Папай моряк на английском как пишется

моряк попай

popeye — перевод на русский

Показать ещё примеры для «попай»…

Показать ещё примеры для «папай»…

Показать ещё примеры для «морячок»…

Показать ещё примеры для «попая»…

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.

All the inhabitants of this section, from a sailor Popeye that gains superhuman strength with the help of spinach, to «The Incredibles,» showing the mixture of super-powers, illustrate the main advantage of the animation — «in cartoons everything is possible».

Все обитатели раздела — от моряка Попая, обретающего нечеловеческую силу благодаря шпинату, до «Суперсемейки», демонстрирующей целый компот сверхспособностей, — иллюстрируют главное преимущество анимации: «в мультфильмах можно все».

Другие результаты

The role of the sailor Popeye, played the famous actor Robin Williams.

Роль морячка Попая, сыграл известный актер Робин Уильямс.

The village of the sailor Popeye Village in Malta consists of wooden houses, which were originally intended for the filming of the famous Popeye musical in 1980.

Деревня моряка Попая (Рорёуё Village) на Мальте состоит из деревянных домиков, которые первоначально предназначались для съемок известного мюзикла «Попай» в 1980 году.

Popeye the Sailor Man loved spinach because it’s both tasty and high in antioxidants.

Шпинат: Моряк Попай любил шпинат, потому что он вкусный и богат антиоксидантами.

Eat your spinach and you will be strong like popeye the sailor.

This Maltese fun park is all about Popeye the Sailor and the universe around this character.

Этот Мальтийский Парк Развлечений посвящён тематике моряка по имени Попай и миру, окружающему этот персонаж.

Jack Mercer was the voice of Popeye the Sailor for 45 years.

Джек Мерсер был голосом моряка Попай в течение 45 лет.

The cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man is portrayed as having a strong affinity for spinach, becoming physically stronger after consuming it.

Мультипликационный персонаж Папай моряк изображается как имеющий сильное влечение к шпинату, он становится физически сильнее после его употребления.

Popeye The Sailor — Frank «Rocky» Fiegel

All Popeye the sailor available online for free, in fact, like all the games that you can find on our portal.

Все игры Папай моряк доступны на сайте совершенно бесплатно, собственно, как и все игры, которые Вы сможете найти на нашем портале.

Filming commenced on January 1980, and the live-action musical comedy featuring Robin Williams playing as Popeye the Sailor was released on December the same year.

Съёмки начались в январе 1980 года и музыкальная комедия, в которой играли актёры, включая Робина Уильямса (Robin Williams) в роли Морячка Попая вышла на экраны в декабре того же года.

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor

Young, red-faced with his sleeves rolled up, fists of fingers like fat rolls of coins, he looked like Popeye the sailor man come to life.

Молодым, краснолицым с засученными рукавами и кулаками, как у молотобойца, он выглядел как Попай — матрос из Голливудских мультфильмов

Popeye: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor

Right, thanks to Popeye the Sailor Man here, the van is still our best bet, right?

Popeye The Sailor Meets Sinbad The Sailor 1936, USA Animation, Short, Comedy, Musical, Family, Fantasy,

Рорёуё the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor, мультфильм, короткометражка, мюзикл, фэнтези, комедия, семейный, США, 1936

Popeye is, as the song tells us, a sailor man.

Kristen swears like a sailor and feels everything 200 percent.

Кристен ругается, как сапожник, и чувствует себя на все 200 процентов.

Alick Popoff from Penza came to Australia in 1915 as a sailor.

Алик Попов из Пензы прибыл в Австралию в 1915 г. в качестве моряка.

Unless you’re a sailor, I agree.

Если вы не садист, то вы согласитесь с этим.

Ничего не найдено для этого значения.

Результатов: 963. Точных совпадений: 1. Затраченное время: 101 мс

Documents

Корпоративные решения

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Индекс слова: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900

Индекс выражения: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

Индекс фразы: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

Popeye the Sailor Man
Thimble Theatre/Popeye character
Popeye with spinach I’m strong to the «finich», ’cause I eats me spinach. — lyric from «I’m Popeye the Sailor Man»
First appearance	Thimble Theatre (1929)
Created by	E. C. Segar
Portrayed by	Gus Wickie (1933–1939 public appearances)[1] Harry Foster Welch (1934–1940s public events and amusement parks, Pleasure Island)[2] Robin Williams (1980 film)
Voiced by	List William Costello (1933–1935) Detmar Poppen (1935–1936, radio only) Floyd Buckley (Be Kind To Aminals, 1936–1937 radio appearances, 1937 Bluebird Records records, 1945–1946 cartoons)[3][2] Jack Mercer (1935–1945, 1947–1984) Mae Questel (1945, 1961)[4][5][6] Harry Foster Welch (1946–1947, 1960s Peter Pan Records records)[2][7] Candy Candido (I’m Popeye The Sailor Man/The Little White Duck)[8] Allen Swift (Official TV Popeye Record Album, Popeye’s Favorite Sea Shanties, Start commercial)[9][10] Tex Brashear (Cocoa Puffs commercials)[11][12] Maurice LaMarche (1987–1990) Jeff Bergman (1989–1996, commercials)[13][14] Sonny Melendrez (Dickinson Theatres commercials)[15] Tim Kitzrow (Popeye Saves the Earth)[16] Wally Wingert (Popeye and the Quest For the Woolly Mammoth, Popeye and the Sunken Treasure)[17][18] Scott Innes (Campbell’s Soup commercial)[19] Keith Scott (Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges, Pandemonium Cartoon Circus)[20][21][22] Billy West (Minute Maid commercial, Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, Drawn Together)[23] Marc Biagi (Slots from Bally Gaming)[24][25] Richard Halpern (Boop-Oop-a-Dooin‘)[26][27] Allen Enlow (United States Power Squadrons radio spots)[28] Trey Parker (South Park)[29] Kevin Shinick (Mad)[30] Tom Kenny (2014 animation test, 2016–present)[31] Matt Hurwitz (Project Runway All Stars)[32][33][34][35] Joe Newton (Popeye’s Island Adventures)[36]
In-universe information
Full name	Popeye the Sailor
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Sailor
Family	Granny (grandmother) Poopdeck Pappy (father) Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pupeye (nephews) Popeye Junior (son) Nana Oyl (mother-in-law) Castor Oyl (brother-in-law)
Significant other	Olive Oyl

Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.^{[37][38][39][40]} The character first appeared on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the lead character, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features’ most popular properties during the 1930s. After Segar died in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar’s assistant Bud Sagendorf. It was formally renamed Popeye. The strip continues to appear in first-run instalments on Sundays, written and drawn by R.K. Milholland. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.^[39]

In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures.^[41] These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer Studios, which later became Paramount’s own Famous Studios, continued production through 1957. Cartoons produced during World War II included Allied propaganda, as was common among cartoons of the time.^[42] These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros.^[43]

Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, video games, hundreds of advertisements,^[39] peripheral products ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman and starring Robin Williams as Popeye.

Charles M. Schulz said, «I think Popeye was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor».^[44] In 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye number 20 on its «50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time» list.^[45]

Fictional character and story[edit]

Popeye’s story and characterization vary depending on the medium. In his debut storyline, Popeye’s superhumanly-proportioned strength and endurance stemmed from the «luck» he acquired by rubbing the hairs of the head of Bernice, a «whiffle hen», thus enabling him to survive twelve gunshot wounds. By the end of 1929, however, Popeye’s strength had become a regularized fixture of his character, with spinach, by 1932, becoming the primary repository of his prowess.^[46] Swee’Pea is Popeye’s ward in the comic strips, but his custody is inconsistent in cartoons.

There is no absolute sense of continuity in the stories, although certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant, including purposeful contradictions in Popeye’s capabilities. Popeye seems bereft of manners and uneducated, yet he often comes up with solutions to problems that seem insurmountable to the police or the scientific community. He has displayed Sherlock Holmes-like investigative prowess, scientific ingenuity, and successful diplomatic arguments. In the animated cartoons his pipe also proves to be highly versatile. Among other things, it has served as a cutting torch, jet engine, propeller, periscope, musical instrument, and a whistle with which he produces his trademark toot. He also eats spinach through his pipe, sometimes sucking in the can along with the contents. Since the 1970s, Popeye is seldom depicted using his pipe to smoke tobacco.^[39]

Popeye’s exploits are also enhanced by a few recurring plot elements. One is the love triangle among Popeye, Olive, and Bluto (sometimes called Brutus), and Bluto’s endless machinations to claim Olive at Popeye’s expense. Another is his near-saintly perseverance in overcoming any obstacle to please Olive, who often (if temporarily) renounces Popeye for Bluto.^{[citation needed]}

Thimble Theatre and Popeye comic strips[edit]

Thimble Theatre/Popeye
Author(s)	E. C. Segar (creator, December 1919–December 1937, May-August 1938) Doc Winner (December 1937-May 1938) Tom Sims & Doc Winner (August 1938-December 1939) Tom Sims & Bela Zaboly (December 1939-December 1954 (daily strip), December 1939-September 1959 (Sunday strip)) Ralph Stein & Bela Zaboly (December 1954-August 1959, daily strip only) Bud Sagendorf (August 1959-February 1986 (daily strip), September 1959-September 1994 (Sunday strip)) Bobby London (February 1986-July 1992, daily strip only) Hy Eisman (September 1994-May 2022, Sunday strip only) R. K. Milholland (June 2022–present, Sunday strip only)
Website	popeye.com comicskingdom.com/popeye
Current status/schedule	New strips on Sundays, reprints Monday through Saturday
Launch date	December 19, 1919
End date	July 30, 1992 (last first-run daily strip, Sunday strips continue)
Syndicate(s)	King Features Syndicate
Publisher(s)	King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor, adventure

Segar’s Thimble Theatre debuted in the New York Journal on December 19, 1919. The paper’s owner, William Randolph Hearst, also owned King Features Syndicate, which syndicated the strip. Thimble Theatre was intended as a replacement for Midget Movies by Ed Wheelan (Wheelan having recently resigned from King Features).^[47] While initially failing to attract a large audience, the strip nonetheless increasingly accumulated a modest following as the 1920s continued. At the end of its first decade, the strip resultantly appeared in over a dozen newspapers and had acquired a corresponding Sunday strip (which had debuted on January 25, 1925 within the Hearst-owned New York American paper).

