Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

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  • Starring: ,
  • Summary: The cartoon comes to the big screen as mysterious Popeye the Sailorman docks in Sweethaven where he falls for Olive Oyl, fights with Bluto and becomes a mama to "infankt" Sweetpea.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 7
  2. Negative: 2 out of 7
  1. 88
    It's clear that this movie has an affection for Popeye, and so much regard for the sailor man that it even bothers to reveal the real truth about his opinion of spinach.
  2. Reviewed by: Bruce McCabe
    One of the major problems facing Hollywood today is the lack of will and energy to make movies that can charm youngsters without boring their parents. Popeye is an important contribution toward the solution. It's not a sophisticated film. But it's a gratifyingly engaging one. [12 Dec 1980, p.1]
  3. Miss Duvall is superb - genteely ladylike one minute, a woman of volcanic passions the next.
  4. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
  5. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    The film's real star is its magnificent set (filmed and constructed in Malta), though Williams manages to screw up his face and eye in a credible imitation of the drawings, and Duvall is perfect as the gangly Olive Oyl.
  6. 30
    Robert Altman's busy, detailed mise-en-scene, flattened cartoon-style through space-compacting long lenses, does capture some of the frenetic atmosphere of the Fleischer cartoons, but it tends to crowd out, and neutralize, the story values.
  7. A shamelessly commercial and determinedly vulgar director, such as Flash Gordon's Mike Hodges, might have made the film work; it might have succeeded on one level instead of failing on many. [13 Dec 1980, p.E7]
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1