$550 million (and more) dollars is nothing to sneeze at. Soooo:
Sony Pictures Animation has set screenwriters Jay Scherick & David Ronn to write the screenplay for an all-new POPEYE animated feature, based on the iconic characters of comic strip and cartoon fame. POPEYE is the second project for Scherick and Ronn with Sony Pictures Animation following their success with this summer's blockbuster THE SMURFS, which has grossed more than $550 million
It worked for the small blue people, it can work here (I guess.)
But actually, a full on c.g. animated feature of the Sailor Man makes sense. The character was the most popular cartoon star in the 1930s, and the Fleischers' bread and butter, cash-flow wise. If the Spinach Eater succeeded during the last Depression, why not during the new one? They stay true to the 1930s version of Popeye, this could work like gangbusters.
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17 comments:
clearly they haven't seen this gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zruD3vzHxu0
a new film isn't needed with the existence of this amazing adaptation.
Is it a fully animated Popeye or another hybrid CGI/Live action production?
If it's the former, great! If it's the latter.. well I guess Sony is working hard on becoming the next Rhythm and Hues...
Oh well those hybrids are profitable and it keeps folks working so its not the end of the world...
It's a fully animated Popeye movie.
seeing that audience taste changes overtime, and not nessesarily for the better, that 80's Popeye might actually be a success these days...
d.
I doubt that very seriously. The Robert Altman film had a lot of good things going for it. Except for a script, a sober director, and so-called music and lyrics that were written in a drunken stupor by Harry Nillsson. It's right up there with Quartet as Altman's worst film.
Disney should never have released it.
Of course, the fact that nobody is mentioning the Popeye cgi TV special that was done a few years ago shows how little impact it made.
This feature will have a bigger budget and more marketing, but King Features has tried, without success, to revive properties like Betty Boop, Blondie and Popeye in animation. We'll see if this film breaks their streak.
I remember working on Popeye at Hanna-Barbera years ago. Jack Mercer, the voice of the famous sailor was even recording at the studio. If I recall, one of our designers was Toby Bluth and he gave the series a cool retro style.
It appears Popeye lives on.
"I doubt that very seriously. The Robert Altman film had a lot of good things going for it. Except for a script"
the lack of a script didn't stop the Jackass movies from beein a success, among other jems. besides...I was just speculating, you could be right!
As long as people keep going to go and watch remakes at the theaters(Yogi,Smurfs), studios will continue to make them!
d
Animation continues to ghettoize itself in the lowest possible terms.
If the script is written in the style of the original Elzie Segar Thimble Theater comic strip (which was brilliant) then this film might be worth seeing. But if it's written in the style of those awful Paramount cartoons, screw it.
^ It will be written in neither style.
It will be written in the modern Alvin-rap-music-and-farts style.
" if they stay true to the 1930s version of Popeye, this could work like gangbusters."
To stay true to the 1930's version would mean to do it as a hand-drawn animated feature. Anything else might be ok in it's own way , as a re-visioning of the Popeye franchise, but it won't be exactly "true" to the 1930's version.
I'd rather see a CG animated film with original characters that is true to itself, not just another pale reflection of the original .
"the lack of a script didn't stop the Jackass movies from beein a success"
But the Jackass movies are FUNNY! Robert Altman's Popeye was not. I do have a soft spot in my nostalgic heart for it, though. I even visited the sets, which are STILL UP, in Malta.
John Lennon visited the set with Harry Nilsson. Imagine the time they had.
By the way, the BEST updated Popeye is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYRPvz-LV-k
I want to say a word of defense for the script in the Altman Popeye film. It was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer, a huge Segar fan, who did go back to the Segar strips as his starting point.
The problem was not the script. The problem was Robert Altman ignoring it.
Segar or not, the script was shit. Feiffer is a terrific cartoonist--but not a terribly good screenwriter. Altman and his drunkeness didn't help.
The Robert Altman film had a lot of good things going for it. Except for a script, a sober director, and so-called music and lyrics that were written in a drunken stupor by Harry Nillsson. It's right up there with Quartet as Altman's worst film.
About that Altman Popeye. A Disney P.R. guy was at the premiere, and recounted to me how Robin Williams afterwards did a funny routine about how, after the release, his whole career would be going up in flames.
He said that Robin was half joking, half not. (Everybody seemed to know what a stinker it was. And an expensive stinker, at that.)
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