Popeye's Island Adventures

Popeye's Island Adventures
"Blow me down!" said the original Popeye.
Genre: Animation Comedy Running Time: 2 minutes Country: United States Release Date: December 2, 2018 Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26

Popeye's Island Adventures is a web-series based on the classic cartoon show, Popeye the Sailor. It was produced by Wildbrain subsidiary Wildbrain Spark and was released on its YouTube channel on December 2, 2018.

Why It Doesn't Deserve Spinach

1. The charm and creativity the original cartoons had is taken away in favor of utilizing a far lighter tone, with educational themes thrown in, and as a result, it is less violent than previous Popeye media.
2. The web series itself doesn't stay true to the source material at all, as it bears little to no resemblance to the original Popeye cartoons or even the original Popeye comic strips said shorts were based on.
3. The redesigns for the characters are not very good, as explained below.
   • Popeye looks a lot younger than he was originally, and his pipe has now been replaced by a whistle, even though this can be justified as this show is aimed at a younger audience.
   • Much like Popeye, Bluto also appears younger than usual. In addition, he looks nothing like he did in the original shorts, and he doesn't even have a beard.
4. Some of the characters have been flanderized:
   • Olive Oyl is now a tomboyish girl who likes to invent things, instead of a damsel-in-distress.
   • Bluto is now a jerk who wants to steal Popeye's spinach, rather than the bearded, muscular bully he previously was.
5. Many of the characters from the original cartoons are not seen or mentioned at all, including Wimpy, Alice the Goon, Poopdeck Pappy and the Sea Hag.
6. There are barely any action or fight sequences, unlike the original cartoons.
7. Lack of humor and funny moments.
8. For some reason, the characters do not speak at all and instead make sounds. This is likely because the series did not have time to hire voice actors and write scripts for the voice actors to say.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite the poor execution, it is nice seeing Popeye again.
2. Decent animation, art style and soundtrack.
3. It does make sense for the show to be less violent, as it's targeted toward a much younger audience than in the original shorts.
4. Some funny moments.
5. Olive Oyl's design, despite being terrible, is more faithful to her original design than the other characters' redesigns are.
6. It celebrates Popeye's 90th anniversary in one of the episodes.
7. Swee'Pea makes a return here after being sidelined in Popeye and Son, so it essentially writes off the latter as non-canon.

Reception

Popeye's Island Adventures currently holds a rating of 3.8/10 on IMDb.

External Links

Popeye's Island Adventures at the Internet Movie Database

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