King Features tells Janet Hetherington how it has joined forces with Mainframe Ent. to create Popeye's first CGI adventure, Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy for TV and DVD.
Popeye, the worlds beloved sailor man, is fond of saying, I yam what I yam. This year Popeye is 75 years young, and he is celebrating with his first-ever 3D animated adventure, Popeyes Voyage: The Quest for Pappy.
This King Features initiative, rendered by computer animation specialists Mainframe Entertainment, is the first new Popeye animation to appear in more than 15 years. The 30-minute TV special of Popeyes Voyage: The Quest for Pappy is set to air on FOX on Dec. 17, 2004, while the DVD/home video from Lions Gate Entertainment which includes an hour-long version of the Popeye special releases on Nov. 9, 2004 ($19.98 for DVD; $14.98 for VHS).
For Popeye to adapt to this new medium is a natural step in the evolution of the character, comments Frank Caruso, King Features vp and creative and exec producer of Popeyes Voyage: The Quest for Pappy.
Popeye is the only character in the history of animation to endure almost seven decades of animation, weather a number of different studio makeovers and remain one of the most beloved characters in cartoon history, Carouso says, continuing, Also, being huge fans of the Fleischer animation, we posed the question to ourselves: if this technology had existed in the 1930s, would the Fleischer brothers have used it to animate their cartoons? And the answer was... absolutely!
Popeye and Olive
Popeye first sailed into public view as an offshoot of an Olive branch Olive Oyle, that is. Popeye made his first public appearance on January 17, 1929, in E.C. Segars then 10-year-old comic strip, Thimble Theatre, which originally revolved around Olive Oyls family. Although he was introduced as a minor walk-on character, Popeye quickly muskled his way into the limelight and eclipsed the older characters to become the star of Thimble Theatre. With Popeye came a host of new, offbeat funny folks such as SweePea, the infink Popeye adopted; J. Wellington Wimpy, the worlds most hamburger-obsessed moocher; and Bluto, the hairy heavy with the glass jaw.
Popeye made the jump to the silver screen in a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon entitled Popeye the Sailor from the Fleischer Studios. Nearly 750 Popeye cartoons were made and many are available on video.
In 1980, Paramount Pictures released a live-action musical motion picture in which Popeye was portrayed by Robin Williams and Olive Oyl played by Shelley Duvall. In 1993, Ted Turners Cartoon Network celebrated the 60th anniversary of the sailor mans film debut with Popumentary, a series of six primetime specials.
Mad About Popeye
Popeyes newest 3D comedy adventure is co-written by actor/comedian Paul Reiser (Mad About You) and Jim Hardison (Vinton Studios). Reiser is a life-long Popeye fan, and along with Caruso and Rick Karo, is serving as one of the exec producers on the project.
Popeyes Voyage: The Quest for Pappy centers on Popeyes quest to find his long-lost father, Pappy, in time for the holidays. With Bluto as his best mate and Olive Oyl, SweePea and Wimpy along for the ride, the spinach-loving sailor sets sail through the Seas of Mystery in search of Pappys Island, but trouble ensues when the evil Sea Hag sets her sights on Popeye and vows to stop at nothing until she steals him away.
It has been of utmost importance to King Features that this newest treatment of Popeye reflect his cartoon history and personality. All of the characters and their classic traits remain intact. From Popeyes humorous asides to his brawls with Bluto, to the rubber-armed Olive, to the burger-mooching Wimpy even Popeyes famous twister punch is there, Caruso says.
A Classic Approach
Ive been Popeyes creative director here at King Features for the past 18 years, and have always strived to promote the classic look of the 1930s animation, Caruso says. As a cartoonist, Ive always respected the work of Max Fleischer. Over the years, my friend Stephen Destefano has drawn the wonderful Popeye art that reflects that era. (Destefanos credit in the new show is for character development.)
Meanwhile, production designer Walter Martishius developed this special world of Popeye with a devotion to the color Fleischer cartoons of the 1930s, bringing a lush painterly style to CGI, a medium often associated with a high-tech look.
Caruso noted that even for background characters or animals such as the crab and sea serpent, Team Popeye has been diligent in researching the old cartoons to accurately depict characters of that period.
Still, moving from 2D to 3D was a bold move, and King Features decided to place animating Popeye in the hands of Mainframe Ent., one of the worlds most prolific producers of computer animation. In addition to its production of the award-winning Barbie as Rapunzel direct-to-video feature and the CGI Spider-Man animated TV series, the company created the animation, logo and branding for the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. The company is best known as the pioneer of computer animated television series for its groundbreaking show, ReBoot.
We were well aware of the work they were doing on the Barbie specials, Caruso says, but it was the animation they created for Jill Thompsons Scary Godmother that really caught my eye. Led by director Zeke Norton, the Mainframe team gave these great 2D characters such charm, personality and humor that I knew they had tapped into something that could work for Popeye.
From start to finish, the Popeye special took nine months to produce, six months of which was animation. Mainframe used the latest animation software from Softimage, called XSI an extremely versatile animation package that improves greatly on the previous generation of 3D software. Linux boxes from Dell were used for animation, lighting and rendering. Mainframes proprietary lip-sync software called Grin was used for the facial animation, allowing for very precise and intuitive control of the characters expressions. Mainframe did all the work from the design and animation right through to post-production and sound.
In addition to Mainframes role as the animation production company on the project, the company has secured distribution rights in a few key international territories for the Popeye 3D show, which include television rights in Canada and television and DVD/VHS rights in the U.K. and Australia.
We are thrilled to continue the Mainframe tradition of bringing classic characters like Popeye to life in CGI animation. Being a co-distributor also fits with our goal of controlling distribution rights of the best in branded characters, says Mainframe ceo, Rick Mischel.
Popeye the Sailor Man
Another of Popeyes key characteristics is his classic mutter and his classic song.
This time Popeyes comic aside commentary is voiced by animation veteran Billy West. (He also provides the voice for Poopdeck Pappy.) Academy Award-winner Kathy Bates lends her voice to the Sea Hag and Siren. Tabitha St. Germain provides the high-pitched tones of Olive Oyl; she also voices SweePea. Gary Chalk provides the voice of Bluto, while Wimpy promises to pay Tuesday for a hamburger today in the voice of Sanders Whiting. King Features advises that the voices were recorded in both Vancouver and Los Angeles.
As for the song that every child loves to sing, Popeye the Sailor Man is getting a facelift too by none other than film and television composer Mark Mothersbaugh, front man of the legendary band DEVO.
Mark Mothersbaugh did the music for the show and being a Popeye fan, was very familiar with the music and soundtracks for the classic cartoons, Caruso says. Mark and Kevin Kliesch created a big orchestral score that captured the feel of the old recordings and delivered a new punch to the CGI world of Popeye. He also did a great job on the Popeye theme song... the traditional song is there with the accordions, nautical flare and Billy West doing a dead-on Jack Mercer Popeye... but funked up a notch as only Mark could do.
King Features maintains that for all aspects of this newest Popeye animated production, the classic Popeye and companions remain in story, voice and song. Going 3D has just added an extra dimension to this sailor man. We were very careful not to reinvent Popeye, Caruso says, but rather reinforce, reinvigorate, recapture and reinstate the original magic of Popeye from his earliest days.
Writer and cartoonist Janet Hetherington is also a big Fleischer animation fan. She has a degree in journalism from Carleton University, and in addition to writing for Animation World Network, she scripts the kooky comic book adventures of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for Claypool Comics. Janet resides in Ottawa, Canada with artist Ronn Sutton.
