I’m a Huge Popeye Fan, and Sony Animation’s Test Footage Makes Me Happy

Popeye was not just the reason I first tried spinach as a child – I’m sure I wasn’t the only one – but he was also a comfort on shitty school mornings. As part of the British “Breakfast TV” program my dad always wanted to watch as part of our morning routine, they’d follow news, entertainment and whatever with a Popeye cartoon right around 8 a.m., last thing before I was out the door. Some of them were the mediocre color ones, but when they busted out the original black and white Max Fleischer toons, I was transported. The rubberiness of the entire world, the occasional mixture of 3D backdrops, the weirdly deformed way every character was drawn – there was nothing like it.

A couple of Christmases ago, I got all three DVD sets of the Fleischer Popeyes – all uncut, with a disclaimer that they contained racial attitudes common at the time, that aren’t good then or now…but that censoring them and pretending they didn’t exist would be contrary to preserving the historical value of the films. I wish Disney would do the same. And yes, the Japanese stereotypes from the World War II era are pretty egregious – but not much different from those all over the prevailing pop culture of the time.

I’m glad to see Genndy Tartakovsky is a fan too. Given his mandate to make Popeye in 3D CG, a LOT could have gone wrong. But in the test he has prepared, I feel like everything has actually gone right.

I feel not such a loner, cuz this gives me a boner, sez LYT the editor man!

h/t Filmdrunk