Thimble Theatre’s first main characters were the lanky, long-nosed slacker Harold Hamgravy (rapidly shortened to simply «Ham Gravy») and his scrappy, headstrong girlfriend Olive Oyl. In its earliest weeks, the strip featured the duo, alongside a rotating cast of primarily one-shot characters, acting out various stories and scenarios in a parodic theatrical style (hence the strip’s name). As its first year progressed, however, numerous elements of this premise would be relinquished (including the recurring character «Willie Wormwood», introduced as a parody of melodrama villainy), soon rendering the strip a series of episodic comic anecdotes depicting the daily life and dysfunctional romantic exploits of Ham Gravy and Olive Oyl. It could be classified as a gag-a-day comic during this period.^[47] In mid-1922, Segar began to increasingly engage in lengthier (often months-long) storylines; by the end of the following year, the strip had effectively transitioned fully into a comedy-adventure style focalizing Ham, Olive, and Olive’s ambitious-but-myopic diminutive brother Castor Oyl, initially a minor character yet arguably the protagonist of the strip by 1924. Castor and Olive’s parents Cole and Nana Oyl also made frequent appearances beginning in the mid-1920s.^[38] By the late 1920s, the strip had likewise acquired a number of notable characters beyond the sphere of Ham Gravy and the Oyl family, including Castor Oyl’s wife Cylinda (to whom he was married from 1926 to 1928), her wealthy, misanthropic father Mr. Lotts and Castor’s fighting cockerel Blizzard, all of whom had exited the strip by the close of 1928 (although Cylinda would eventually martially reunite with Castor under R.K. Milholland’s authorship almost a century later).

Popeye first appeared in the strip on January 17, 1929, as a minor character. He was initially hired by Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy to crew a ship for a voyage to Dice Island, the location of a casino owned by the crooked gambler Fadewell. Castor intended to break the bank at the casino using the unbeatable good luck conferred by stroking the hairs on the head of Bernice the Whiffle Hen.^[48] Weeks later, on the trip back, Popeye was shot many times by Jack Snork, an undercover stooge of Fadewell’s, but survived by rubbing Bernice’s head. After the adventure, Popeye left the strip, but, owing to reader reaction, he was brought back after an absence of only five weeks.^[39][47]

Ultimately, the Popeye character became so popular that he was given a larger role by the following year, and the strip was taken up by many more newspapers as a result. Initial strips presented Olive as being less than impressed with Popeye, but she eventually left Ham to become Popeye’s girlfriend in March 1930, precipitating Ham’s exit as a regular weeks later. Over the years, however, she has often displayed a fickle attitude towards the sailor. Initially, Castor Oyl continued to come up with get-rich-quick schemes and enlisted Popeye in his misadventures. By the end of 1931, however, he settled down as a detective and later on bought a ranch out west. Castor’s appearances have resultantly become sparser over time. As Castor faded from the strip, J. Wellington Wimpy, a soft-spoken and eloquent yet cowardly hamburger-loving moocher who would «gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today» was introduced into the Sunday strip, in which he became a fixture by late 1932. After first appearing in the daily strip in March 1933, Wimpy became a full-time major character alongside Popeye and Olive.

In July 1933, Popeye received a foundling baby in the mail whom he adopted and named Swee’Pea. Other regular characters introduced into the strip following its retool in 1930 were George W. Geezil, an irascible cobbler who spoke in a heavily affected accent and habitually attempted to murder or wish death upon Wimpy; Rough-House, the temperamental owner of a budget diner who served as a long-suffering foil to Wimpy; Eugene the Jeep, a yellow, vaguely doglike animal from Africa with magical powers; the Sea Hag, a terrible pirate and the last witch on Earth; Alice the Goon, a monstrous creature who entered the strip as the Sea Hag’s henchwoman and continued as Swee’Pea’s babysitter; the hapless, perpetually anxious King Blozo; Blozo’s unintelligent lackey Oscar; Popeye’s lecherous, superannuated father Poopdeck Pappy; and Toar, an ageless, dim-witted caveman.^[40][38]

Segar’s strip was quite different from the theatrical cartoons that followed. The stories were more complex (often spanning months or even years), with a heavier emphasis on verbal comedy and many characters that never appeared in the cartoons (among them King Blozo, Toar, and Rough-House). Spinach usage, a trait introduced in July 1931, was comparatively infrequent, and Bluto appeared in only one story arc. Segar signed some of his early Popeye comic strips with a cigar, his last name being a homophone of «cigar» (pronounced SEE-gar). Comics historian Brian Walker stated: «Segar offered up a masterful blend of comedy, fantasy, satire and suspense in Thimble Theater Starring Popeye«.^[40]

Owing to Popeye’s increasingly high profile, Thimble Theatre became one of King Features’ most popular strips during the 1930s. A poll of adult comic strip readers in the April 1937 issue of Fortune magazine voted Popeye their second-favorite comic strip (after Little Orphan Annie).^[40] By 1938, Thimble Theatre was running in 500 newspapers, and over 600 licensed «Popeye» products were on sale.^[40] The success of the strip meant Segar was earning $100,000 a year at the time of his death.^[40] The strip continued after Segar’s death in 1938 under a succession of artists and writers. Following an eventual name change to Popeye in the 1970s and the cancellation of the daily strip in 1992 (in favor of reprints), the comic, now solely a Sunday strip, remains one of the longest-running strips in syndication today.

Toppers[edit]

Thimble Theatre had a number of topper strips on the Sunday page during its run; the main topper, Sappo, ran for 21 years, from February 28, 1926, to May 18, 1947. (Sappo was a revival of an earlier Segar daily strip called The Five-Fifteen, aka Sappo the Commuter, which ran from December 24, 1920, to February 17, 1925.) For seven weeks in 1936, Segar replaced Sappo with Pete and Pansy – For Kids Only (Sept 27 — Nov 8, 1936).^[49]

There were also a series of topper panel strips that ran next to Sappo. Segar drew one of them, Popeye’s Cartoon Club (April 8, 1934 – May 5, 1935). The rest were produced by Joe Musial and Bud Sagendorf: Wiggle Line Movie (September 11 – November 13, 1938), Wimpy’s Zoo’s Who (November 20, 1938 – December 1, 1940), Play-Store (December 8, 1940 – July 18, 1943), Popeye’s Army and Navy (July 25 – September 12, 1943), Pinup Jeep (September 19, 1943 — April 2, 1944), and Me Life by Popeye (April 9, 1944-?).^[49]

Artists after Segar[edit]

Following Segar’s illness and eventual death in 1938 (with his final Thimble Theatre strip appearing October 2 of that year), numerous people were hired to draw and write the strip. Tom Sims, the son of a Coosa River channel-boat captain, acted as the writer for Thimble Theatre beginning in August 1938 and established the Popeye the Sailorman spin-off. Doc Winner, who had previously filled in for Segar between January and May 1938, initially acted as Sims’ artist, with Bela Zaboly^[50] succeeding him by December 1939. In 1954, Sims relinquished writing duties on the daily strip to Ralph Stein, who would continue to collaborate with Zaboly until both the daily and Sunday strips were taken over by Bud Sagendorf in 1959.

Sagendorf wrote and drew the daily strip until 1986, and continued to write and draw the Sunday strip until his death in 1994.^[49] Sagendorf, who had been Segar’s assistant, made a definite effort to retain much of Segar’s classic style, although his art is instantly discernible. Sagendorf continued to use many obscure characters from the Segar years, especially O. G. Wotasnozzle and King Blozo. Sagendorf’s new characters, such as the Thung, also had a very Segar-like quality.^[51] What set Sagendorf apart from Segar more than anything else was his sense of pacing. Where plotlines moved very quickly with Segar, it sometimes took an entire week of Sagendorf’s daily strips for the plot to be advanced even a small amount.

From 1986 to 1992, the daily strip was written and drawn by Bobby London, who, after some controversy, was fired from the strip for a story that could be taken to satirize abortion.^[52] London’s strips put Popeye and his friends in updated situations, but kept the spirit of Segar’s original. One classic storyline, titled «The Return of Bluto», showed the sailor battling every version of the bearded bully from the comic strip, comic books, and animated films. The Sunday edition of the comic strip was drawn by Hy Eisman from 1994 to 2022. Following Eisman’s retirement, the Sunday strip was taken over by R.K. Milholland, who had previously contributed Popeye cartoons to the web-only feature Popeye’s Cartoon Club in 2019 and 2020.^[53] The daily strip has featured reruns of Sagendorf’s strips since London’s firing.^[39]

On January 1, 2009, 70 years since the death of his creator, Segar’s comic strips (though not the various films, TV shows, theme music, and other media based on them) became public domain^[54] in most countries, but remain under copyright in the US. Because Segar was an employee of King Features Syndicate when he created the Thimble Theatre strip, it is treated as a work for hire under US copyright law. Works for hire are protected for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.^[55] As of 2023, Thimble Theatre comic strips from 1919 through 1927 have entered the public domain, none of which feature Popeye. Even after the strips enter the public domain, trademarks regarding Popeye remain with King Features, as trademarks do not expire unless they cease to be used, and King Features has used the trademark continuously since the character’s debut.

Reprints[edit]

• Popeye the Sailor, Nostalgia Press, 1971, reprints three daily stories from 1936.
• Thimble Theatre, Hyperion Press, 1977, ISBN 0-88355-663-4, reprints daily from September 10, 1928, missing 11 dailies which are included in the Fantagraphics reprints.
• Popeye: The First Fifty Years by Bud Sagendorf, Workman Publishing, 1979 ISBN 0-89480-066-3, the only Popeye reprint in full color.
• The Complete E. C. Segar Popeye, Fantagraphics, 1980s, reprints all Segar Sundays featuring Popeye in four volumes, all Segar dailies featuring Popeye in seven volumes, missing four dailies which are included in the Hyperion reprint, November 20–22, 1928, August 22, 1929.
• Popeye: The 60th Anniversary Collection, Hawk Books Limited, 1989, ISBN 0-948248-86-6 featuring reprints, a selection of strips, and stories from the first newspaper strip in 1929 onwards, along with articles on Popeye in comics, books, collectables, etc.
• E. C. Segar’s Popeye, between 2006 and 2011, Fantagraphics Books published six oversized hardcover volumes, reprinting all dailies and Sundays (in color, along with Sappo) featuring Popeye, plus various extras.
  • Vol. 1: I Yam What I Yam – covers September 1928 — December 1930 (dailies) and March 1930 — February 1931 (Sundays) (November 22, 2006, ISBN 978-1-56097-779-7)
  • Vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down! – covers December 1930 — June 1932 (dailies) and March 1931 — October 1932 (Sundays) (December 19, 2007, ISBN 978-1-56097-874-9)
  • Vol. 3: Let’s You and Him Fight! – covers June 1932 — December 1933 (dailies) and October 1932 — November 1933 (Sundays) (November 15, 2008, ISBN 978-1-56097-962-3)
  • Vol. 4: Plunder Island – covers December 1933 — July 1935 (dailies) and December 1933 — April 1935 (Sundays) (December 22, 2009, ISBN 978-1-60699-169-5)
  • Vol. 5: Wha’s a Jeep – covers July 1935 — December 1936 (dailies) and April 1935 — September 1936 (Sundays) (March 21, 2011, ISBN 978-1-60699-404-7)
  • Vol. 6: Me Li’l Swee’Pea – covers December 1936 — August 1938 (dailies) and September 1936 — October 1938 (Sundays) (November 15, 2011, ISBN 978-1-60699-483-2)
• Thimble Theatre and the pre-Popeye comics of E.C. Segar, Sunday Press Books, 2018 (ISBN 978-0-98355-045-7), an oversized collection of Thimble Theatre Sunday pages spanning from January 1925 to March 1930 (marking Popeye’s earliest appearance in the strip’s Sunday continuity), including the entirety of a two-year storyline (March 1928 to March 1930) featuring Castor Oyl and Hamgravy within a caricatured American West.

