Popeye is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions.

The script was written by Jules Feiffer, and stars Robin Williams[3] as Popeye the Sailor Man and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.

Bluto, whom Olive has stood up, finds out about this encounter and, out of rage, beats up Popeye and imposes heavy taxes on the Oyls' property and possessions.

A greedy taxman follows up on Bluto's demand, but Popeye helps the Oyls' financial situation, winning a hefty prize by defeating a boxer named Oxblood Oxheart.

J. Wellington Wimpy, the constantly hungry local mooch and petty gambler, also notices this, and asks Popeye and Olive if he can take Swee'Pea for a walk.

That evening, when Olive checks in on Popeye privately, she overhears him lamenting that Swee'Pea deserves to have two parents, and that he regrets leaving the way he did.

During the fight, Pappy recovers his treasure, and opens the chest to reveal a collection of personal, sentimental items from Popeye's infancy, including a few cans of spinach.

When Robert Evans learned that Paramount had lost the bidding for Annie, he held an executive meeting with Charles Bluhdorn, head of Paramount's parent company, Gulf+Western, and executives Barry Diller, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, at which he asked about comic strip characters to which the studio held the rights, and which could be used to create a movie musical; one attendee said, "Popeye".

In 1977, he said that he wanted Dustin Hoffman to play Popeye, opposite Lily Tomlin as Olive Oyl, with John Schlesinger directing.

[12][13] Radner's manager, Bernie Brillstein, discouraged her from taking the part, due to his concerns about the quality of the script, and worries of her working for months on an isolated set with Evans and Altman, both known for erratic behavior and unorthodox creative methods.

The elaborate Sweethaven set was constructed beyond what was needed for filming, adding to the cost and complexity of the production, along with a recording studio, editing facilities and other buildings, including living quarters.

Popeye's original muscle arms formed of silicone rubber were difficult for Williams to manipulate and remove after filming, so two Italian artisans were brought to Malta to remake them, and Altman had to juggle his shooting schedule.

He also had the cast sing some musical numbers during filming, breaking with the traditional movie-musical practice of actors recording the songs in a studio first, and lip-synching.

Williams rerecorded much of his dialogue, due to trouble with his character's mumbling style, partly as a byproduct of talking with a pipe in his mouth.

[18]: 123 Popeye has been released to several home media formats, including VHS, Betamax, CED, LaserDisc, DVD, and through digital streaming services in both standard and high definition video resolutions.

The critical consensus states: "Altman's take on the iconic cartoon is messy and wildly uneven, but its robust humor and manic charm are hard to resist.

[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing that Duvall was "born to play" Olive Oyl, and with Popeye, Altman had proved "it is possible to take the broad strokes of a comic strip and turn them into sophisticated entertainment.

"[26] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded 3.5 out of 4, writing that the first 30 minutes were "tedious and totally without a point of view", but once Swee'Pea was introduced the film "then becomes quite entertaining and, in a few scenes, very special".

"[28] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a thoroughly charming, immensely appealing mess of a movie, often high-spirited and witty, occasionally pretentious and flat, sometimes robustly funny and frequently unintelligible.

"[32][33] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "While there are things to like in this elaborately stylized, exasperating musical slapstick fantasy ... they emerge haphazardly and flit in and out of a precarious setting.

In 2016, a vinyl-only limited-edition version of the album was released with two bonus tracks by Varèse Sarabande, for Record Store Day Black Friday.