Popeye

Popeye is a fictional sailor created in 1928 by Elzie C. Segar. He made his first appearance in Segar's Thimble Theater comic strip. He is easily recognizable by his corncob pipe, one good eye, bulging forearm muscles and his unusual way of talking. He eats spinach to gain superhuman strength.

Supporting characters

Popeye's girlfriend is Olive Oyl, a tall, skinny, loose-limbed woman with black hair. His rival is Bluto (sometimes called Brutus), a hulking brute who always fights for Olive's affections over Popeye. There is also J. Wellington Wimpy, a portly con man with a penchant for hamburgers, and whose catchphrase is "I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!"

Theatrical cartoons

Starting in 1933, he was the subject of a long-running cartoon series created by Fleischer Studios, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. These cartoons are praised by critics for their excellent animation and 3-dimensional backgrounds in certain cartoons.In 1942, when Fleischer Studios closed due to bankruptcy, Famous Studios (later Paramount Cartoon Studios) took over. Their cartoons were not as good as the Fleischer cartoons, since they were usually remakes of earlier ones and tended to be formulaic. The last Famous Studios Popeye short, Spooky Swabs, was made in 1957.

Television

In the 1960s, studios like Hanna-Barbera made Popeye cartoons for television, such as Popeye and Friends and The All New Popeye Hour. These cartoons added more characters from the comic strip, such as the Sea Hag, Alice the Goon, Chef Rough House, and Geezil.

Popeye Today

The Popeye comic strip still survives in syndicated newspapers, drawn by Hy Eisman.

=Live Action Movie

A live action movie was released by Paramount in 1980, directed by Robert Altman. It marked the film debut of Robin Williams, who first found fame with Mork and Mindy, in the title role. Shelley Duvall also starred as Olive Oyl.

Colorization

Ted Turner later bought the rights to Popeye along with Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies and started showing them on Cartoon Network. Turner sent the cartoons to South Korea, where the cartoons were retraced into color, therefore making them more marketable in the age of color television. However, because of this process, the resulting cartoons are very sloppily colored and lack the smooth animation and groundbreaking backgrounds of the originals.

=On Video and DVD

Before there ever was an official video release, a handful of Fleischer cartoons and a lot of Famous Studios cartoons were available in the public domain. Warner Bros., who owns the rights to the Fleischer Popeye shorts, is now releasing the classic black-and-white shorts on DVD, and is also releasing the 1960s television cartoons on DVD in tandem with the Fleischer shorts.