New Popeye shows what 90 years of spinach can do
Popeye the Sailor, the weathered and quickwith-his-fists cartoon character, is getting a reboot for a series of animated shorts that premiered on Sunday on YouTube.
The shorts and a new series of comic strips, which will begin in 2019, were created to celebrate the character’s 90th birthday next year.
In the animated series, Popeye is being recast as a more youthful, environmentally resourceful fellow, who lives in a washedashore houseboat, collects rainwater and grows his own spinach. Are skinny jeans and kale salads far behind?
“He’s younger, but you can’t tell how old he is,” said C.J. Kettler, president of King Features, which syndicates the Popeye strip. “He’s not an old guy, he’s not a young guy; he’s somewhere in between.”
She added: “He’s still tough and fit and resilient and a champion of the underdog.”
The animated series will also make other updates. A clean-shaven Bluto, for example, is interested in stealing Popeye’s spinach more than he is the heart of Olive Oyl, who has cast aside the role of damsel in distress. More independent woman now, she helps vanquish Bluto in the first episode.
The 25 two-minute shorts are aimed at a young audience, having been produced by WildBrain, have sound effects but no dialogue, a nod to YouTube’s global reach.
The shorts will be “as funny here as they will be in Bangladesh”, said Neeraj Khemlani, president of Hearst Entertainment and Syndication, which owns King Features.
Popeye, who was created by E.C. Segar and made his first appearance as part of the King Features strip Thimble Theatre on Jan 17, 1929, is the latest newspaper comic strip character to undergo a spit and polish.
“People know and love characters like Nancy, Alley Oop and Popeye,” Andrew Farago, curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, wrote in an email. “Their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents know these characters.”
King Features is trying something different with the new comic strips, which will be presented online as Popeye’s Cartoon Club. They will be drawn by a different artist each week.
The target audience also skews a little older. The series harks back to a Sunday feature from 1934 in which Segar gave step-by-step instructions for drawing Popeye and printed artwork from fans.