ED BLACK'S CARTOON FLASHBACK
BEYOND SEGAR
When Popeye advanced to a film career at the Max Fleischer studios in 1933, model sheets were prepared for the animators to keep Popeye's appearance consistent. Such design sheets were prepared as guides for the other characters too. This practice was standard throughout the animation industry.
© KFS
When Paramount Pictures took over the production of the Popeye animated cartoons in 1942 at their Famous Studios subsidiary in New York, Popeye's design became more flexible, more animatable. He also changed clothes -- to a regulation Navy uniform. This was World War II and many cartoons pitted the sailor against the Nazis and the Japanese. © KFS |
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The people who provided the voices in Fleischer and Famous Studio cartoons. From left: Jack Mercer (Popeye), Mae Questel (Olive Oyl) and Jackson Beck (Bluto) mug for the camera just before a 1949 recording session. Mercer continued to voice Popeye until his death in 1984. |
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In 1980, Paramount Pictures, in association with Walt Disney Productions, produced a live-action Popeye movie starring Robin Williams in the title role. Shelley Duvall was the personification of Olive Oyl. The script was written by Jules Feiffer who, like many other cartoonists, worships Segar. The picture was directed by Robert Altman who chose to shoot it on the island of Malta. Songs by Harry Nilsson. The picture was a moderate success.
© Paramount Pictures
What better way to market spinach than to create a brand named after the one-eyed sailor and to use him as a trademark to boot. That's what the Allen Canning Co, of Siloam, Arizona has been doing for years -- and with success.
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