Trivia for
Popeye (1980) More at IMDbPro »

• The set for the town of Sweethaven was built at Anchor Bay on the Mediterranean island of Malta. After filming it became a popular tourist attraction.
  
  
• The makeup appliances for Robin Williams' fake forearms were not ready when filming began, so in early shots, Popeye wears a long-sleeved raincoat to hide his normal-sized arms.
  
  
• Many of the "citizens" of Sweethaven, especially those who had to do some physical gags, were recruited from European circuses.
  
  
• The parts of Popeye and Olive Oyl were originally intended for Dustin Hoffman and Gilda Radner. Hoffman left over a disagreement in the hiring of Jules Feiffer as the scriptwriter and, although Radner was the preferred choice of the studio, Robert Altman held out for Shelley Duvall.
  
  
• While it may seem odd to most viewers that the movie's portrayal of Popeye does not like spinach, this was also a theme used in the original comic strip by E.C. Segar. In fact, only once during the syndicated run of the comic did Popeye eat spinach (to boost his already considerable strength before a fight). Popeye was not first shown to like spinach and eat it regularly until he made his debut as an animated character (probably more as a move on the part of his producers to promote the animated sailor as a positive role model for younger viewers than anything else).
  
  
• Most of Robin Williams's muttered Popeye voice was discovered to be inaudible once filming wrapped, and he had to re-dub much of the dialogue.
  
  
• Robin Williams's film debut.
  
  
• Linda Hunt's film debut.
  
  
• Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, and Hal Ashby were each originally slated to direct this movie.
  
  
• The many sunken ships in the harbor were actually seaworthy vessels that were rented or bought and then sunk.
  
  
• In a print interview released around the same time as the film, Shelley Duvall admitted that kids used to call her "Olive Oyl" when she was in grade school.
  
  
• Shelley Duvall sang all of her own songs.
  
  
• Harry Nilsson, took a break in the middle of production of his album "Flash Harry" to create the music for this movie. He wrote all of the original songs and co-produced the music with producer Bruce Robb at Cherokee Studios.
  
  
• A joint production between Paramount and Walt Disney, the former released the film in the USA, and the latter had overseas distribution.
  
  
• At one point, Lily Tomlin was signed to play Olive Oyl. (This was before the film hit development hell.)
  
  
• An international construction crew of 165 worked seven months to construct the set. Tree trunk logs were driven across the European continent from Holland, and wood shingles were imported all the way from Canada. Eight tons of nails and 2,000 gallons of paint were used to complete the set. When they finished, the fictional village of Sweethaven consisted of 19 buildings including a hotel, a school-house, a store, a post office, a church and a tavern.
  
  
• Everyone tried to dissuade Robert Altman from working with Harry Nilsson saying that he would be constantly drunk. Only Robin Williams supported him in this decision. As it turned out, Altman found Nilsson to be delightful to work with.
  
  
• Harry Nilsson took his band of musicians to the island of Malta where they had a purpose-built studio constructed for them.
  
  
• Swee'pea is played by Wesley Ivan Hurt - Robert Altman's grandson.
  
  
• A 200-250 foot breakwater also had to be constructed at the mouth of the harbor to prevent the set from getting flooded during high seas.
  
  
• During filming of the scene at the end where Ray Walston throws Robin Williams the can of spinach, Ray hit Robin in the head so hard that he required several stitches in his scalp. This delayed filming for several weeks.
  
  
• Last film of Jack Mercer.
  
  
• Jules Feiffer's script originally included Popeye's magical pet Jeep. Though the Jeep was ultimately left out, Feiffer gave some of its magical characteristics to Swee'Pea, hence the baby's apparent clairvoyance.
  
  

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