The Warner Brothers iconic Looney Tunes characters are some that are timeless.  Mainly because the studio keeps reinventing them now and again to stay in the hearts and minds not only of those of a nostalgic bent who remember them as kids, but also keeping them current enough that they can find new devotees.

Originally the studio would just release essentially compilation movies, an assembly of classic cartoons put into a major motion picture.  But beginning in 1993 they started incorporating classic characters into original features.  The first, I believe, was Space Jam, which featured the classic characters combating  an evil alien force in a basketball game and featuring Michael Jordan and a few other then popular real basketball players.

The Looney Tunes characters crop up now and then, even in feature films.  One of the best was not an official Looney Tunes movie, however.  That was Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and featured not only Warner Bros. cartoon characters, but many from other classic cartoons, like Disney. But a new Looney Tunes movie is always a treat, mostly because those are the ones I enjoyed more as a kid. (See my posts on the classic cartoons here and here.)

So anyway, my sister and I watched this one last night and, though I usually don't delve into current or even recent releases, this one just seemed to beg for a spot at the Drive-In. 

 

 

 

The Day the Earth Blew UP: A Looney Tunes Movie: (2024): 

The movie begins with a scientist (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) witnessing an asteroid heading towards Earth, along with a UFO that seems to be chasing it.  The UFO crashes on Earth and the scientist goes to investigate.  He finds some weird goo and collects samples. On it's way to the it's crash sit it clips the roof of a house.

 

 

The background of our heroes, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Eric Bauza) begins when Farmer Jim (also voiced by Tatasciore) discovers the two as babies and raises them.  Over the course of their young days they get into a lot of trouble, usually as the result of Daffy doing something stupid, but with Porky being a sometimes unwilling accomplice. One day Farmer Jim leaves (dies?), telling the two they will always be a success as long as they stick together.

 

 

Flash forward to present day.  Daffy and Porky are awaiting the arrival of Mrs. Grecht (voiced by Larraine Newman), who,  after inspecting the house, points out the gaping hole in the roof (from the UFO), and tells them the house will be condemned unless they repair it. 

 

 

Of course, the two have no money, so they end up having to get (gah!)... jobs.  But they can't hold down real jobs because Daffy keeps trying to cut corners with wild ideas to speed up the job they are hired to do. Until they get a job packaging gum for a candy company, which they seem to be able to do, They meet Petunia Pig (voiced by Candi Milo), who is always trying to invent a new perfect flavor of gum.

 

 

Daffy catches the scientist, who has become a zombie from the goo at the crash site, pouring a load of the goo into the vat of gum.  Even Daffy knows this is not right and tries to raise an alarm.  But of course no one believes him. The contaminated gum goes out on the market, despite Daffy's efforts to try to derail it. 

It turns out that the contaminated gum is a plan instituted by an alien, The Invader (voiced by Peter MacNicol), and everyone who chews some of the gum becomes a zombie, like the scientist.

 

 

The gang try their best to stop this, but the gum becomes a sensation, and everyone (I mean EVERYONE) finds the gum irresistible and chews some, so that all of them become zombies.  The gang finds out that if they spray a fume, something like a rotten egg smell, causes the zombies to puke up the gum and become normal.  And it seems like they may just thwart the plan of The Invader. 

 

But The Invader is nothing if not resourceful. When Daffy ends up demolishing the weapon that Porky and Petunia are using to reverse the zombie-fication of the humans, The Invader employs the next stage of his operation.  All of the zombies blow Bubblegum bubbles, which combine to encase the Earth with a giant bubble.

But the gang don't give up hope yet.  The manage to burst the giant bubble. But after their success they find out that The Invader didn't have some evil nefarious plan... he was trying to create a bubble to deflect the asteroid (remember the asteroid) which was on a collision course with the Earth.  He didn't want to destroy the Earth. He wanted to save it.

So now the gang has to work in conjunction with The Invader to some how blow up the asteroid. They figure out that if they plant a huge pile of the gum in the center of the asteroid and have some toy chattering teeth chew it up, it will cause an explosion that will destroy the asteroid before it hits.  

At this point I'm not going to reveal any more of this film.  Suffice to say that things work out in the end (it is ostensibly a kid's cartoon movie, after all..) This is one movie that turns the standard cartoon movie on it;s ear, however,. It is TOTALLY insane, from beginning to end. (Why couldn't they have this kind of cartoon when I was growing up???) 

