PHE Press Release: Popeye (1980) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

The beloved anvil-armed sailor of the seven seas comes magically to life in POPEYE, arriving on Blu-ray for the first time ever December 1, 2020 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Starring the incomparable Robin Williams in his first big-screen role and Shelley Duvall as his devoted sweetie, Olive Oyl, the delightful musical celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, having debuted in theaters on December 12, 1980.



The new Blu-ray includes access to a Digital copy of the film, along with nearly 30 minutes of all-new bonus content featuring excerpts from one of Robin Williams’ final interviews, an interview with director Robert Altman from 2014, as well as a newly conducted interview with Stephen Altman. The full list of bonus features is below:

• · Return to Sweethaven: A Look Back with Robin and the Altmans
• · The Popeye Company Players
• · Popeye’s Premiere
• · The Sailor Man Medleys
• · Theatrical Trailer

Legendary producer Robert Evans and screenwriter Jules Feiffer worked for nearly three years to get POPEYE into production. The film combined the talents of Robert Altman, composer and lyricist Harry Nilsson, numerous filmmaking artisans, and an outstanding cast of actors, mimes, athletes and street performers to bring the world of the beloved character to life. The result is an uplifting and visually delightful film that celebrates the magic of what Altman called “a genuine American hero.”






About Paramount Home Entertainment

Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. PPC is a unit of ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The PHE division oversees PPC’s home entertainment and transactional digital distribution activities worldwide. The division is responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment content on behalf of Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Television Studios, Paramount Players, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and CBS and applicable licensing and servicing of certain DreamWorks Animation titles. PHE additionally manages global licensing of studio content and transactional distribution across worldwide digital distribution platforms including online, mobile and portable devices and emerging technologies.





POPEYE 40th Anniversary Blu-ray

Street Date: December 1, 2020

U.S. Rating: PG

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Love it. The first movie I ever watched on the big screen. I liked it so much my parents brought me back a couple more times to watch it (three total). Lifelong infatuation with Shelly Duvall because of this film.

A real cult film - one of the few Altmans I haven't managed to see anywhere. It has people who will defend it to the death: The most underrated film ever made! Robin William's best film! Robert Altman's most purely enjoyable movie! Harry Nilsson wrote the songs on a drug-fuelled bender!

I will absolutely be getting this, if it is released.

I was in my late teens when this came out, and loved it! Saw it at least 3 times in the theater, and wore out my cassette soundtrack. I bought the recent CD reissue of the soundtrack, but haven't seen the movie itself in decades. I'm eager for the chance to revisit it!

titch said:

A real cult film - one of the few Altmans I haven't managed to see anywhere. It has people who will defend it to the death: The most underrated film ever made! Robin William's best film! Robert Altman's most purely enjoyable movie! Harry Nilsson wrote the songs on a drug-fuelled bender!

I will absolutely be getting this, if it is released.

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I saw it a few times when it came out. It's weird, and maybe even not so good, yet it has a strange fascination.

You have to see without any expectations associated with those names: Altman, Williams etc. It's idiosyncratic and initially underwhelming, though it's also subtle with a lot of charm that comes through on repeated viewings.

What bothered me about it is the pieces don't fit together; there are various shots culled from different takes with different lighting and timings patched together.

At a first viewing it seemed sloppy and somewhat incompetent, even to the point of having inserts of Williams and Duvall and Paul Dooley where they seem inelegant and going against the grain of the scene, as if Altman decided to place outtakes and bloopers into the main scenes.

Things don't match, either visually or continuity-wise. But on repeated viewings, you grow to accept this, though it's different from any other Altman film I've ever seen, even the really far out ones, like "Quintet".

What I remember especially disliking is the songs are really good and the disassociated and slapdash editing kind of inhibits one's appreciation of that, and also takes you out of the film during those sequences. While this may have been Altman's intent, it's frustrating.

I am not here to crap on the excitement. Just giving my overall impression of the first time I saw POPEYE during the early years of cable TV.

I hated it. Thought it was just Robin Williams basically mumbling through the entire film.

However, there is a strange curiosity about its quirkiness. Surprisingly, I may actually purchase this if priced as low as the other recent Paramount first-time Blu-ray releases.

I can only assume that the Paramount executives who were convinced that getting Robert Altman to direct Popeye was a good idea were the same ones who approached David Cronenberg to direct Flashdance.

Mark_TB said:

. I bought the recent CD reissue of the soundtrack,

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I had the original Vinyl release. Thanks for the heads up. Just bought the deluxe CD.

