Word: cartoons
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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ALMOST FIFTY YEARS after the first Popeye cartoon, director Robert Altman and cartoonist-author-screenwriter Jules Feiffer have adapted the sailor to another medium--that of the musical-comedy feature film--using real people instead of animated figures. When such heavies team up with a talent like manic Robin Williams to interpret a piece of American folklore, the result ought to transcend the original material. Instead, they produce a faithful if restrained reproduction of the cartoon version--and somewhat of a disappointment...
...plot, as in a typical Popeye cartoon, is thin. Popeye arrives in Sweethaven looking for his father. He lodges at the Oyls, becomes smitten with Olive and does battle with her betrothed, Bluto. Popeye eventually finds his father, rescues Olive and Swee'pea from Bluto and, thanks to a handy can of spinach, sends the brute packing...
THIS PLOT PROVIDES the framework for the usual action--Popeye slugging his way through run-ins with Bluto and other assorted ruffians. The fight scenes underscore the limitations of the premise. Clever camera and stunt work not-withstanding, human beings simply cannot contort themselves the way cartoon figures can. Robin Williams can only cock his wrist a couple of times for the famous twister punch. As a result, the slapstick gains in immediacy but loses the necessary hyperbole...
...attempt to transfer Popeye from the cartoons to the movies might have been doomed from the start. After all, why bother having people do what animated figures do better? Moreover, no movie can keep up with the breakneck pace of a cartoon. Yet Altman seems to have all the ingredients for a blockbuster film. He succeeds in creating a busy visual and auditory atmosphere, but he fails to take advantage of his opportunity for free play on several levels. As just two examples, he throws in a few bits of scatological humor, and completely avoids using the Popeye story...
...most of all, people were talking about the Depression. In a poignant cartoon, the Dixon Evening Telegraph memorialized dejected workers leaving a steel and wire company carrying their lunch buckets home after being laid off. In Davenport the Union Bank failed, a year after the American Savings Bank and Trust Co., and the John Deere Co. shut down six plants, throwing 716 men out of work. In surrounding Scott County a monthly average of 7,000 persons -10% of the population-were on relief, getting beans, flour and potatoes. People were understandably riled that Iowa farmers, angered...