Just a final note.  This being a cartoon, the voice actors are never seen. But I saw the name "Peter MacNicol" and was waiting to see if I could figure out which character or characters he voiced. I didn't find out until the end. But if you watch the kind of stuff I like to watch, you would recognize him, if you do.  He played the hero in his first ever film role, Dragonslayer, and he was Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II. He was also Gary in Addams Family Values, Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and a regular in the TV series Numb3rs, as Dr. Fleinhardt. 

Also Wayne Knight, who many will remember as Newman on Seinfeld, or possibly as the slimy saboteur, Nedry, in the first Jurassic Park. Here he voices the Mayor of the town.

 

This is a fun movie and, as opposed to a lot of movies on The Midnite Drive-In, one that can be watched with the kids in the room. I must admit there are some (possibly) negative issues in it, if you are a real stickler for that kind of thing.  Common Sense Media, a Christian(?) watchdog review outlet,  states in it's review that there are some issues which didn't bother me in the least, but then I never had kids.  You can check their review out beforehand if you are hardcore in your child's film watching, but I personally think it's mostly harmless and typical of stuff that I saw growing up with The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on Saturday mornings as a kid.

That's it from the back seat of the Plymouth this time. And by the way, if you are planning to stop off for a treat on the way home, opt for ice cream and leave the gum on the shelf.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Did you know, some movies change over time without you even being aware of it having changed? Not really, of course, but attitudes change as you grow older, seemingly making whole movies change perspective.  That's the way I felt, anyway,  when I recently re-watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the movie getting an entire makeover from what I remembered from seeing it the first time.

The Stephen Spielberg niche in my mind is one of family friendly films like E.T., Hook, and even to some extent, the Indiana Jones films. (Not to discredit the less than "family friendly" films like Jaws and Saving Private Ryan...) But I honestly remembered a much more wholesome movie when it came to Roger Rabbit. 

But upon re-watching it, I encountered some pretty disturbing scenes.  Although I never had kids myself, I imagined some kids being traumatized by some aspects of the movie.  I had to alter my viewpoint as a result and classify this more as a movie for adults with a still nostagic bent towards the cartoons of their childhood, but with a more mature outlook on life.

To wit, the final scene in which, spoiler alert, the villain Judge Doom (spoiler alert!) meets his demise. The scene is pretty horrific from a point of view of watching it as a movie fror kids.  Not that it was necessarily meant for kids.  After all, there are some pretty adult things going on in it. Does anybody who ever saw it as an adult really think Jessica Rabbit is all that wholesome for kids?

I saw it at the ripe old age of 27 in the theater. I took my sister to see it.  Not sure whether she actually liked it, but I enjoyed it.  But watching it just the other day I began to re-think my opinions about it.  I imagine some kids might have been traumatized by the scene with Judge Doom.  And I'm quite certain Jessica's sexuality sailed right over their heads.

The movie is sort of an homage to classic film noir, so many of the familiar tropes of that genre appear in this film, whether for comic relief or for serious plot advances.  The detective who is down on his luck or just trying to get by, the femme fatale (who it turns out is not so "fatale", but still..).  The bad guy who is not everything he appears to be at the outset.

Anyway, just in case you have never seen it, or are considering a family night, be forewarned: it is probably a good idea to watch it by yourself first before that planned family night with the kids.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988):

It's the 1947. In this alternate universe, cartoon characters (called "'toons") live side by side with humans. They are segregated because all of the 'toons live in Toontown, an animated world.

Alcoholic detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) takes on whatever jobs he can get to pay the bills, although his alcoholism limits him.  The job he is in line for is as a snoop, checking out the assignations of the wife of film star Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer).

 

 

 

Jessica (voiced by Kathleen Turner)  is a singer at The Ink and Paint Club, a human bar that features 'toon performing acts.  Initially Eddie shows up thinking he is going to see a female rabbit, but Jessica is a human form 'toon. And she sings a steamy rendition of a classic song "Why Don't You Do Right".(which is not Turner, but Amy Irving, who, at the time, was married to Spielberg). At the bar Eddie meets Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye) who is rumored to be making time with Jessica.

 

 

 

After the show, Eddie follows Jessica and Marvin and snaps pictures of them playing "pattycake" (OK, so far so good, still not wholesome, but not entirely questionable.  Roger is devastated when he hears the news and loses his happy mood.

Hours later, Marvin ends up dead, with a piano having been dropped on his head. Eddie is not exactly heartbroken, however, because he had a similar thing happen to his brother years earlier when a 'toon dropped a safe on his brother's head.  But suspicion immediately falls on Roger as the culprit.