Comic books[edit]

There have been a number of Popeye comic books, from Dell, King Comics, Gold Key Comics, Charlton Comics, and others, originally written and illustrated by Bud Sagendorf. In the Dell comics, Popeye became something of a crimefighter, thwarting evil organizations and Bluto’s criminal activities. The new villains included the numerous Misermite dwarfs, who were all identical.

Popeye appeared in the British TV Comic becoming the cover story in 1960 with stories written and drawn by «Chick» Henderson. Bluto was referred to as Brutus and was Popeye’s only nemesis throughout the entire run.

A variety of artists have created Popeye comic book stories since then; for example, George Wildman drew Popeye stories for Charlton Comics from 1969 until the late 1970s. The Gold Key series was illustrated by Wildman and scripted by Bill Pearson, with some issues written by Nick Cuti.

Popeye even had his own Manga series, published by Shōnen Gahōsha and done by Robotan and Marude Dameo creator Kenji Morita, that ran from 1961 to 1965.^[56][57][58]

In 1988, Ocean Comics released the Popeye Special written by Ron Fortier with art by Ben Dunn. The story presented Popeye’s origin story, including his given name of «Ugly Kidd»^[59] and attempted to tell more of a lighthearted adventure story as opposed to using typical comic strip style humor. The story also featured a more realistic art style and was edited by Bill Pearson, who also lettered and inked the story as well as the front cover.^[60] A second issue, by the same creative team, followed in 1988. The second issue introduced the idea that Bluto and Brutus were actually twin brothers and not the same person,^[61] an idea also used in the comic strip on December 28, 2008, and April 5, 2009.^[62][63] In 1999, to celebrate Popeye’s 70th anniversary, Ocean Comics revisited the franchise with a one-shot comic book, The Wedding of Popeye and Olive Oyl, written by Peter David. The comic book brought together a large portion of the casts of both the comic strip and the animated shorts, and Popeye and Olive Oyl were finally wed after decades of courtship. However, this marriage has not been reflected in all media since the comic was published.

In 1989, a special series of short Popeye comic books were included in specially marked boxes of Instant Quaker Oatmeal, and Popeye also appeared in three TV commercials for Quaker Oatmeal.^[64] The plots were similar to those of the cartoon shorts: Popeye loses either Olive Oyl or Swee’Pea to a musclebound antagonist, eats something invigorating, and proceeds to save the day. In this case, however, the invigorating elixir was not his usual spinach, but rather one of four flavors of Quaker Oatmeal^[64] (a different flavor was showcased with each mini-comic). The comics ended with the sailor saying, «I’m Popeye the Quaker Man!», which offended members of the Religious Society of Friends (a.k.a. Quakers).^[65] The Quaker Oatmeal company apologized and removed the «Popeye the Quaker Man» reference from commercials and future comic book printings.^[65]

In 2012, writer Roger Langridge teamed with cartoonists Bruce Ozella, Ken Wheaton, and Tom Neely (among others) to revive the spirit of Segar in a 12-issue comic book miniseries published by IDW Publishing. Critic PS Hayes in reviewing the series stated:

Langridge writes a story with a lot of dialogue (compared to your average comic book) and it’s all necessary, funny, and entertaining. Bruce Ozella draws the perfect Popeye. Not only Popeye, but Popeye’s whole world. Everything looks like it should, cartoony and goofy. Plus, he brings an unusual amount of detail to something that doesn’t really need it. You’ll swear that you’re looking at an old Whitman Comics issue of Popeye, only it’s better. Ozella is a great storyteller and even though the issue is jam packed with dialog, the panels never look cramped at all.^[66]

In late 2012, IDW began reprinting the original 1940s–1950s Sagendorf Popeye comic books under the title of Classic Popeye.

Webcomics[edit]

In January 2019, in celebration of its 90 years of character, King Feature Syndicate launched the webcomic Popeye’s Cartoon Club. In a series of Sunday-format comics, a wide assortment of artists depicted the characters in their own styles in one comic each, including Alex Hallatt, Erica Henderson, Tom Neely, Roger Langridge, Larry deSouza, Robert Sikoryak, Jeffrey Brown, Jim Engel, Liniers, Jay Fosgitt, Carol Lay, and Randy Milholland.^[67] At the end of the year, Milholland’s Cartoon Club comic was declared the number one comic of the year on King Features’ website, Comics Kingdom.^[68] From February through April 2020, Cartoon Club ran an additional five comics by Milholland.^{[69][70][71][72][73]}

From May 28 through July 6, 2020, Popeye’s Cartoon Club ran daily comics from Randy Milholland,^[74] making Milholland the first person to write a daily-update Popeye comic for King Features since 1994.

Theatrical animated cartoons[edit]

In November 1932, King Features signed an agreement with Fleischer Studios to have Popeye and the other Thimble Theatre characters begin appearing in a series of animated cartoons released by Paramount Pictures. The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and Popeye cartoons remained a staple of Paramount’s release schedule for nearly 25 years.^[41] William Costello was the original voice of Popeye, a voice that was replicated by later performers, such as Jack Mercer and even Mae Questel. Many of the Thimble Theatre characters, including Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and Eugene the Jeep, eventually made appearances in the Paramount cartoons, though Olive Oyl’s extended family and Ham Gravy were mostly absent. Thanks to the animated-short series, Popeye became even more of a sensation than he had been in comic strips, and by 1938, polls showed that the sailor was Hollywood’s most popular cartoon character.^[75][76]

Although Segar may have used spinach as a prop a few times, it was Max Fleischer who realized its potential as a trademark. In every Popeye cartoon, the sailor is invariably put into what seems like a hopeless situation, upon which (usually after a beating), a can of spinach becomes available, and Popeye quickly opens the can and consumes its contents. Upon swallowing the spinach, Popeye’s physical strength immediately becomes superhuman, and he is easily able to save the day, and very often rescue Olive Oyl from a dire situation. It did not stop there, as spinach could also give Popeye the skills and powers he needed, as in The Man on the Flying Trapeze, where it gave him acrobatic skills.

In May 1942, Paramount Pictures assumed ownership of Fleischer Studios, fired the Fleischers and began reorganizing the studio, which they renamed Famous Studios. The early Famous-era shorts were often World War II-themed, featuring Popeye fighting Nazi Germans and Japanese soldiers, most notably the 1942 short You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap. In late 1943, the Popeye series began to be produced in Technicolor, beginning with Her Honor the Mare. Famous/Paramount continued producing the Popeye series until 1957, with Spooky Swabs being the last of the 125 Famous shorts in the series. Paramount then sold the Popeye film catalog to Associated Artists Productions, which was bought out by United Artists in 1958. Through various mergers, the rights are currently controlled by Warner Bros. Discovery.

In 2001, Cartoon Network, under the supervision of animation historian Jerry Beck, created a new incarnation of The Popeye Show. The show aired the Fleischer and Famous Studios Popeye shorts in versions approximating their original theatrical releases by editing copies of the original opening and closing credits (taken or recreated from various sources) onto the beginnings and ends of each cartoon, or in some cases, in their complete, uncut original theatrical versions direct from such prints that originally contained the front-and-end Paramount credits. The series aired 135 Popeye shorts over 45 episodes, until March 2004. The Popeye Show continued to air on Cartoon Network’s spin-off network Boomerang.

While many of the Paramount Popeye cartoons remained unavailable on video, a handful of those cartoons had fallen into public domain and were found on numerous low budget VHS tapes and later DVDs. When Turner Entertainment acquired the cartoons in 1986, a long and laborious legal struggle with King Features kept the majority of the original Popeye shorts from official video releases for more than 20 years. King Features instead opted to release a DVD boxed set of the 1960s made-for-television Popeye the Sailor cartoons, to which it retained the rights, in 2004. In the meantime, home video rights to the Associated Artists Productions library were transferred from CBS/Fox Video to MGM/UA Home Video in 1986, and eventually to Warner Home Video in 1999. In 2006, Warner Home Video announced it would release all of the Popeye cartoons produced for theatrical release between 1933 and 1957 on DVD, restored and uncut. Three volumes were released between 2007 and 2008, covering all of the black-and-white cartoons produced from 1933 to 1943. In December 2018, a fourth volume featuring the first 14 color shorts from 1943 to 1945 was released on DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video through the Warner Archive Collection.

Original television cartoons[edit]

In 1960, King Features Syndicate commissioned a new series of cartoons titled Popeye the Sailor, but this time for television syndication. Al Brodax served as executive producer of the cartoons for King Features. Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck returned for this series, which was produced by a number of companies, including Jack Kinney Productions, Rembrandt Films (William L. Snyder and Gene Deitch), Larry Harmon Productions, Halas and Batchelor, Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios), and Southern Star Entertainment (formerly Southern Star Productions). The artwork was streamlined and simplified for the television budgets, and 220 cartoons were produced in only two years, with the first set of them premiering in the autumn of 1960, and the last of them debuting during the 1961–1962 television season. For these cartoons, Bluto’s name was changed to «Brutus», as King Features believed at the time that Paramount owned the rights to the name «Bluto». Many of the cartoons made by Paramount used plots and storylines taken directly from the comic strip sequences – as well as characters like King Blozo and the Sea Hag.^[77] Since King Features has exclusive rights to these Popeye cartoons, they have been released on home video, with 85 of them included in a 75th anniversary Popeye DVD boxed set in 2004.

Popeye, Olive Oyl, Swee’Pea and Wimpy were featured prominently in the cartoon movie «Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter», which debuted on October 7, 1972, as one of the episodes of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. In this cartoon, Brutus also appears as a turban-wearing employee of the nemesis, Dr. Morbid Grimsby.

