Word: swee
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Altman has gathered together the whole crew of crazy caricatures and shipped them off to the ramshackle town of Sweethaven. In residence, there are the Oyls, most notably Olive, Popeye's confused and confusing "sweet pattootie"; Swee'pea, Popeye's mischievous "adoptik infink"; the villainous, animal-like Bluto; J. Wellington Wimpy, the hamburger moocher; Rough-House, the short-order cook; Geezil, a boarder at the Oyls; and Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye's long-lost father. Several other bizarre characters skulk about having no apparent role other than adding to the absurdity...
...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...
...achieves a remarkable resemblance to the original Olive. Tall and awkward, her loose outfit and clodhoppers emphasize her rubber-legged shapelessness; the wishy-washy, quavering voice ring true. The other characters are instantly recognizable--but that's it. Comic-strip depth does not suffice for a full-length movie. Swee'pea (Altman's grandchild, incidentally) is an exception--a uniquely expressive and, of course, cute baby...
...beyond the powers of spinach cure. As a result, his moral force -and he was once one of the great comic-strip exemplars of righteousness tied to a short fuse-appears sicklied o'er with the pale cast of self-absorption. The rest of the characters-excepting Swee'Pea (played by Altman's grandchild, Wesley Ivan Hurt)-are blurs of lost innocence...
...what he describes as a Liquid Wrench voice and consume untold quantities of canned spinach. Shelley Duvall's role as Olive Oyl was not much easier. "I had shin splints for weeks from those size-14, quintuple-A boots," she groans. Not to mention anvil forearms from toting Swee' Pea (Wesley Ivan Hurt) around and neck strain from craning to Oylesque proportions. Toughest of all was stifling the giggles. Says Duvall: "Once we were in costume, we just laughed at each other...