Genndy Tartakovsky’s POPEYE Animation Test (Video)

Director Genndy Tartakovsky is back in the animator’s chair with the new video test from his upcoming film, POPEYE.

Popeye the Sailor Man was created by Elzie Crisler Segar and first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929 and hit the silver screen first in 1934 in a series of Paramount animated shorts produced by the Fleischer Brothers  and later with a live-action feature film, POPEYE, directed by Robert Altman with Robin Williams in the lead role in 1980.

Sony Pictures Animation’s film is the CG adaptation of the famous sailor man’s origin story.

In addition to POPEYE, Tartakovsky is also returning to the director’s chair for Hotel Transylvania 2, scheduled for September 2015, which will bring back Adam Sandler’s Dracula.

Tartakovsky himself says, “It’s good to be back at the Hotel Transylvania, and I’m very excited to work on Popeye, a character that I’ve loved since I was a kid.

So what does the footage tell us. Since I’m a graduate of Chicago’s Columbia College like Genndy, I was pleased to hear him mention my animation mentor, the late, great Gordon Sheehan, who’s first movie job was painting animation cells on the Betty Boop short that introduced the “sailor-man” to movie audiences. It looks like the “squash and stretch” style of the early Fleischer shorts is expanded upon with a much more frenetic pace for today’s younger audiences. Olive is without her standard red blouse and black long skirt, while Bluto, who appears to lead the pirates in an attack, still has his signature black coarse beard while sporting a bald pate! Speaking of losing, much as was done with the sailor’s last TV show, “Popeye and Son” on CBS Saturday mornings, he’s without his corncob pipe, perhaps in order to set a good example for the kiddies. From all reports, comedian Tom Kenny (also the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants) is in the lead role and does a terrific job emulating Jack Mercer’s gravelly vocals. And while Bluto got scalped, it appears Popeye now has a full head of brown hair. With the addition of Eugene the magical Jeep, the new screen incarnation promises to be great slapstick fun for all ages.

POPEYE is scheduled for a 2016 release.

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