On September 9, 1978, The All New Popeye Hour debuted on the CBS Saturday morning lineup. It was an hour-long animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which tried its best to retain the style of the original comic strip (Popeye returned to his original costume and Brutus to his original name of Bluto), while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. In addition to providing many of the cartoon scripts, Mercer continued to voice Popeye, while Marilyn Schreffler and Allan Melvin became the new voices of Olive Oyl and Bluto, respectively. The All New Popeye Hour ran on CBS until September 1981, when it was cut to a half-hour and retitled The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show. It was removed from the CBS lineup in September 1983, the year before Jack Mercer’s death. These cartoons have also been released on VHS and DVD.

During the time these cartoons were in production, CBS aired The Popeye Valentine’s Day Special – Sweethearts at Sea on February 14, 1979.

Popeye briefly returned to CBS in 1987 for Popeye and Son, another Hanna-Barbera series, which featured Popeye and Olive as a married couple with a son named Popeye Jr., who hates the taste of spinach, but eats it to boost his strength. Maurice LaMarche performed Popeye’s voice as Mercer had died in 1984. The show lasted for one season. USA Network later picked up reruns of the series after CBS’s cancellation.

In 2004, Lionsgate produced a computer-animated television special, Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Popeye. Billy West performed the voice of Popeye, describing the production as «the hardest job I ever did, ever» and the voice of Popeye as «like a buzzsaw on your throat».^[78] The uncut version was released on DVD on November 9, 2004; and was aired in a re-edited version on Fox on December 17, 2004, and again on December 30, 2005. Its style was influenced by the 1930s Fleischer cartoons, and featured Swee’Pea, Wimpy, Bluto, Olive Oyl, Poopdeck Pappy, and the Sea Hag as its characters. On November 6, 2007, Lionsgate re-released Popeye’s Voyage on DVD with redesigned cover art.

Web series[edit]

On December 2, 2018, a Popeye web series named Popeye’s Island Adventures produced by WildBrain subsidiary WildBrain Spark Studios premiered on the official Popeye YouTube channel. With intent on drawing in a younger, contemporary, international audience, the new series has updated the Popeye characters to fit the times. For instance, Popeye grows his own spinach and has replaced his corncob pipe with a bosun’s whistle. Bluto no longer sports a beard and focuses his time on stealing Popeye’s spinach rather than his girlfriend. Olive Oyl is shown as an inventor and engineer. The characters are drawn to appear younger than typically done, save Swea’pea, and no words are spoken, with all actions mimed.^[79][80]

Theme song[edit]

«I’m Popeye the Sailor Man»
Song by William Costello later by Jack Mercer
Released	1933
Recorded	1933
Composer(s)	Sammy Lerner

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man
I’m strong to the «finich»
’cause I eats me spinach
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man

Popeye’s theme song, titled «I’m Popeye The Sailor Man«, composed by Sammy Lerner in 1933 for Fleischer’s first Popeye the Sailor cartoon,^[81] has become forever associated with the sailor. «The Sailor’s Hornpipe» has often been used as an introduction to Popeye’s theme song.

A cover of the theme song, performed by Face to Face, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records. A jazz version, performed by Ted Kooshian’s Standard Orbit Quartet, appears on their 2009 Summit Records release Underdog and Other Stories.

Playground song parodies of the theme have become part of children’s street culture around the world,^[82][83] usually interpolating «frying pan» or «garbage can» into the lyrics as Popeye’s dwelling place^[84][85] and ascribing to the character various unsavory actions or habits^{[86][87][88][89]} that transform the character into an «Anti-Popeye», and changing his exemplary spinach-based diet into an inedible morass of worms, onions, flies, tortillas and snot.^[90]

Other media[edit]

The success of Popeye as a comic-strip and animated character has led to appearances in many other forms. For more than 20 years, Stephen DeStefano has been the artist drawing Popeye for King Features licensing.^[91]

Radio[edit]

Popeye was adapted to radio in several series broadcast over three different networks by two sponsors from 1935 to 1938. Popeye and most of the major supporting characters were first featured in a thrice-weekly 15-minute radio program, Popeye the Sailor, which starred Detmar Poppen as Popeye, along with most of the major supporting characters—Olive Oyl (Olive Lamoy), Wimpy (Charles Lawrence), Bluto (Jackson Beck) and Swee’Pea (Mae Questel).^[92] In the first episode, Popeye adopted Sonny (Jimmy Donnelly), a character later known as Matey the Newsboy. This program was broadcast Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7:15pm. September 10, 1935, through March 28, 1936, on the NBC Red Network (87 episodes), initially sponsored by Wheatena, a whole-wheat breakfast cereal, which routinely replaced the spinach references. Music was provided by Victor Irwin’s Cartoonland Band. Announcer Kelvin Keech sang (to composer Lerner’s «Popeye» theme) «Wheatena is his diet / He asks you to try it / With Popeye the sailor man.» Wheatena paid King Features Syndicate $1,200 per week.

The show was next broadcast Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:15 to 7:30pm on WABC and ran from August 31, 1936, to February 26, 1937 (78 episodes). Floyd Buckley played Popeye, and Miriam Wolfe portrayed both Olive Oyl and the Sea Hag. Once again, reference to spinach was conspicuously absent. Instead, Popeye sang, «Wheatena’s me diet / I ax ya to try it / I’m Popeye the Sailor Man».^[93]

The third series was sponsored by the maker of Popsicles three nights a week for 15 minutes at 6:15 pm on CBS from May 2, 1938, through July 29, 1938.

Of the three series, only 20 of the 204 episodes are known to be preserved.

Feature films[edit]

Popeye (1980)[edit]

Director Robert Altman used the character in Popeye, a 1980 live-action musical feature film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye. A co-production of Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, the movie was filmed almost entirely on Malta, in the village of Mellieħa on the northwest coast of the island. The set is now a tourist attraction called Popeye Village. The US box office earnings were double the film’s budget, making it a financial success. However, the film received mostly negative reviews.

Canceled animated film[edit]

In March 2010, it was reported that Sony Pictures Animation was developing a 3D computer-animated Popeye film, with Avi Arad producing it.^[94] In November 2011, Sony Pictures Animation announced that Jay Scherick and David Ronn, the writers of The Smurfs, are writing the screenplay for the film.^[95] In June 2012, it was reported that Genndy Tartakovsky had been set to direct the feature,^[96] which he planned to make «as artful and unrealistic as possible.»^[97] In November 2012, Sony Pictures Animation set the release date for September 26, 2014,^[98] which was, in May 2013, pushed back to 2015.^[99] In March 2014, Sony Pictures Animation updated its slate, scheduling the film for 2016, and announcing Tartakovsky as the director of Hotel Transylvania 2, which he was directing concurrently with Popeye.^[100] On September 18, 2014, Tartakovsky revealed an «animation test» footage, about which he said, «It’s just something that kind of represents what we want to do. I couldn’t be more excited by how it turned out.»^[101] In March 2015, Tartakovsky announced that despite the well-received test footage, he was no longer working on the project, and would instead direct Can You Imagine?, which is based on his own original idea,^[102] but it too was cancelled.^[103]
Nevertheless, Sony Pictures Animation stated the project still remains in active development.^[104] In January 2016, it was announced that T.J. Fixman would write the film.^[105] On May 11, 2020, it was announced that a Popeye movie is in development at King Features Syndicate with Genndy Tartakovsky coming back to the project.^[106] However, on July 21, 2022, Genndy has said the project was dead.^[107] An animatic for the movie was later leaked onto the internet on July 22, 2022.^[108]

Video and pinball games[edit]

• When Donkey Kong, which was originally conceived as a Popeye video game by Shigeru Miyamoto,^[109] proved to be a big success, King Features agreed to license the characters to Nintendo to create a Popeye arcade game in 1982. It was later ported to various home gaming platforms, including the Commodore 64, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit family, ColecoVision, Odyssey², and Nintendo Entertainment System. The goal was to avoid Brutus and the Sea Hag while collecting items produced by Olive Oyl such as hearts, musical notes, or the letters in the word «help» (depending on the level). Hitting a can of spinach gave Popeye a brief chance to strike back at Brutus. Other characters such as Wimpy and Swee’Pea appeared in the game, but did not greatly affect gameplay. A board game based on the video game was released by Parker Brothers.
• Nintendo also released two Game & Watch units featuring Popeye.
• Nintendo created another Popeye game for the Famicom, Popeye no Eigo Asobi, in 1983. This was an educational game designed to teach Japanese children English words.
• A different Popeye game was developed for the ZX Spectrum by Don Priestley and first released by DK’Tronics in 1985. The game achieved critical success due to its huge, colourful sprites; amongst the largest seen on the Spectrum platform.^[110][111] This distinct graphical style was due to King Features’ insistence that any game had to include fair representations of the central cartoon characters. The game was ported to Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC in 1986. After releasing the budget version of this game, Alternative Software developed another two licensed games, Popeye 2 (1991) and Popeye 3: Wrestle Crazy (1992) on the same platforms.
• Sigma Enterprises published two Popeye games for the Game Boy. The first, titled simply Popeye, was released exclusively in Japan in 1990, while Popeye 2 was released in Japan in 1991, North America in 1993, and Europe in 1994 by Activision.
• In 1994, Technos Japan released Popeye Beach Volleyball for the Game Gear, and Popeye: Volume of the Malicious Witch Seahag (Popeye: Ijiwaru Majo Shihaggu no Maki) for the Japanese Super Famicom. A side scrolling adventure game that was mixed with a board game, the game never saw US release. It featured many characters from the Thimble Theatre series as well. In the game, Popeye had to recover magical hearts scattered across the level to restore his frozen friends as part of a spell cast upon them by the Sea Hag in order to get revenge on Popeye.
• Midway (under the Bally label) released Popeye Saves the Earth, a SuperPin pinball game, in 1994.
• A Sega Genesis Popeye game was planned but never released.^{[112][113][114]}
• In 2003, Nova Productions released a strength tester called Popeye Strength Tester.
• In 2005, Bandai Namco released a Game Boy Advance video game called Popeye: Rush for Spinach.
• Released June 2007, the video game The Darkness featured televisions that played full-length films and television shows that had expired copyrights. Most of the cartoons viewable on the «Toon TV» channel are Famous Studios Popeye shorts.
• In fall 2007, Namco Networks released the original Nintendo Popeye arcade game for mobile phones with new features including enhanced graphics and new levels.
• In November 2021, independent developer Sabec LTD released what it called the «official Popeye game»^[115] for the Nintendo Switch, featuring a three-dimensional adaptation of the «classic arcade game.»

Parodies[edit]

• Parody versions of Popeye and Bluto make an appearance in Solo Ex-Mutants #2 (Eternity Comics, 1988).
• In EC Comics’ original Mad comic book, the satire «Poopeye» had him set up to fight other comic characters, even defeating Superman in the end.
• Popeye made a one-second appearance on an unfinished production Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown by the California Institute of the Arts in 1986. He was seen punching Rocky Balboa in the face.

