by lhb412 » Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:02 pm
Popeye
So I've been going on a Popeye spree lately, buying DVDs of the cartoons and books of the old comics, so just had to see the Robin Williams starring film too (which I haven't seen since I was about four or five).
This film has been much maligned but I think it's terrific! Most of the time when actors are asked to play cartoons they try to hard to act cartoony, where in this film they just.... well, become cartoons naturally! I can see that that put a lot of people off: the film is a mixture of absurd, over-the-top camp and slice-of-life naturalism. There's not really much of a plot, just a series of incidents like a collection of comic strips or a bunch of cartoons shown together.
And it's musical! This also put people off: instead of show stopping showtunes the songs are folksy, simple, and repetitive. I also think they're great (especially "I Yam What I Yam" and "He Needs Me"). They were written by Harry Nilsson, who's a great singer songwriter.
The only complaint I have is that the final desplays of strength of the newly spinach-powered Popeye should hqave been more spectacular, but I understand that they ran out of money and had to scale back the finale. So it goes!