Enter Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd).  Doom is a human who has managed to become the big wig in Toontown.  But he is a very vicious leader.  He has made it his goal to find Roger, try him and execute him for the murder.  Not an entirely easy goal, because everyone thinks that 'toons are indestructible. 

 

 

 

But Doom has discovered a concoction that will perform the trick. Which he demonstrates by using an innocent by-standing animated boot.  

Roger shows up at Eddie's office proclaiming his innocence and pleads with Eddie to hide him and find out what really happened/ In classic film noir fashion, Eddie is roped into proving the innocence of a man, I mean 'toon, that he really doesn't like.  Eddie has a deep seated dislike for 'toons in general, because it was a 'toon that killed his brother,

In true noir fashion, the detective does some investigating and finds out that there is some subterfuge going on behind the scenes, including a missing will that Acme had which would give over ownership of Toontown to the 'toons.  Without the will it becomes the property of the highest bidder which turns out to be a front called Cloverleaf Industries which has been willy nilly buying up companies and dismantling them.

Why? Well it turns out that Judge Doom is the sole stockholder in the company and he has some nefarious plans all in the name of progress.  Progress that most people are not aware of, especially Toontown, which stands in the way of said progress.

I'm willing to bet that at least 80% of you have seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit? so it won't be a surprise to you to find out that Judge Doom plans to destroy Toontown in the name of progress, which includes building a freeway through the heart of Toontown. Or what's left of Toontown, anyway.

The big surprise of course is that Judge Doom himself is a 'toon.  And the aforementioned defeat of Doom reveals not only that Doom is a 'toon, but he was the 'toon that killed Eddie's brother.  (No real surprise there. You had to see it coming that Doom figured into Eddie's past. It's another defining characteristic/trope of film noir.

The death of Doom is one of the trauma inducing features of the movie that redefined the movie for me in retrospect.  I still think it's a great movie. Just not one I'd recommend for kids.

Well, the old Plymouth will still get me home.  Thankfully Doom's freeway is not a part of my trip, although you can't avoid the real ones much these days.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

This is my entry in the Happy Holidays blogathon hosted by Pure Entertainment Preservation Society




You have no idea to what lengths I will go to subject myself to the most arcane and outre stuff imaginable, just to entertain you.  OK, I admit, most of the time I enjoy it.  But like they used to say in the old Army enlistment commercials, "It's not just a job; it's an adventure".

Case in point is today's entry.  In 1978, with a true sequel to the original Star Wars film still a couple of years away, George Lucas red-lighted a TV special, mostly to keep the film still relevant.  (although in retrospect there wasn't all that much need.  It was and still is one of the highest watched movie franchises in Hollywood history, but this was still early on in it's history).

On Nov 17, 1978, the public at large was subjected to The Star Wars Holiday Special.  The special was a (sort-of) Christmas TV special, even though Christmas was replaced by the fictional Life Day, an event celebrated each year on Chewbacca's home planet. It was aired on CBS in a time slot normally occupied by Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman and the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno show, The Incredible Hulk.

It had some interesting features.  For one it introduced the character of Boba Fett, a later character in the pantheon of films.  And James Earl Jones finally got credit for voicing Darth Vader for the first time.  But it was also a complete disaster.  In more ways than one.

It was so badly received that most of the people involved in it refuse to this day to acknowledge their part in it.   Many fans disown it, too.  There are probably a number of people out there who may have every movie, toy, book and other assorted tie-ins to the Star Wars franchise, but you can be sure this is not part of their collection, unless they have a bootleg copy that was recorded directly off the TV broadcast.  Lucas himself has distanced himself from it and it has never been released on VHS or DVD by Lucas Films.  (Despite the fact that, if you check Amazon, it lists it, albeit as  a "currently unavailable" listing...)

Being a fan of the first film when it came out, and a sci-fi fan in general at the time, I can't honestly remember if I watched it when it was broadcast.  I do know that years later when I heard about it, I was like, "What?  Really?"  But after having watched it a few years ago, I think I could easily have  watched it and then proceeded to convince myself that I hadn't.

If you haven't seen it, you are lucky.  And if you don't click on the link below, you can still count yourself lucky. Don't say I didn't warn you...





You clicked on the link, didn't you...?  :-D  Well, I warned you, so don't blame me.








The Star Wars Holiday Special (first aired Nov. 17, 1978):

The scene opens with Han and Chebacca trying to escape Empire forces and get Chewie home to celebrate the Wookie holiday of "Life Day".