Marketing, tie-ins, and endorsements[edit]

From early on, Popeye was heavily merchandised. Everything from soap to razor blades to spinach was available with Popeye’s likeness on it. Most of these items are rare and sought by collectors, but some merchandise is still produced.

Restaurants

• Wimpy’s name was borrowed for the Wimpy restaurant chain, one of the first international fast food restaurants featuring hamburgers, which they call «Wimpy Burgers».^[116]
• The popular fast-food chain Popeyes was found on June 12, 1972, and is the second-largest «quick-service chicken restaurant group» behind Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was not named for the sailor, but some Popeye references were featured in a few commercials throughout its early years as part of a licensing deal with Kimg Features.
• Wimpy has also appeared in commercials for Burger King and Carl’s Jr hamburgers.

Retail foods and beverages

• Allen Canning Company produces its own line of canned «Popeye Spinach» in multiple varieties. The cartoon Popeye serves as the mascot on the can.^[117]
• Since 1989, «Popeye’s Supplements» has been a chain of Canadian Sports Nutrition Stores.^[118]
• In 1989, Popeye endorsed Instant Quaker Oatmeal, citing it as a better food than spinach to provide strength.^[64] The commercials had the tagline «Can the spinach, I wants me Quaker Oatmeal!» or «Popeye wants a Quaker». The Religious Society of Friends (also known as the Quakers) was offended by the promotion, given the physical aggression from «Popeye the Quaker man» and also the excessive submissiveness of Olive Oyl.^[65]
• In 2001, Popeye (along with Bluto, Olive, and twin Wimpys) appeared in a television commercial for Minute Maid Orange juice. The commercial, produced by Leo Burnett Co, showed Popeye and Bluto as friends, due to their having had Minute Maid Orange Juice that morning. The ad agency’s intention was to show that even the notable enemies would be in a good mood after their juice, but some, including Robert Knight of the Culture and Family Institute, felt the commercial’s intent was to portray the pair in a homosexual romantic relationship; even so, it is a suggestion that Minute Maid denies. Knight was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show about this issue.
• World Candies Inc. produced Popeye-branded «candy cigarettes», which were small sugar sticks with red dye at the end to simulate embers. They were sold in a small box, similar to a cigarette pack. The company still produces the item, but has since changed the name to «Popeye Candy Sticks» and has ceased putting the red dye at the end.

Sports

• Starting in 1940, Popeye became the mascot of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The mascot of the soccer club is currently a cartoon vulture.^[119]

Other

• In 1987, Stabur Graphics commissioned artist Will Elder to paint «Popeye’s Wedding» as oil on masonite. Released was a stamped, numbered, and signed Limited Edition lithograph, an edition size of 395. The lithograph shows Popeye slipping a lifesaver-ring onto Olive’s finger along with Nana Oyl, Alice the Goon, Swee’Pea (cradled in Popeye’s free arm), Wimpy, Granny, Eugene the Jeep, and Brutus (holding a large cauldron of steaming, cooked rice). Twenty-one other characters watch from the pews. The litho is titled «Wit Dis Lifesaver, I Dee Wed!» and is pictured on page 83 of the book «Chicken Fat» by Will Elder (Fantagraphics, 2006).
• In 1990, Popeye appeared in a public service announcement which was tied to the maritime nature of the character, warning of the harmful effects of coastal pollution. Bluto carelessly dumps garbage over the side of his boat, to which Olive reacts in horror as seagulls and other sea creatures are caught in six pack ring holders. Popeye eats spinach and blows a tornado from his pipe, which cleans up Bluto’s garbage and dumps it on him; however, when some more plastic garbage sails by Popeye’s boat, he says unsurprisingly, «I can’t do it all meself, peoples!» and encourages viewers to be careful about littering at sea.
• In 1995, the Popeye comic strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative U.S. postage stamps.
• From 1996 to 1999, the Darien Lake theme park in Western New York operated a «Popeye’s Seaport» in the park. It was rebranded as «Looney Tunes Seaport» after Darien Lake came under the Six Flags banner.
• In Universal Studios Orlando Resort’s island theme park, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, there is a river rafting water ride, Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges, themed after Popeye the Sailor saving Olive Oyl from Bluto. There is also a kids’ playground, Me Ship, the Olive, built in and around Popeye’s ship. The three levels of the ship all contain a variety of interactive elements including cannons and hoses which can further soak riders on the Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barge ride.

Popeye & Friends Character Trail[edit]

Chester, Illinois, Segar’s hometown, erected a statue of Popeye in Segar’s honor in 1977 and began the Popeye & Friends Character Trail in 2006, adding new statues honoring the other Thimble Theater characters each year.

This Character Trail is spread throughout Chester and includes (with unveiling dates):

• Popeye (1977)^[38]
• J. Wellington Wimpy (2006)^[38]
• Olive Oyl, Swee’Pea, and Jeep (2007)^[38]
• Bluto (2008)^[38]
• Castor Oyl and Whiffle Hen (2009)^[38]
• Sea Hag and Bernard (2010)^[38]
• Cole Oyl (2011)^[38]
• Alice the Goon and her Goon-child (2012)^[38]
• Poopdeck Pappy (2013)^[38]
• Professor Wotasnozzle (2014)^[38]
• RoughHouse (2015)^[38]
• Pipeye, Pupeye, Peepeye, and Poopeye, Popeye’s four nephews (2016)^[38]
• King Blozo (2017)^[38]
• Nana Oyl (2018)^[120][38]
• Popeye’s Pups (September 2019)^[38]
• Sherlock & Segar (December 2019)^[38]
• Toar (2020)^[38]
• Harold Hamgravy (2021)^[38]
• Oscar (scheduled for 2022)^[38]

Frank «Rocky» Fiegel (born in Chester, Illinois, January 27, 1868) was the real-life inspiration for the character Popeye. His parents Bartłomiej and Anna H. Fiegiel had come from the area of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, then part of Prussia, and migrated to the United States. He had a prominent chin, sinewy physique, characteristic pipe, and a propensity and agile skill for fist-fighting.^{[121][122][123]} Fiegel died on March 24, 1947, never having married. His gravestone has an image of Popeye engraved on it.^[124] E. C. Segar regularly sent money to Fiegel (as a thank you for the inspiration) according to Segar’s assistant and successor, Bud Sagendorf and Popeye historian Michael Brooks.^[38]

Additional hometown residents of Chester have served as inspiration for other Segar characters, including Dora Paskel, an uncommonly tall, angular lady who ran a general store in town, who was the origin for Popeye’s gal, Olive Oyl. She even wore a hair bun close to her neckline. William «Windy Bill» Schuchert, a rather rotund man who owned the local opera house (and was Segar’s early employer), was the seed for the character J. Wellington Wimpy. He even sent out his employees to purchase hamburgers for him between performances at a local tavern named Wiebusch’s, the same tavern that Fiegel frequented and where he engaged in fistfights.^{[122][125][38]}

Conjecture presented in a 2009 book raised the idea that while living in Santa Monica, Segar might have based some of Popeye’s language on a local fisherman; even though the article never made a definitive claim.^[126]

Cultural influences[edit]

Culturally,^[127] many consider Popeye a precursor to the superheroes who eventually dominated US comic books.^[128]

Such has been Popeye’s cultural impact that the medical profession sometimes refers to the biceps bulge symptomatic of a tendon rupture as the «Popeye muscle.»^[129][130]

In 1973, Cary Bates created Captain Strong, a takeoff of Popeye, for DC Comics,^[131] as a way of having two cultural icons – Superman and (a proxy of) Popeye – meet.^[132]

The 1981 Nintendo videogame Donkey Kong, which introduced its eponymous character and Nintendo’s unofficial company mascot Mario to the world, was originally planned to be a Popeye game. Mario (then known as Jumpman) was originally supposed to be Popeye, Donkey Kong was originally Bluto, and the character Pauline was originally Olive Oyl, but when Nintendo was unable to acquire the rights to use the actual franchise characters, it decided to create original characters instead.^[133]

The 1988 Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures film Who Framed Roger Rabbit featured many classic cartoon characters, and the absence of Popeye was noted by some critics. Popeye (along with Olive Oyl, Bluto, and Wimpy) actually had a cameo role planned for the film. However, Disney could not obtain the rights in time and Popeye’s cameo was dropped from the film.^[134]

The Popeye dance[edit]

The Popeye was a popular dance in the dance craze era of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originating in New Orleans around 1962, the Popeye was performed by shuffling and moving one’s arms, placing one arm behind and one arm in front and alternating them, going through the motion of raising a pipe up to the mouth, and alternate sliding or pushing one foot back in the manner of ice skating, similar to motions exhibited by the cartoon character. According to music historian Robert Pruter, the Popeye was even more popular than the Twist in New Orleans.^[135] The dance was associated with and/or referenced to in several songs, including Eddie Bo’s «Check Mr. Popeye,» Chris Kenner’s «Something You Got» and «Land of a Thousand Dances,» Frankie Ford’s «You Talk Too Much,» Ernie K-Doe’s «Popeye Joe,» Huey «Piano» Smith’s «Popeye,» and Harvey Fuqua’s «Any Way You Wanta.» A compilation of 23 Popeye dance songs was released in 1996 under the title New Orleans Popeye Party.^[136]

Spinach[edit]

Initially Popeye’s chief superhuman characteristic was his indestructibility, rather than super strength, which was attributed to his having rubbed the head of Bernice the Whiffle Hen numerous times after being shot. Popeye later attributed his strength to spinach.^[137][138] The popularity of Popeye helped boost spinach sales. Using Popeye as a role model for healthier eating may work; a 2010 study revealed that children increased their vegetable consumption after watching Popeye cartoons.^[139] The spinach-growing community of Crystal City, Texas, erected a statue of the character in recognition of Popeye’s positive effects on the spinach industry. There are also statues in Springdale and Alma, Arkansas (which claims to be «The Spinach Capital of the World»), at canning plants of Allen Canning, which markets Popeye-branded canned spinach. In addition to Allen Canning’s Popeye spinach, Popeye Fresh Foods markets bagged, fresh spinach with Popeye characters on the package. In 2006, when spinach contaminated with E. coli was accidentally sold to the public, many editorial cartoonists lampooned the affair by featuring Popeye in their cartoons.^[140]

A frequently circulated story claims that Fleischer’s choice of spinach to give Popeye strength was based on faulty calculations of its iron content. In the story, a scientist misplaced a decimal point in an 1870 measurement of spinach’s iron content, leading to an iron value ten times higher than it should have been.^{[141][142][143]} The error was not a slipped decimal point but a measurement error which was corrected in the 1930s, however the myth of extraordinarily high iron content persisted.^[141][144]

Word coinages[edit]

The strip is also responsible for popularizing, although not inventing, the word «goon» (meaning a thug or lackey); goons in Popeye’s world were large humanoids with indistinctly drawn faces that were particularly known for being used as muscle and slave labor by Popeye’s nemesis, the Sea Hag. One particular goon, the aforementioned female named Alice, was an occasional recurring character in the animated shorts, but she was usually a fairly nice character.

