a coastal town in which Popeye could arrive. The town was filled with many bit part characters that ring of The Canterbury Tales (at least my understanding of what The Canterbury Tales is like… I should add that to my reading list) and these minor characters did a lot of heavy lifting to help the portrayal of the major characters, once again owing to the overall acting quality.

This movie thrives at being all at once surreal, slapstick, cartoonish, and sweet. I believe that Robert Altman deserves at least a few pats on the back for keeping the movie consistently surreal using real actors, and cartoonish in a time where the term “practical effects” didn't really exist because most special effects were practical effects.

So finally, let's talk about the Bluto sized elephant in the room, which was the decision to make the movie a musical. I don't believe that the mediocre songs actually hurt the overall quality. There’s no way that as a kid I could have put this feeling, almost rationalization, into eloquent enough words, but I’ll try now. My impression of the Spartan vocal performances and minimalist songwriting was because they were simple people with simple lives. I always thought that it helped with the feeling that everyone in this movie was sort of an "everyman."

Now that I’ve written my nostalgic point of view of “Popeye,” I might have to find a way of seeing it again. Minty was one of the major reasons I recently revisited the “Back to the Future” trilogy, and he seems to have influenced me again with “Popeye.” If I do watch it again, I'll strongly consider updating my thoughts in a new blog post.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who is Sucking Lemons.