One of the most astounding faux pas of the show is when the scene shifts back to Chewbacca's home planet,  Kashyyyk,  early in the show, where Chewie's wife Malla, son Lumpy and father-in-law Itchy await his return.  (By the way, in classic retro changing of things to accommodate the more serious feel of the franchise, those ridiculous names were later revealed to have been nicknames.  Lumpy's given name is Lumpawarrump.  Itchy's given name is Attichituk.  And Malla is really Mallatobuk.)





The astounding screwball part is that all of the family on Kashyyyk speak in Wookie.  Without the benefit of any subtitles.  Which leaves the confused viewer scrambling, to try to figure out for his or herself what the hell is actually going on.  Fortunately for us, when any human or human-like characters come on the screen they speak English so we aren't completely lost throughout the film...  But it takes about 9 minutes of this almost slapstick type interaction before we get anybody who speaks something we can understand.  (But we are still stuck with the grunts from the Wookies.)

The first English speaking character turns out to be Luke (Mark Hamill) who, along with R2D2, put in a call to the family to wish them a happy Life Day.  Luke expresses concern for Chewie's absence but tries to encourage Malla that all will be OK.




A bit later Saun (played by Art Carney), a junk dealer calls and tells Malla he is going to be delivering some items to them later.





What these turn out to be are Life Day presents for the family. Malla gets a shaggy carpet weaved by "a little old lady who knitted by hand...solo."  (Groan!)   Lumpy gets a box of stuff which later turns out to help in getting rid of some unwanted Imperial guests.  And Itchy gets a holographic disk, which turns out to be some kind of pseudo-pornographic thing.  (At least that was what it came off looking like to me.  No nudity, however...it was a TV show remember, and a 70's TV show at that...)  This includes a hologram of a woman (played by Diahann Carroll), who serenades Itchy with a song.





Harvey Korman makes several appearances here.  One is as a woman cooking instructor teaching Malla how to make Bantha Surprise (with multiple arms yet.)  Another time he plays a rather inept robot instructor trying to show Lumpy how to create his own robot.  He later shows up as an infatuated lovelorn devotee of Ackmena (played by Bea Arthur), a female bar owner.  Arthur also sings a song, while the alien cantina band (Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes.  Bet you didn't know that band had a name, did you...?) from the movie plays in the background.





This being ostensibly a variety show we also get another song, this one done by a holgraphic band, played by the real band Jefferson Starship (and there's an example of kismet if I ever heard one).  For some reason, during the opening credits, the announcer refers to them as THE Jefferson Starship. 




There is also an animated piece featuring Luke and Han and Chewie and the introduction of the bounty hunter Boba Fett.



And to top off the musical part of this extravaganza Leia (Carrie Fisher) sings a Life Day song (done to the tune of the Star Wars theme, yet.)



All in all, its not entirely bad, but it is cheesy without a doubt.  If you are a full blown Star Wars geek, you may think it almost borders on sacrilege.  All it's missing is a tap dance ensemble with the Wookies in top hats and tails.

Well folks, time to fire up the afterburners and warp speed back to my own planet.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

This is my entry in the Vive la France! Blogathon hosted by Silver Screen Modes and Lady Eve's Reel Life




When the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, things turned topsy-turvy.  A film that was being made at the time, Fantastic Planet, had to relocate its production to France.  The themes of social unrest, racial prejudice, oppression and genocide, you see, were not very well received by the Czechs' new masters.

But the French were sympathetic to the themes and production went in to making the film in Paris.  Rene' Laloux, the French director and animator, worked in conjunction Roland Topor, a French animation artist to bring the novel by French science fiction writer Stefan Wul to bring the story to the screen of a race of blue-skinned aliens, called Draags, and their relationship to tiny humans, the Oms (a variation of the French word for human, "homme"). 

The Draags consider the Oms to be nothing more than pets.  Apparently at some point in the past Draags had brought Oms to Ygam, the Draag world, unaware that even though they had a lifespan that was much shorter than the average Draag, they were also quite a bit more active in the rocreation category.  This leads to a relative infestation of Oms on the planet.

The Draags spend most of their time in meditation.  Which is revealed later to be instrumental in their own form of procreation.  But they also seem to resent the prevalence of Oms and have a cycle in their year in which they wipe out much of the Om population (much like we do with roaches).  The political and social themes of Fantastic Planet hinge on the fact that the Oms just want to live but find themselves at odds with the Draag population.


