Search - Popeye's Voyage: Quest for Pappy on DVD

A decent attempt, pretty good doesn't cut it for everyone.

tvideo | NJ, USA | 11/11/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"
It has been some years since we had any Popeye animated, I believe the last attempt was in the late 80's with "Popeye and Son".

For the most part this cartoon [if you will] is a CGI which simply means instead of being hand drawn they used a computer to draw all the art, this process has finally reached a technology point where it can be done fairly well.

The creators goal for this was to use the original Popeye charcters created in the 30s BW animation and I do agree it is the closest to that so far.

The theme [title of quest for Pappy] isn't the most original storyline and to make things more confusing they added in some Holiday stuff as to make it fit into an Xmas Special [which it really isn't]. This was basically taking our familar story [looking for me pappy] and making it take place in Dec.

If Popeye fans complained about the violence [of lack of] in the 70's & 80's toons, it can only be worse by making Bluto now Popeye's best friend and ship mate. I am not joking - you heard me correct Bluto and Popeye are great friends, they never fight whatsoever in this one. Popeye eats his Spinach once near the end which features [the only] form of violence [if you can call it that] at the end of the feature. This is great for children of any age - not really great for Popeye fans.

I rate this feature 3 stars for the very good CGI and all of the voice casting [except the Sea Hag her voice fails to match her ugly face was a poor choice there].

"

Great... but a few problems

Charles H. Berlemann Jr. | 11/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First, I am extremely happy that SOMEONE is interested in putting out new Popeye, since WB and King Features can't agree to put out the Fleischer Popeyes on DVD for Popeye's 75th Anniversary, this is the next best thing.
The animation is great, and is really, in some bizzare way, similar to the Fleischer cartoons' animation (if only Popeye's mouth didn't move when he muttered). The only character that looked wrong was Bluto, who has his eyes open, which is something that rarely happens in the Fleischers.

Popeye the Sailor himself is wonderfully animated and his voice is good (it's best when Popeye starts talking under his breath). The voice isn't perfect, but we'll have to take what we can get.

Olive Oyl's voice is all wrong. It's a good voice, but not for Olive. She acts and looks right, though.

Everything about Swee Pea is the same as the original, it's too bad Swee Pea is the character they could easily decide not to use, if they needed one less character.

Bluto's voice is wonderful, but Popeye and Bluto are friends. It's not as bad as it sounds, though. They don't really ACT like friends (Popeye says they are friends in it, but they argue through the entire show). Contrary to something another reviewer said, Popeye and Bluto DO fight a little, at the beginning (you don't see it because they're inside a ball of smoke). If Bluto had been a little less supportive of Popeye and Popeye had not said they were friends, it would have been OK.

Wimpy was great. Just like Wimpy.

Poopdeck Pappy was great also, his voice was much closer to the original than Popeye's.

The Sea Hag, the voice is very bland, but the sea hag remains kind of creepy.

Just a few mistakes, but doesn't EVERY movie have mistakes?

P.S.: They say there are four classic cartoons on the bonus features section. There are four cartoons, but 'classic' is debatable. If only Warner Brothers and King Features could agree to put Goonland, Popeye the Sailor meets Sinbad the Sailor, The Adventures of Popeye and Shiver Me Timbers on this set, that would have been a more appropriate four."

An honest attempt but lacking in some parts

Charles H. Berlemann Jr. | Oak Habor, WA | 06/11/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I am going to guess that this was supposed to be a TV holiday special but rather was thrown on to DVD since it probably wasn't worthy enough for airplay. During the viewing you can see certain parts of the story are setup to be commerical breaks.

It is an honest attempt to recapture the Fleischer style of doing Popeye the Sailor, but in some sense it just doesn't seem to have the same story telling, humor, or just feeling in it as the Originals even the Famous studio ones. The director also seems to have copied some of the scenes from the live action movie to be thier backdrops in this CGI. Overall the storylines seems pretty short and simple about the need to use Popeye by the Sea Hag to take over the world. The ending was left sort of open and as a possible set up for more. Like others have said it seems that Popeye and Bulto are friends, however in most of the earlier ones Popeye and Bulto were always friends except when they were competing for Olive's attention. All the other characters seem similar to thier personalities that we have seen through out the years.

The extras on this are pretty lacking as well. The are the interview with the actors, directors, and other staff about writing, drawing, and doing the voices. On top of that they have also added little CGI shorts from Popeye, Bulto, Olive about coming back into acting. There are also 6 Famous Stuido's Shorts from the mid 50's. The hardest part about watching those is the fact that a number of them seem to be direct transfeerings from aging film versions with out any attempt to clean them up. So at various times there are bright light spots from where the camera lense had started to burn the film. At other times the sound either drops off to a whisper or goes up to screaming loud. This is alright, but I would really look for it at your bargin bin at a local discount store. Rather then paying the USD$15-20 that they seem to ask for this."

Dreadful

Anthony Barkdoll | Athens GA | 06/04/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"My kids didn't even like this. Granted, they have been overexposed to the Fleischer cartoons. But as I watched it, I could only think of how one minute of an old B and W one was better than this whole movie. The makers were doomed from the start, because those originals are just pure gold.
The other problem, and main difference with this movie from the old ones, is that it had a "message". And a notable lack of senseless cartoon violence. Gone is the old back and forth fighting of Popeye and Bluto. Now they are friends. Sheesh...They might have pulled this off if they'd stuck to the formula.
"