Eugene the Jeep was introduced in the comic strip on March 13, 1936. Two years later the term «jeep wagons» was in use, later shortened to simply «jeep» with widespread World War II usage and then trademarked by Willys-Overland as «Jeep».^[145]

Events and honors[edit]

The Popeye Picnic is held every year in Chester, Illinois, on the weekend after Labor Day. Popeye fans attend from across the globe, including a visit by a film crew from South Korea in 2004. The one-eyed sailor’s hometown strives to entertain devotees of all ages.^[146]

In honor of Popeye’s 75th anniversary, the Empire State Building illuminated its notable tower lights green the weekend of January 16–18, 2004 as a tribute to the icon’s love of spinach. This special lighting marked the only time the Empire State Building ever celebrated the anniversary/birthday of a comic strip character.^[147]

Thimble Theatre/Popeye characters[edit]

Characters originating in comic strips by E. C. Segar[edit]

• Popeye the Sailor Man
• Olive Oyl
• Swee’Pea (Popeye’s adopted baby son in the comics, Olive’s cousin in the cartoons)
• J. Wellington Wimpy
• Bluto/Brutus
• Eugene the Jeep
• The Sea Hag
• The Sea Hag’s vultures, including her favorite, Bernard
• Alice the Goon and the other Goons
• Rough House (a cook who runs a local restaurant, the Rough House)
• George W. Geezil (the local cobbler who hates Wimpy)
• Ham Gravy (full name Harold Hamgravy, Olive Oyl’s original boyfriend)
• Castor Oyl (Olive Oyl’s brother)
• Cole Oyl (Olive Oyl’s father)
• Nana Oyl (Olive Oyl’s mother)
• Poopdeck Pappy (Popeye’s 99-year-old long-lost father; also a sailor)
• Professor O. G. Watasnozzle^[148][149] (a character with a large nose, as his name indicates)

Characters originating in the cartoons[edit]

• Peepeye, Poopeye, Pupeye and Pipeye (Popeye’s identical nephews in the Fleischer Studio shorts)
• Shorty (Popeye’s shipmate in three World War II-era in the Famous Studios shorts)
• Popeye, Jr. (son of Popeye and Olive Oyl, exclusive of the series Popeye and Son)
• Tank (son of Bluto, exclusive of the series Popeye and Son)

Filmography[edit]

Theatrical[edit]

• Popeye the Sailor (1933–1942, produced by Fleischer Studios, 109 cartoons)
• Popeye the Sailor (1942–1957, produced by Famous Studios, 122 cartoons)
• Popeye (1980, produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures, directed by Robert Altman; live-action)

Television[edit]

• Popeye the Sailor (1960–1962, ABC; produced by Larry Harmon Pictures, Rembrandt Films, Halas and Batchelor, Gerald Ray Studios, Jack Kinney Productions, Paramount Cartoon Studios and Corona Cinematografica for King Features Syndicate, 220 cartoons)
• The All New Popeye Hour (1978–1983, CBS; produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, 167 cartoons) Known as The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show for its final season.
• Popeye and Son (1987–1988, CBS; produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, 26 cartoons)

Television specials[edit]

• Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter (1972, ABC; produced by Hal Seeger Productions)
• The Popeye Valentine Special: Sweethearts at Sea (1979, CBS; produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions)
• Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy (2004, Fox; produced by Mainframe Entertainment for King Features)

DVD collections[edit]

Theatrical cartoons

• Popeye the Sailor: 1933–1938, Volume 1 (released July 31, 2007) features Fleischer cartoons released from 1933 through early 1938 and contains the color Popeye specials Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves.
• Popeye the Sailor: 1938–1940, Volume 2 (released June 17, 2008) features Fleischer cartoons released from mid-1938 through 1940 and includes the last color Popeye special Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.
• Popeye the Sailor: 1941–1943, Volume 3 (released November 4, 2008) features the remaining black-and-white Popeye cartoons released from 1941 to 1943, including the final Fleischer-produced and earliest Famous-produced entries in the series.
• Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1 (released December 11, 2018) features the first 14 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios. The set was made available on Blu-ray and DVD, and the shorts were sourced from 4K masters scanned from the original nitrate negatives.^[150]
• Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 2 (released June 18, 2019) features the next 15 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios. The set was made available on Blu-ray and DVD, and the shorts were sourced from 4K masters scanned from the original nitrate negatives.^[151]
• Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 3 (released September 17, 2019) features the next 17 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios. The set was made available on Blu-ray and DVD, and the shorts were sourced from 4K masters scanned from the original nitrate negatives.

TV cartoons

• Popeye the Sailor: The 1960s Classics, Volume 1 (released May 7, 2013)^[152] A DVD-R release by Warner Archive Collection consisting mostly of made for TV cartoons produced for King Features Television by Paramount Cartoon Studios and Gerald Ray Studios.

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Grandinetti, Fred M. Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History. 2nd ed. McFarland, 2004. ISBN 0-7864-1605-X

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Popeye at Comics Kingdom

 
 Russian ⇄

моряк Попай
gen.	Popeye (известный Американский мультик, где моряк Попай любил шпинат Novelle)
animat.	Popeye the Sailor (вымышленный герой комиксов и мультфильмов AMlingua)

Popeye the Sailor
Popeye the Sailor opening title employed in the 1930s
Directed by	Dave Fleischer Dan Gordon I. Sparber Seymour Kneitel Bill Tytla Dave Tendlar
Story by	George Manuell Seymour Kneitel Bill Turner Warren Foster Dan Gordon Tedd Pierce Milford Davis Eric St. Clair Cal Howard Jack Mercer Carl Meyer Jack Ward Joe Stultz Otto Messmer Dave Tendlar Irving Dressler I. Klein Woody Gelman Larry Riley Larz Bourne Irv Spector George Hill James Tyer Izzy Sparber
Based on	Popeye by E. C. Segar
Animation by	Seymour Kneitel Roland Crandall William Henning William Sturm Willard Bowsky Dave Tendlar Myron Waldman Thomas Johnson Nick Tafuri Harold Walker Charles Hastings George Germanetti Orestes Calpini Edward Nolan Frank Endres Robert G. Leffingwell Jack Ozark Lillian Friedman James Davis Joe D’Igalo Graham Place Robert Bentley Tom Golden Shamus Culhane Arnold Gillespie Abner Kneitel Winfield Hoskins Grim Natwick Irv Spector Myron Waldman Sidney Pillet Lod Rossner Bill Nolan Joe Oriolo Tom Baron Ruben Grossman John Walworth Al Eugster James Tyer Ben Solomon Morey Reden John Gentilella Lou Zukor Martin Taras George Rufle Bill Hudson Harvey Patterson Wm. B. Pattengill Steve Muffatti Hicks Lokey Howard Swift Jack Ehret (assistant animator)
Color process	Black-and-white (1933–1943) 3-strip Technicolor (1936, 1937, 1939, 1943–1957) 2-strip Cinecolor (1946–1948) 3-strip Polacolor (1948–1949)
Production companies	Fleischer Studios (1933–1942) Famous Studios (renamed as Paramount Cartoon Studios) (1942–1957)
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	July 14, 1933 — August 9, 1957
Country	United States
Language	English

Popeye the Sailor is an American animated series of short films based on the Popeye comic strip character created by E. C. Segar. In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer’s Fleischer Studios adapted Segar’s characters into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures.^[1] The plotlines in the animated cartoons tended to be simpler than those presented in the comic strips, and the characters slightly different. A villain, usually Bluto, makes a move on Popeye’s «sweetie», Olive Oyl. The villain clobbers Popeye until he eats spinach, giving him superhuman strength. Thus empowered, Popeye the sailor makes short work of the villain.

The Fleischer cartoons, based in New York City, proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and would remain a staple of Paramount’s release schedule for nearly 25 years. Paramount would take control of the studio in 1941 and rename it Famous Studios, ousting the Fleischer brothers and continuing production. The theatrical Popeye cartoons began airing on television in an altered form in 1956, and the Popeye theatrical series was discontinued in 1957. Popeye the Sailor in all produced 231 short subjects that were broadcast on television for several years.

The 1930s Popeye cartoons have been said by historians to have an urban feel, with the Fleischers pioneering an East Coast animation scene that differed highly from their counterparts.

Early history[edit]

Popeye the Sailor, created by E.C. Segar, debuted in 1929 in his King Features Syndicate-distributed comic strip, Thimble Theatre. The character was growing in popularity by the 1930s and there was «hardly a newspaper reader of the Great Depression that did not know his name.»^[2] It was obvious, however, that stars of a larger magnitude were being launched from animated cartoons, with the success of Mickey Mouse. In November 1932, King Features signed an agreement with Fleischer Studios, run by producer Max Fleischer and his brother, director Dave Fleischer, to have Popeye and the other Thimble Theatre characters begin appearing in a series of animated cartoons. The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and Popeye cartoons, released by Paramount Pictures, would remain a staple of Paramount’s release schedule for nearly 25 years.

One source of inspiration for the Fleischers were newspapers and comic strips, and they saw potential in Popeye as an animated star, thinking the humor would translate well onscreen.^[2] When the Fleischers needed more characters, they turned to Segar’s strip: Wimpy debuted in the first regular Popeye cartoon, Swee’Pea, Poopdeck Pappy, the Goons, and Eugene the Jeep arrived onscreen by the late 1930s. Popeye was also given more family exclusive to the shorts, specifically his look-alike nephews Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye. Spinach became a main component of the Popeye cartoons and was used for the energetic finale in each of them. Eventually, the Fleischers paired Popeye and spinach together far more than Segar ever did. In 1934, a statistic was released noting that spinach sales had increased 33% since the creation of the Popeye cartoons.^[2] Segar received crates of spinach at his home because of the Popeye association. The huge child following Popeye received eventually prompted Segar’s boss, William Randolph Hearst, to order Segar to tone down the humor and violence. Segar was not ready to compromise, believing there would be «nothing funny about a sissy sailor.»^[2]

Voice cast[edit]

Many voice artists worked on the Popeye shorts over the two decades of production; this list is based on the most comprehensive artists.