The film won a special prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.   It made the top 50 of the greatest animated films in an article by Rolling Stone.






Fantastic Planet La planete sauvage (1973):

Several young Draags torture a female Om and her young baby and end up killing her.  Just at that point Tiwa and her father Master Sinh, one of the leaders of the government happen to come by and the young Draags run off.  Tiwa sees the young baby Om and pleads with her father to let her keep him as a pet.  He agrees, but only if she collars the thing so it can be controlled.

As the young Om, whom she names "Terr" ( a variation of the French word for "Earth"), grows up, she ends up brining him along for her lessons in school.  A short circuit in Terr's collar ends up with him learning the same things she is learning, thus becoming just as educated.

When Tiwa begins to lose interest in her "pet" as he grows older, eventually Terr decides to run away, taking with him the headband Tiwa uses to learn her lessons.  he eventually meets up with a band of renegade Oms, and using the headband educates his newfound tribe of Oms.

When Terr and his band learn of the proposed mass extermination of Oms by the Draags, he attempts to lead them to safety.  They find temporary safety at an abandoned rocket factory, where they make plans to leave Ygam and go the one of the moons of the planet, appropriately named "The Fantastic Planet".

But the Draags discover their new place and continue their genocide at the rocket factory.  Terr and some of the Oms eventually do escape and make it to the Fantastic Planet where they discover the truth behind the Draags' obsession with meditation.

Despite this being a cartoon, it is not really anything that would be appropriate for youngsters.  It is truly an adult cartoon.  The political themes alone make it tough for family viewing.  What director Laloux refers to as "schizophrenic cinema" is definitely only for a rather limited viewing audience, and the themes may leave you a bit shattered.  But it is entertaining in it's own right.  Fortunately a version exists in which it was dubbed in English, making it easier on those of us whose French is limited to "haute cuisine" and a few other food related French terms.  (featuring the voices, among others, of Barry Bostwick, Hal "Otis Campbell" Smith and Marvin "Robby the Robot" Miller).

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

This is my second entry in the Robots in Film Blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and ME.





Anime and manga are a form of entertainment that originated in Japan.  Manga is adult comic book format, while anime is the adult cartoon form, often derived from manga versions of the same.  Go to any comic-con or sci-fi convention and you will encounter devotees of both.  You will even see people dressed up as their favorite manga and anime heroes (just like you would fans of American films and TV shows).





Ghost in the Shell (1995):

In the future of 2029, almost everyone has some cybernetic adaptations.  The common man, it seems, has their brain hard-wired into a system.  The internal, still existing human is referred to as the "ghost".  Some are even more cybernetically enhanced. and some, such as our hero of the piece, Major Kusanagi (voiced by Mimi Woods in the American dubbed version) are basically living organisms with robotic bodies.  The cybernetic brain allows some to be able to access the equivalent of the internet through their own brains.  (The future as depicted in Ghost in the Shell has some stuff that predicts the future of sorts, because anyone can access the internet, even without cybernetic enhancements, through small hand-held computers... cell phones, anyone?)

In this future world, nations are still committing intrigue and deception.  And even internally there are subterfuges going on.  Kusanagi works with section 6 of an unnamed country (but which I identify as Japan for convenience).  Section 6 is the police force of the nation, and finds itself at odds with section 9 (which is something like our American C.I.A.)  Kusanagi works as a secret agent of section 6, trying to prevent the defection of a high-level computer programmer to a foreign country, and assassinates a rogue embassy official from said country.

In the process, she and her partner Batou (voiced by Richard George [Epcar]) discover that the real culprit behind the scenes is a mysterious figure known as "The Puppet Master", a hacker who can access the cybernetic brains of individuals and reprogram them to do his will.  During their investigation they uncover a plot by section 9 in which the Puppet Master has been lured into another body, with the intent to control it.

But an attempt to transport the body to another site goes haywire.  It seems the Puppet master is a bit more powerful than anyone expected.  Kusanagi and Batou work together to try to recapture the Puppet Master.

That's about all I can tell you with out revealing too much about the movie that will intrigue you if you discover it for yourself.  This movie is quite a bit more complicated than your average Disney cartoon.  You will need to bring your entire brain to the game.  It does contain some that sounds rather existentialistic to my mind,  and it is a bit more violent than any Disney film.  Despite the fact that it is a cartoon, in other words, you probably don't want to watch it with the kids.

Drive home safely, folks  Time for me to shut down for maintenance.

