Well, blow me down!
In celebration of his 90th anniversary in 2019, King Features has commissioned a series of flash-animated micro-shorts, each about 2 minutes and change in length, to premiere on the official Popeye YouTube channel. That's the good news.
The bad? Not much in the way of dialogue. Popeye doesn't speak, and in the following sampler, neither does Olive or Bluto, who's had his beard & mustache shaved off. Sounds to me like they went el scrimpo on the casting.
Popeye's Island Adventures recasts the classic characters as being younger. King Features won't say how much younger, but ye scribe will go out on a limb and suggest they're all going to be in their late 20's to early-to-mid 30's. Popeye, as you can see, also has a tuft of blond hair, which is new as well. To keep with the health-conscious society we live in, that trademark pipe has been replaced with a whistle.
If you're a long time fan like me, you'll avoid this like the plague. The organic spinach is the only other good idea they came up with.
Rating: D.
6 comments:
Perhaps the lack of a voice for Popeye stems from the director not yet being able to find a suitable match for the late Jack Mercer's voice, but that's only a guess.
In any case, I'm guessing that Popeye will only be punching things that can't punch back, and also that Popeye and Bluto won't be duking it out much in these shorts, if at all, so's not to encourage the kids at home to solve their problems with their fists. It remains to be seen if Popeye's particular brand of entertainment can sustain itself in this era of political correctness.
I've already got the answer to that. No.
As for the lack of voices, well, Maurice LaMarche & Billy West, two of the most recent voices, are still around.....!
Two other possible contenders are stand-up comics: Dave Coulier and Mark McCollum. Both have notable Popeye impressions. In fact, Coulier voiced Popeye in a couple of Robot Chicken sketches.
Coulier was also known to do a little Popeye now & again on "Full House".
There;s something about the style of the animation that looks more like a commercial than an actual cartoon.
That's why it's so bad.
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