LOVE this one! One of the few times I can abide Robin Williams. And Shelley Duvall was born to play Olive Oyl. I'm old enough to remember when this project was first announced ..... with Dustin Hoffman as Popeye and Lily Tomlin as Olive Oyl.

Ronald Epstein said:

Thought it was just Robin Williams basically mumbling through the entire film.

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Ha. That was deliberate as it is a characteristic of Popeye.

Worth said:

I can only assume that the Paramount executives who were convinced that getting Robert Altman to direct Popeye was a good idea were the same ones who approached David Cronenberg to direct Flashdance.

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Now that I would've enjoyed!

The actual released "Flashdance" is terrible. A Cronenberg version would've been awesome!

Ronald Epstein said:

I am not here to crap on the excitement. Just giving my overall impression of the first time I saw POPEYE during the early years of cable TV.

I hated it. Thought it was just Robin Williams basically mumbling through the entire film.

However, there is a strange curiosity about its quirkiness. Surprisingly, I may actually purchase this if priced as low as the other recent Paramount first-time Blu-ray releases.

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I kinda liked it in 1980 when I was 13. When I watched the DVD back in... whenever that came out, I pretty much hated it. Altman was 100% the wrong person for this movie.

Maybe I'll change my mind on 3rd viewing!

I can finally retire my SD.

Colin Jacobson said:

Now that I would've enjoyed!

The actual released "Flashdance" is terrible. A Cronenberg version would've been awesome!

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Maybe it's playing in some alternate universe, in the auditorium next to David Lynch's Return of the Jedi.

Ronald Epstein said:

This is not an official press release. I am not even certain if this is just International at the moment.

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Let's just say it's pretty darn likely. Popeye's been getting heavy rotation among the OOC Paramount "orphans" on streaming, and a disk release was When-Not-If.

Colin Jacobson said:

I kinda liked it in 1980 when I was 13. When I watched the DVD back in... whenever that came out, I pretty much hated it. Altman was 100% the wrong person for this movie.

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I'm not sure what the theory was behind Altman:
I'd also heard Robert Evans' Dustin & Lily casting, back before Robin Williams suddenly materialized in the 70's, but as perfectly born-to-play-Olive as Shelley Duvall was, I can't be sure whether it was Altman who wanted Duvall in the movie, or Duvall who wanted Altman.
The studio alibi was that Altman was "experienced with largely improvised scenes", but he seems to be the only one in the movie who doesn't know what he's doing.

Ronald Epstein said:

I hated it. Thought it was just Robin Williams basically mumbling through the entire film.

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Aha: Another amateur who's never seen the classic B&W 30's Fleischer toons. (Now that Warner Archive brought them back on disk.)

I remember when the movie opened, our local college arthouse theater, which frequently did cult cartoon retrospectives, counterprogrammed Williams' Popeye with a festival of the 30's Fleischer toons. And back in 1980, when we didn't know our classic toons, it took audiences by surprise--Critics gave the movie two stars, and the festival four stars.
Watch one classic 30's Popeye where Jack Mercer mutters post-dub ad-libs through the entire cartoon, and it will end ALL argument as to why anyone ever thought Robin Williams needed to play Popeye--Williams not only does a dead-on born-to-play imitation of Mercer's motormouthed muttering, he even manages to capture Popeye's "flip" movements from the old 30's Fleischer animation. It's a mess of a movie with two amazing performances.

The HD version I own on iTunes has been available of years and looks great. Hope the disc has some good extras.

Ronald Epstein said:

I am not even certain if this is just International at the moment.

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It wouldn't be an international release because Disney, who co-produced it, still owns the rights outside North America where, true to form, they released a cut version of the film.



Since this is a Paramount release, I'm guessing it will be the complete film.

Here's the original Siskel and Ebert review.

Colin Jacobson said:

Now that I would've enjoyed!

The actual released "Flashdance" is terrible. A Cronenberg version would've been awesome!

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Actually, I feel that NO version of “Flashdance” would’ve been the most awesome one of all.

But seriously, Shelly Duvall and the concept of “Popeye”being made into a live-action film is one of the greatest examples of filmdom's oldest adages of “Right time, right place”. For this, ALL of the planets were cosmically aligned. Ms. Duvall’s seamless performance should’ve been a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination.

I don't think I ever saw the entire film, but what I did see of it made me think they were trying to duplicate the quirky world of Popeye as seen in the original comic strips by E.C. Segar in the 1930's, as well as Jack Mercer's definitive characterization. All the Segar strips have been re-published and are heartily recommended to anyone with a passing interest in the character or anyone who just enjoys brilliant, creative comic work by the Charles Dickens of comic strips.