Quiggy

This is my entry for the Popeye Blogathon hosted by Movie Movie Blog Blog




From the Robin Williams comedy film An Evening with Robin Williams:

(the setting is Robin talking with his son who doesn't want to do comedy)
Robin:  "What's the matter? 'Ninny ninny ' wasn't good enough for you? 'Popeye' wasn't good enough for you?"
Robin (as his son): "'Popeye' wasn't good enough for anybody.  Who are you kidding?"

A confession:  I went to see Popeye in the theater.  I wasn't very impressed. Why?  At that point I had seen Mork and Mindy and had seen Williams guest on late night TV shows like The Tonight Show, and I also had his first album Reality.. What a Concept.  I was expecting something of the same manic performance that I was used to seeing, and it was something of a letdown.

But Popeye is a movie that grows on you after repeated viewings.  I watched it again a few years later, after I had seen The World According to Garp and Moscow on the Hudson, after I had grown to see Williams as a fairly consummate actor who could break out of that mold of manic uncontrolled comedy, and it turned out that Popeye wasn't all that bad,  It's a movie that can be entertaining in it's own right.

Especially if you can get past that squeaky singing voice of Shelley Duvall...  Either Duvall can't sing, or maybe she is the greatest singer of all time.  After all, you have to realize she was playing Olive Oyl, and did the role almost exactly like Mae Questal and Marge Hines had voiced her in the Popeye cartoons. So maybe Olive's singing voice is the consummate translation of the character by Duvall into the singing...

The Robert Altman directed film was not exactly a box-office success.  It made money, to be sure, but not the kind of money that Paramount was expecting.  It also was a bomb according to critics.  With the exception of Roger Ebert who gave it 3½ stars, most critics were either mediocre or lambasted it.  The songs had something to do with it, if you ask me.  Only one song, done by Bluto , is really all that good ("I'm Mean").

(BTW:  The reason for the title:  One of Olive Oyl's father, Cole Oyl's (McIntyre Dixon), lines, oft repeated, in the film is "You owe me an apology.")




Popeye (1980):

Sailing in to the port town of Sweethaven is a lone sailor. Popeye (Robin Williams) is immediately treated like an outsider (which he is, but this town really is suspicious of newbies...)  Popeye is on a search for his long lost father, a man who abandoned him as a child.




Popeye is rebuffed by nearly everyone, but he manages to find a room to rent from the Oyl family.  Olive (Shelley Duvall), the daughter, is engaged to marry Bluto (Paul L. Smith), but she is having second thoughts.  Probably because the marriage is just a matter of convenience.  Bluto is a bully and a mean-spirited cad, but he is also the big man on campus, in more ways than one.











Bluto is the top man and in charge of the towns operations as the liaison for a mysterious man only known as "The Commodore".  Bluto and Popeye immediately take a disliking for each other.  Although Popeye can kick the ass of an entire platoon of bullies in a bar fight, he can't handle Bluto.  Apparently carrots just don't do the trick.  (Popeye hates spinach and will NOT eat it under any circumstances.)





Things deteriorate as Bluto becomes convinced that Popeye is muscling in on his betrothed.  Which is exactly what's happening.




Although Olive and Popeye don't hit it off initially, a gradual respect and then love blossoms, especially after Popeye and Olive happen upon an abandoned baby, which Popeye promptly names Swee'pea.






Swee'pea has his own special ability, which is discovered by Wimpy (Paul Dooley).   It seems Swee'pea can pick the horses and Wimpy takes him to the horse races to start to win a stash (so he won't have to beg for hamburgers anymore).




When Bluto discovers Swee'pea's special ability, he kidnaps the tyke and takes him to the Commodore (Ray Walston).  (Guess who the Commodore really is... Hmmm.  Did you guess it was somebody Popeye has been searching for his whole life?  You win the hamburger...)



The music of this movie is only so-so as I said before.  Especially grating is Shelley Duvall's singing of "He's Large" in the opening part of the movie.  One of the problems I had with the songs was they seem to have not taken much effort to try to sync the songs with the actors singing the songs.  The aforementioned "I'm Mean", in particular, although I really liked the song, has a discombobulated synchronicity with the action going on on screen.

Still, all in all, it is not nearly as bad a movie as I initially thought.  Sure, Robin Williams isn't the manic character like he would play in Good Morning, Vietnam or Aladdin, but then I've seen him in several less manic roles and have grown to appreciate the film on those merits.

Well, folks, time to sail the old Plymouth back to home port.  Drive safely.

Quiggy