Popeye is my all-time favorite cartoon character. While most remember the character for his cartoon shorts in which he battled Bluto (or Brutus) for the love of the spindly Olive Oyl, big fans of the character know of the utterly brilliant work comic strip artist E.C. Segar did with Popeye from creating him in 1929 to Segar’s death in 1938. I even love the 1980 Robert Altman directed live-action Popeye film starring Robin Williams. Popeye hasn’t been seen much since the 2004’s straight-to-DVD computer animated cartoon Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, so to me, any Popeye news is good news.
There was some word several months back that a CG animated Popeye film was in the works, and it seems like that project is moving forward since Variety reports that Genndy Tartaovsky has been picked to direct the film for Sony Pictures Animation. Tartaovsky’s first feature, Hotel Transylvania, will be released soon, but he has a long history in animation with Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.
The only “uh oh” is that Jay Scherick and David Ronn are working on the screenplay, and they’re best known for churning out crap like Norbit, Zookeeper, and The Smurfs. I’m sure there are writers with better instincts for animation out there so I hope these guys had a really good pitch. All I hope is that Billy West, voice artist master best known for Ren & Stimpy and Futurama, will return to voice Popeye, as he did in Popeye’s Voyage, and not Dave Collier, who periodically does Popeye’s voice on Robot Chicken. If Uncle Joey ends up doing Popeye’s voice, I give up.
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