• William «Billy» Costello, Jack Mercer as Popeye the Sailor (substitutes: Floyd Buckley, Harry Foster Welch, Mae Questel, Tom Kenny). Costello had a gruff, gravelly quality in voicing the character. It is generally thought that Costello became difficult to work with after becoming overly confident from the success of the first few cartoons.^[2] Jack Mercer was working in the in-between department of Fleischer Studios doing imitations of Costello, and, after practicing at home for a week, replaced Costello as the voice of Popeye beginning with King of the Mardi Gras (1935).^[3] Historians believe the character came into his own when Mercer became the voice artist, employing acting and emotion into the character. Mercer voiced the character until his death in 1984. Mae Questel, Floyd Buckley and Harry Welch substituted in several wartime cartoons, when Mercer left to serve in World War II.^[4][5][6]
• Bonnie Poe, Mae Questel, Margie Hines as Olive Oyl. Questel was the voice of Betty Boop when she was brought in early on to play Olive Oyl, and she based the character voice on ZaSu Pitts.^[2] Questel voiced Olive Oyl until 1938, when Fleischer operations shifted to Florida. Hines, who was Mercer’s wife, voiced the character until 1943. Paramount moved the studio back to New York the following year and Questel reassumed voice acting duties until the series’ end in 1957.
• William Pennell, Gus Wickie and Jackson Beck as Bluto (substitutes: Dave Barry, Jack Mercer, Pinto Colvig, Tedd Pierce, Clancy Brown). William Pennell was the first to voice the Bluto character from 1933 to 1935’s The Hyp-Nut-Tist. Gus Wickie is generally considered the most memorable voice actor by fans and historians.^[2] Wickie voiced Bluto until Fleischer left New York in 1938, his last work being the voice of the «Chief» in Big Chief Ugh-A-Mug-Ugh. Several other actors were employed to voice Bluto from then on (including Mercer, Pierce, Colvig and Barry). When Famous Studios took over production and moved back to New York City, Jackson Beck took over the role until 1962.

Fleischer Studios[edit]

Popeye made his film debut in Popeye the Sailor, a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon. Although Betty Boop has a small cameo appearance, the cartoon mostly introduces the main characters: Popeye’s coming to rescue Olive Oyl after being kidnapped by Bluto. The triangle between Popeye, Olive and Bluto was set up from the beginning and soon became the template for most Popeye productions that would follow. The cartoon opens with a newspaper headline announcing Popeye as a movie star, reflecting the transition into film.^[2] I Yam What I Yam became the first entry in the regular Popeye the Sailor series.

Thanks to the animated shorts, Popeye became even more of a sensation than he had been in comic strips. As Betty Boop gradually declined in quality as a result of Hays Code enforcement in 1934, Popeye became the studio’s star character by 1936. Popeye began to sell more tickets and became the most popular cartoon character in the country in the 1930s, surpassing Mickey Mouse. Paramount added to Popeye’s profile by sponsoring the «Popeye Club» as part of their Saturday matinée program, in competition with Mickey Mouse Clubs. Popeye cartoons, including a sing-along special entitled Let’s Sing With Popeye, were a regular part of the weekly meetings. For a 10-cent membership fee, club members were given a Popeye kazoo, a membership card, the chance to become elected as the Club’s «Popeye» or «Olive Oyl», and the opportunity to win other gifts. Polls taken by theater owners proved Popeye more popular than Mickey, and Popeye upheld his position for the rest of the decade.^[7][8]

Fleischer cartoons differed highly from their counterparts at Walt Disney Productions and Warner Bros. Cartoons. The Popeye series, like other cartoons produced by the Fleischers, had a more urban feel (the Fleischers’ studio was in Midtown Manhattan), had plaits that were variations on a simple formula, and featured the characters’ (often improvised) under-the-breath mutterings.^[2] The voices for Fleischer cartoons produced during the early and mid-1930s were recorded after the animation was completed. The actors, Mercer in particular, would therefore improvise lines that were not on the storyboards or prepared for the lip-sync (generally word-play and clever puns).^[2] Even after the Fleischers began pre-recording dialog for lip-sync shortly after moving to Miami, Mercer and the other voice actors would record ad-libbed lines while watching a finished copy of the cartoon.^[9] Popeye lives in a dilapidated apartment building in A Dream Walking (1934), reflecting the urban feel and Depression-era hardships.^[2]

The Fleischers moved their studio to Miami, Florida, in September 1938 in order to weaken union control and take advantage of tax breaks. The Popeye series continued production, although a marked change was seen in the Florida-produced shorts: they were brighter and less detailed in their artwork, with attempts to bring the character animation closer to a Disney style. Mae Questel, who started a family, refused to move to Florida, and Margie Hines, the wife of Jack Mercer, voiced Olive Oyl through the end of 1943. Several voice actors, among them Pinto Colvig (better known as the voice of Disney’s Goofy), succeeded Gus Wickie as the voice of Bluto between 1938 and 1940.

Fleischer Studios produced 108 Popeye cartoons, 105 of them in black-and-white. The remaining three were two-reel (double-length) Technicolor adaptations of stories from the Arabian Nights billed as «Popeye Color Features»: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936), Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves (1937), and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939).

Famous Studios[edit]

By the end of 1939, Max and Dave had stopped speaking to each other altogether, communicating solely by memo. In 1940, they found themselves at odds with Paramount over the control of their animation studio.^[2] The studio borrowed heavily from Paramount in order to move to Florida and expand into features, and Gulliver’s Travels (1939) and Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941) were only moderate successes.^[10] In May 1941, Paramount Pictures assumed ownership of Fleischer Studios.^[11] Paramount fired the Fleischers and began reorganizing the studio, which they renamed Famous Studios. With Famous Studios headed by Sam Buchwald, Seymour Kneitel, Isadore Sparber and Dan Gordon, production continued on the Popeye shorts.

In 1941, with World War II becoming a greater concern in the United States, Popeye was enlisted into the U.S. Navy, as depicted in the 1941 short The Mighty Navy. His regular costume was changed from the dark blue shirt, red neckerchief and light blue jeans he wore in the original comics to an official white Navy sailor uniform, which he retained until the 1970s. Popeye becomes an ordinary, downtrodden, Naval seaman in the wartime entries, usually getting the blame for mishaps. Film historian Leonard Maltin notes that the studio did not intend to make light of the war, but instead make Popeye more relevant with the times and show him in action.^[2] The early Famous-era shorts were often World War II-themed, featuring Popeye fighting Nazis and Japanese soldiers, most notably the 1942 short You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap. As Popeye was popular in South America, Famous Studios set the 1944 cartoon We’re on our Way to Rio in Brazil, as part of a «good neighbor» policy between the U.S. government and the rest of the continent during the war.

In late 1943, the Popeye series was moved to Technicolor production, beginning with Her Honor the Mare. Though these cartoons were produced in full color, some films in the late-1940s period were released in less-expensive processes like Cinecolor and Polacolor. Paramount had begun moving the studio back to New York that January, and Mae Questel reassumed voice duties for Olive Oyl. Jack Mercer was drafted into the Navy during World War II, and scripts were stockpiled for Mercer to record when on leave. When Mercer was unavailable, Harry Welch stood in as the voice of Popeye (and Shape Ahoy had Mae Questel doing Popeye’s voice as well as Olive’s). New voice cast member Jackson Beck began voicing Bluto within a few years; he, Mercer, and Questel would continue to voice their respective characters into the 1960s. Over time, the Technicolor Famous shorts began to adhere even closer to the standard Popeye formula, and softened, rounder character designs – including an Olive Oyl design which gave the character high heels and an updated hairstyle – were evident by late 1946.

Many established Fleischer animators stayed with Famous Studios and produced these new Popeye cartoons, but the loss of the founders was evident.^[2] Throughout the 1940s, the production values on Popeye remained relatively high. Animation historian Jerry Beck notes that, however, the «gag sense and story sense fell into a bit of a rut.» By the mid-50s, budgets at the studio became tight and staff downsized, while still producing the same number of cartoons per year. This was typical of most animation studios at the time, as many considered shutting their doors entirely due to the competition from television.^[2] Paramount renamed the studio Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956 and continued the Popeye series for one more year, with Spooky Swabs, released in August 1957, being the last of the 125 Famous shorts in the series.

Music and theme song[edit]

Popeye’s signature theme song was composed by Sammy Lerner and premiered in the first Popeye cartoon in 1933 sung by Popeye himself. For the first few cartoons, the opening credits music consists of a short instrumental excerpt of «The Sailor’s Hornpipe», a traditional sea shanty dating to no later than the 1700s, playing over the Paramount logo, followed by a vocal variation on Andrew B. Sterling and Charles B. Ward’s «Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)», substituting the words «for Popeye the Sailor» in the latter phrase. An instrumental of Popeye’s theme replaced the latter beginning with the third short, «Blow Me Down!».

Cartoon music historian Daniel Goldmark writes that Popeye is one of few cartoon characters of the time to have a theme; composer Carl Stalling, who worked at Disney and Warner Bros., and MGM’s Scott Bradley disliked themes and phased them out quickly.^[2]

Winston Sharples and Sammy Timberg composed most of the music for the Popeye shorts. Timberg also composed the themes to the Fleischers’ Betty Boop and Superman cartoons, but asked Lerner to write Popeye’s theme song because he had a date that night.^[2]

The music of Popeye is described as a mix of «sunny show tunes and music from the street.»^[2] Being located on Broadway, the Fleischers were well placed for popular music developments in the 1930s. Director Eric Goldberg notes a very urban feel to the music of Popeye, reflecting «the type of cartoons they were making.» The Fleischers were big fans of jazz and would approach local jazz musicians to work on the cartoons, most of whom were more than happy to oblige.^[2] The use of jazz and very contemporary popular music highlighted how audiences were fascinated by new music. Tight on a budget, the producers took advantage of their free access to the Paramount music library, including hit songs that would be introduced in feature films.^[2] Many cartoons, such as It’s the Natural Thing to Do (1939), take their titles from popular songs of the time. Staff songwriters would also write original songs for the shorts, such as in 1936’s Brotherly Love and I Wanna Be a Lifeguard; the studio would hire outside songwriters to compose originals in addition. With the onset of World War II, the music in Popeye became more lush, fully orchestrated and patriotic.^[2]

For generations, the iconic Popeye theme song became an instantly recognizable musical bookmark, further propelling the character’s stardom.^[2]

Theatrical Popeye cartoons on television[edit]

The original 1932 agreement with the syndicate called for any films made within 10 years and any elements of them to be destroyed in 1942. This would have destroyed all of the Fleischer Popeye shorts. King was not sure what effect the cartoons would have on the strip; if the effect was very negative, King was very eager to erase any memory of the cartoons by destroying them. Paramount knew that the Popeye cartoons were among their best-selling and most popular, and they held them separately for future distribution, seeing television as a rising outlet.^[2]

