Review: 'Popeye' is ship shape nod to classic toon

Popeye   PG   

            E.C. Segar's comic strip, and the 1930s to 1960s cartoons, come to life in this 1980s Altman flick that is actually Robin Williams' best casting in a film, as Popeye, the Sailor man, ever. Altman normally doesn't do wacky comedy, so it's weird they slated him to direct. Paul Smith plays a perfectly mean spirited Bluto. Shelly Duvall was cast perfectly as Olive Oyle. Critics of the time were unfairly merciless to this campy movie, not understanding that it was a cartoon, (and evidently they lacked the funny bone), even though they remembered the cartoon more than the target audience, who were all kids watching reruns on UHF. It's actually one of the best adaptations of a cartoon series ever made really. The fact that the cartoon was over 50 years old at that point doesn't matter because the story basically recounts the cartoon anyway. 
Review by Adam Browne