10 Best Popeye Moments
8. The Big Octopus Fight
“You disobedient brat! Here, eat your spinach!”
Big bad Bluto has run away in search of the Commodore’s buried treasure – and he has taken Olive and Swee’pea with him! Popeye, the Commodore, and the rest of the Oyl family clamber onto a ship and set sail after them. The stakes are high and, to make matters worse, a huge octopus has awoken at the bottom of the sea and is very angry.
This final fight has everything you could possibly want in a classic Popeye fight – help from friends, a big scary octopus, and a can of spinach to save the day.
The fight takes place on a rocky island across the water from Sweethaven, the rocks wrapping around the action that takes place in the water, confining our hero and villain to this rocky alcove for their final fight. Even in a moment with such serious stakes the gags keep coming, at one point trapping Popeye with his arms by his side in a life ring so he can’t defend himself from Bluto.
So many lives need saving: Popeye needs to save Olive Oyl, baby Swee’pea, and himself. Watching the action unfold as the gang bob up and down in the water is a treat, just as the closing number of the film is when Popeye sends Bluto and the giant octopus scrambling away. It seems so fitting that the film should end in the water, when that is where we met Popeye at the beginning of the film.
7. Popeye Finds His Dad
“Spinach is what kept our family strong for thousands of years and what does me only offspring do with it? He spits it up!”
Popeye has been searching for his father for years. His search for his father is what brought him to Sweethaven, where he decided to stay because he had a feeling that his father was there. It is only when Popeye loses Swee’pea that he finds his father, Poopdeck Pappy (Ray Walston), who turns out to be the Commodore. The likeness is undeniable – they have the same squinty eye, the same bulky forearms and even the same pipe (although Poopdeck Pappy says you can’t inherit a pipe).
This is the moment we have all been waiting for, Popeye has spent the whole movie searching for his father. It is such a special moment – for Popeye at least. Poopdeck Pappy seems less than pleased to be reunited with his ungrateful son, who wouldn’t eat his spinach when the family was very poor. The scene is very focused on the two, giving room for them to both see each other for the first time in years, for the questions and the jabs and the celebratory hugs. Even though this moment isn’t the delightful reunion we might have expected, it does an amazing job at presenting the similarities between the two men, establishing a brilliant chemistry between them both. They immediately fall into their father-and-son roles, with Poopdeck Pappy berating his son for not eating his spinach, and Popeye whining about not wanting to eat it. It is the most-Popeye of all reunions, and that is what makes it special.
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6. Popeye and Olive Oyl Find Baby Swee’pea
“Came looking for me Papa. Now I’m a mudder.”
Alone on the streets of Sweethaven after he was made to feel unwelcome at Olive’s engagement party, Popeye bumps into Olive, who has decided to run away from her future life with Bluto. Olive lets Popeye tag along with her, whilst he recounts his story to her, telling of how his father had left him and that’s why he is in Sweethaven. Whilst the pair aren’t paying attention, a woman sneaks up behind them and swaps Olive’s basket for a different one. This goes unnoticed until the basket begins rattling and Olive cries “Rattlesnake!” It isn’t a rattlesnake, but actually a little baby with a note attached, addressed to Popeye asking him to look after the baby.
The film until this point has isolated Popeye; he has been unwelcome and ridiculed wherever he goes. In this moment, he suddenly becomes a mother.
Without any discussion, Popeye and Olive Oyl decide to keep the baby together. It is a wonderful moment of unity, this unlikely found family coming together seemingly out of fate. Baby Swee’pea (as Popeye names him, because he found him in Sweethaven) is played by Altman’s grandson, Wesley Ivan Hurt, ensuring a sweet sentimentality towards the character and the film as a whole.
This scene features a really lovely moment in which Popeye takes the note that is pinned to baby Swee’pea’s clothes and Hurt begins to cry and burble in baby language. Robin Williams interacts beautifully with the baby, talking to him in character and reassuring him. It is a raw moment, a glimpse at reality, and yet it fits in so perfectly in such an over-the-top film.