In 1955, Paramount put their cartoon and shorts library up for television sale. U.M. & M. TV Corporation acquired the majority of all theatrical shorts. However, the Popeye cartoons were sold separately at a higher price.^[12] In June 1956,^[13] Paramount sold the black and white cartoons to television syndicator Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.), one of the biggest distributors of the time, for release to television stations, with the color cartoons being sold a year later.^[2] However, unlike the pre-August 1948 Warner Bros. cartoons they were distributing, a.a.p. was asked to remove the Paramount logos and «Paramount presents» title cards, so the cartoons were given an a.a.p. opening title card similar to the Warner Bros. cartoons, using a version of the Popeye theme music introduced sometime in 1943; the episodes closed with a piece first used in Olive Oyl For President in 1948. Yet Paramount’s imprint was still noted in the a.a.p. prints, which referenced Fleischer and Famous Studios and left Paramount’s credits and copyright tags intact. Once they began airing these cartoons were enormously popular. Jerry Beck likens Popeye‘s television success to a «new lease on life,» noting that the character had not been as popular since the 1930s.^[14]

King Features realized the potential for success and began distributing Popeye-based merchandise, which in turn led to a new series of Popeye short made for TV beginning in 1960. These shorts were farmed out to numerous studios and are of generally lower quality, employing limited animation, and many artists were unhappy with the quality of such cartoons.^[2]

By the 1970s, the original Fleischer and Famous Popeye cartoons were syndicated to various stations and channels across the globe. In the intervening years, however, the theatrical Popeye cartoons slowly disappeared from the airwaves in favor of newer television editions.^[14] a.a.p. was sold to United Artists in 1958, which was absorbed into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to create MGM/UA in 1981. Ted Turner purchased MGM/UA in 1986, gaining control of all theatrical Popeye shorts. Although Turner sold MGM back to Kirk Kerkorian some months later, Turner retained the film catalog. Turner Entertainment (currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) therefore controls the rights to the Popeye shorts.

After the Turner acquisition, the black-and-white Popeye shorts were shipped to South Korea, where artists retraced them into color. The process was intended to make the shorts more marketable in the modern television era, but prevented the viewers from seeing the original Fleischer pen-and-ink work, as well as the three-dimensional backgrounds created by Fleischer’s «Stereoptical» process. Every other frame was traced, changing the animation from being «on ones» (24 frame/s) to being «on twos» (12 frame/s), and softening the pace of the films. These colorized shorts began airing on Superstation WTBS in 1986 during their Tom & Jerry and Friends 90-minute weekday morning and hour-long weekday afternoon shows. The retraced shorts were syndicated in 1987 on a barter basis, and remained available until the early 1990s. When Cartoon Network began in 1992, they mostly ran cartoons from the MGM/UA library, which included Popeye.^[14]

For many decades, viewers could only see a majority of the classic Popeye cartoons with the a.a.p.-altered opening and closing credits. In 2001, Cartoon Network, under the supervision of animation historian Jerry Beck, launched The Popeye Show. The show aired the Fleischer and Famous Studios Popeye shorts in their complete, uncut original theatrical versions direct from prints that contained the original front-and-end Paramount credits, or, where those were unavailable, in versions approximating their original theatrical releases by replacing the a.a.p. opening and closing credits with ones that recreated the originals using various sources. The series, which aired 135 Popeye shorts over 45 episodes, also featured segments offering trivia about the characters, voice actors, and animators. The program aired on Cartoon Network until March 2004. Cartoon Network’s spin-off network Boomerang aired reruns of it after that, along with half-hour afternoon airings of Paramount Popeye cartoons that sometimes included the color-traced versions from the 1980s.

In 2012, Popeye reruns ceased until 2019, when Popeye cartoons returned to TV on Turner Classic Movies as single 7-minute shorts in March 2018, usually shown on Saturday mornings. It is also periodically pre-empted by special month-long or seasonal scheduling themes, such as February’s «31 Days of Oscar» film series and the month-long «Summer Under the Stars». In November 2020, Boomerang aired Popeye again as part of the Boomerang Thanksgiving Feast. MeTV announced that they will air a Saturday morning cartoon block which includes the Fleischer/Famous Popeye cartoons beginning in January 2021.^[15]

In the UK, Popeye aired on Cartoon Network from 1993 to 2001 and on Boomerang from 2000 to 2005. Since February 2021, Talking Pictures TV has aired the cartoons during their Saturday morning pictures block.

Home video[edit]

There were legal problems between King Features Syndicate and United Artists in the early 1980s regarding the availability of Popeye on home video. United Artists had television rights, but King Features disputed whether that included home video distribution.^[14] In 1983, MGM/UA Home Video attempted to release a collection of Popeye cartoons on Betamax and VHS tapes titled The Best of Popeye, Vol. 1, but the release was canceled after MGM/UA received a cease and desist letter from King Features Syndicate, which claimed that they only had the legal rights to release the collection on video.^[16] While King Features owned the rights, material, comics, and merchandizing to Popeye’s character, King Features did not have ownership to the cartoons themselves.

Throughout the years, there have been many VHS cassettes and DVDs featuring public domain Popeye cartoons, where the copyright had lapsed.^[14] While most of the Paramount Popeye catalog remained unavailable on VHS tape, a handful of shorts fell into the public domain and were found on numerous low-budget VHS tapes and DVDs. Most used a.a.p. prints from the 1950s, which were in very poor shape, thus resulting in very poor image quality. These cartoons were seven B&W 1930s and 1940s cartoons, 24 Famous Studios cartoons from the 1950s (many of which fell to the public domain after the MGM/UA merger), and all three Popeye color specials (although some copyrighted Popeye cartoons turned up on public domain VHS tapes and DVDs).

In 1997 (by which time the Popeye cartoons had come under ownership of Turner), home video rights to the MGM film library were reassigned from MGM/UA Home Video to Warner Home Video. It was reported in 2002 that WB/Turner and King Features parent Hearst Corporation were working on a deal to release Popeye’s cartoons on home video.^[16] Over 1,000 people signed an online petition asking WB and King Features to release the theatrical Popeye cartoons on DVDs.^[17]

Popeye cartoons were never officially released in any form until the late 2000s.^[14] In 2006, Warner Home Video, King Features Syndicate, and Hearst Entertainment finally reached an agreement allowing for the release of the theatrical Popeye cartoons on home video. Paramount Pictures allowed Warner Bros. to restore the original Paramount logos on the cartoons as part of a cross-licensing deal between the two companies (which also permitted the use of the «WB Shield» logo on certain films produced by John Wayne’s Batjac Productions that were originally released by Warner Bros. but are now distributed by Paramount) thus preserving the artistic integrity of the original theatrical releases.^[18] Three volumes were produced between 2007 and 2008, released in the order the cartoons were released to theaters.

The first of WB’s Popeye DVD sets, covering the cartoons released from 1933 until early 1938, was released on July 31, 2007. Popeye the Sailor: 1933–1938, Volume 1, a four-disc collector’s edition DVD, contains the first 60 Fleischer Popeye cartoons, including the color specials Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. Volume 1 and 3 of the series Have the «Intended For Adult Collector And May Not Be Suitable For Children» advisory warning on the back of the box- with a text disclaimer at the beginning of each disc warning that certain shorts «…may reflect certain racist, sexist and ethnic prejudices that were commonplace in American society at the time»- similar to that seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs. The shorts were digitally restored and featured numerous bonus features; including audio commentary tracks and documentary featurettes. Historians supervised the release as consultants, assuring no colorized versions of unrestored prints were used.^[14] The first volume was included, either erroneously or through somewhat fraudulent means, in a batch of boxed sets sold in discount outlets for $3 or less in the summer of 2009.^[19]

Initially, there were four volumes of 4-Disc Popeye sets were planned: the second volume would feature the remaining Black & White Popeye cartoons from 1938 to 1943, with the third and fourth volumes covering the color Famous Studios cartoons released between 1943 and 1957.^[14] However, due to the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis, Warner Home Video was forced to re-worked the second volume into a series of two-disc sets.^[20] Popeye the Sailor: 1938–1940, Volume 2 was released on June 17, 2008,^[21] and includes the final color Popeye special Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.^[22] Popeye the Sailor: 1941–1943, Volume 3 was released on November 4, 2008,^[23] and includes Popeye’s three seldom shown wartime cartoons: You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap (1942), Scrap the Japs (1942), and Seein’ Red, White ‘N’ Blue (1943). Like Volume 1 these sets contained a plethora of bonus material.

The remaining volumes featuring the color Famous Studios cartoons were abandoned due to the higher costs of restoring color cartoons and the low sales of the previous volumes due to the recession in the late 2000s.^[20] In 2018, Warner Archive Collection announced they were releasing a series of single-disc Blu-ray sets entitled Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s which continued where the previous DVD sets left off almost a decade earlier.^[20] Unlike the previous DVD sets the Blu-rays did not feature any bonus material, but the shorts were digitally restored and uncut. Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1 was released on December 11, 2018, and contained 14 color Popeye shorts released from 1943 to 1945. Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 2 was released in June 2019 featuring the next 15 Popeye cartoons from 1946 to 1947. Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 3 was released in September 2019 and featured the remaining 17 Popeye cartoons of the decade released from 1948 to the end of 1949.

In January 2020, Warner Archive announced they were «taking a break» from producing Popeye sets to focus on other classic animated titles, such as Tex Avery Screwball Classics.^[24] As of 2022, the remaining 62 Popeye cartoons released between 1950 and 1957 have yet to be released.

DVD collections[edit]

• Popeye the Sailor: 1933–1938, Volume 1 (released July 31, 2007) features cartoons released from 1933 to early 1938 and contains the color Popeye specials Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves.
• Popeye the Sailor: 1938–1940, Volume 2 (released June 17, 2008) features cartoons released from late 1938 to 1940 and includes the last color Popeye special Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.
• Popeye the Sailor: 1941–1943, Volume 3 (released November 4, 2008)^[25] features the remaining black-and-white Popeye cartoons released from 1941 to 1943 and covers the transition from Fleischer Studios to Famous Studios producing the cartoons.
• Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1 (released December 11, 2018) features the first 14 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios from 1943 to 1945. The set was made available on Blu-ray and DVD.
• Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 2 (released June 18, 2019) features the next 15 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios from 1946 to 1947. The set was made available on Blu-ray and DVD.^[26]
• Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 3 (released September 17, 2019) features the next 17 color Popeye shorts produced by Famous Studios from 1948 to 1949. The set was made available on Blu-ray and DVD.

Filmography[edit]

• Popeye the Sailor filmography (Fleischer Studios)
• Popeye the Sailor filmography (Famous Studios)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Popeye the Sailor cartoons at Wikimedia Commons