Popeye coming back - in 3D

Cover of Popeye

'Popeye' to hit the big screen in 3D
Posted: 24 March 2010 0339 hrs

LOS ANGELES - Popeye's famously massive forearms will bulge larger than ever when the squinty-eyed sailor makes his return to the big screen in 3D, industry media reported Tuesday.

Variety magazine reported that a deal has been reached to release a new animated movie starring the flinty seaman, his longtime love interest Olive Oyl, nemesis Bluto and adopted child Swee'Pea.

No date has been announced for the movie's release.

The film will be made by Sony Pictures Animation with its ImageWorks division handling the computer graphics.

-----

Cartoon characters Popeye (L) and his partner Olive Oil are pictured at Universal Studios.

-----

"As one of the earliest animated characters... Popeye has become one of the most enduring and iconic cartoon characters of all time and indelibly linked to the evolution of animation," said Hannah Minghella, president of production for Sony Pictures Animation.

Popeye was last seen on the big screen in 1980 when comedian Robin Williams starred in a live-action version directed by Robert Altman.

Created by E.C. Segar, the animated character Popeye first appeared in the already established "Thimble Theater" comic strip in 1929.

Introduced as a walk-on character, Popeye eventually became the strip's star.

In each episode of the cartoon, the iconic sailor invariably succeeds in getting himself or his associates out of a jam, but only after consuming a can of spinach, which has the effect of magically giving him Herculean strength.

- AFP /ls

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Popeye to Eat Spinach in Stunning 3-D (nymag.com)
• This CGI POPEYE Will Pop Eyes In 3D. (aintitcool.com)
• E.C. Segar, Popeye's creator, celebrated with a Google doodle (guardian.co.uk)
• Popeye Gets Animated In 3D (cinemablend.com)
• 'Popeye' Will Now Pop Out of the Screen At Sony (cinematical.com)
• DVD: Hater:Ready The Zoloft, There's Going To Be A 3-D Version Of Popeye (avclub.com)
• BB Cartoon Circus: The Fleischers and Popeye (boingboing.net)
• E.C. Segar, Popeye creator's birthday marked on Google (telegraph.co.uk)
• Popeye Creator E.C. Segar Gets Spinach With His Google Logo (mashable.com)
• E.C. Segar Remembered with Popeye Google Doodle (blippitt.com)

A soaring tale about a grumpy old man

A new movie for the kids, both young and young at heart, educational, entertaining!

----------

By Mayo Martin, TODAY

Posted: 05 August 2009 1014 hrs

A scene from Pixar's Up

Up is one heck of a breathtaking adventure. It's bloody hilarious. It's tenderly moving and thoroughly entertaining. That's amazing, considering it's an animated movie about a grumpy geriatric who hardly says anything and, for the most part, hobbles around.

In a tale that story- and treatment-wise sits closer to Hayao Miyazaki's wonderous Japanese films like Howl's Moving Castle than to any recent Hollywood cartoon flick, old recluse Carl Fredricksen (voiced by the great Ed Asner) and his accidental sidekick - the pudgy, over-eager Asian boy scout Russell - set out to the wilderness of South America in a flying house.

Up is filled with funny scenarios (it's not "ha-ha" funny, but ponder over the image of an old man dragging along a house when you step out of the cinema) and even funnier characters (a female bird named Kevin, a "talking dog" named Dug, and a vicious Doberman who speaks in a voice that's, well, very un-Doberman-like).

There was apprehension about how a cartoon about such a normal, albeit odd, couple would fare with audiences accustomed to more "out there" characters. And, yes, it's true that Up isn't particularly straight-forward children's fare.

But if its predecessor - Pixar's left-of-centre minimalist gem about a rusty robot named Wall*E - proves anything, it's that in the end, a good old-fashioned story will always prove to be a good story.

And in those terms, Up is, you know, right up there with the best of them.

- TODAY/yb

-----

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Up (Soundtrack) by Michael Giacchino - Review (tracksounds.blogspot.com)
• "Pixar's Art Leaves Profit Watchers Edgy" (gointothestory.com)
• End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup (omnivoracious.com)
• Up Review (themovieblog.com)
• Up at Cannes 2009 review (telegraph.co.uk)
• Comic Con: John Lasseter And Hayao Miyazaki, Together At Last (cinemablend.com)