Popeye is a 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman, based on the comic strip and cartoon character Popeye the Sailor. The film was marketed with the tagline "The sailor man with the spinach can!"

The film is a musical, which was uncommon for the time. The songs were written by Harry Nilsson, and are structured by using a great deal of repetition and cross-cutting inside songs to non-musical sequences. It starred Robin Williams (in his first film role) as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.

Popeye was a joint production between Paramount Pictures (distributors/producers of the 1933 - 1957 Popeye theatrical cartoons) and Walt Disney Productions, and was released by Paramount in the USA, and Buena Vista Distribution overseas. It was filmed almost entirely on Malta, in the village of Mellieħa on the northwest coast of the island, and the set is now a tourist attraction called Popeye Village.

The movie's script, by Jules Feiffer, draws heavily on the original Thimble Theater comic strip by Elzie Crisler Segar. The town of Sweethaven, Olive Oyl's family, her former comic-strip boyfriend Ham Gravy, and a handful of minor characters from the strip appear in the film. Olive's brother Castor has a relatively important role, as he did in the strip before Popeye came aboard.

The film earned $49,823,037 blank">http://www.the-numbers.com/people/RWILL.html at the _United States box office, more than double the film's budget. Although the opening week saw respectable box-office results, word-of-mouth and film critic reviews derided the film's musical score as being "the only thing more unintelligible than Williams' mumblings as Popeye", and the film quickly disappeared from most theaters within a few weeks of release. Siskel and Ebert were nearly alone in praising the film, while other critics, such as Leonard Maltin, savaged it.

Criticism of the film had dire consequences for director Robert Altman, whose career had become checkered with successes (Nashville, MASH) and failures (Health, Buffalo Bill and the Indians). Popeye stymied Altman's career as a film director during the early 1980s until his big Hollywood comeback, The Player. While not one of his most critically acclaimed films, Popeye features hallmarks of director Robert Altman's style, including an ensemble cast, overlapping dialogue, and cross-cutting to non-musical sequences during songs.

This series was syndicated to several cities in the United States. In several cities, the cartoons were only part of a larger show aimed at children, but featuring games and celebrity guests. In Atlanta, Georgia, for instance, the show ran on a local station (one that was, at that time, the local affiliate of NBC) and was known as "The Popeye Club".

At the insistence of Paramount, the Paramount logos were removed by television distributor Associated Artists Productions from the television prints of the Paramount Popeye cartoons bought by AAP. The Paramount copyright bylines remained.

Buff sailorman Popeye arrives in an awkward seaside town called Sweet Haven. There he meets Wimpy, a hamburger loving man, Olive Oyl, the soon-to-be love of his life, and Bluto, a huge, mean pirate who's out to make Sweet Haven pay for no good reason. Popeye also discovers his long lost Pappy in the middle of it all, so with a band of his new friends, Popeye heads off to stop Bluto, and he's got the power of spinach, which Popeye detests, to busk Bluto right in the mush. Watch as Popeye mops the floor with punks in a burger joint, stops a greedy tax man, takes down a champion boxer, and even finds abandoned baby Swee'Pea. He's strong to the finich, 'cause he eats his spinach! Written by Dylan Self

Popeye is a muscular sailor who arrives in the seaside town Sweet Haven in search of his long-lost father. Popeye finds Sweet Haven is governed by the pirate and big bully Bluto. In Sweet Haven, Popeye meets new friends who live in the town, Wimpy, a man whose favorite food is burgers and Olive Oyl, Bluto's girlfriend. In Sweet Haven, Popeye becomes a legend, when he takes on a gang of punks in Wimpy's burger bar, stops a greedy tax-man, and defeats a champion boxer in a boxing match. After Popeye and Olive Oyl find a abandoned baby boy named Swee'pea. Popeye reunites with his father and discovers he has been kidnapped by Bluto and he sets out to stop Bluto who bids to get his vengeance on Sweet Haven, by eating spinach which gives him his incredible strength. Written by Daniel Williamson

The comic strip and animated sailor hero comes to life in this meticulous live action production that looks at the origins of Popeye and his battle against arch-rival Bluto. Nearly all the characters from the strip are reproduced here. Written by Keith Loh