"Popeye the sailor is a fictional American cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929 (92 years ago)."
At that time, Segar, thirty-four years old, was an experienced American cartoonist. Sadly, he died of leukemia nine years later.
Growing up, I adored watching many, many, many Popeye cartoons on television. They usually followed a similar pattern.
Popeye gets into some difficulty, usually at the hands of his nemesis, Bluto. Eating a can of spinach restores his power and energy. Popeye then wins the day, very often in a brutal fist fight with Bluto.
Popeye's girlfriend, Olive Oyl, a very skinny creature, was another familiar character in Popeye cartoons. In the dubbed Portuguese language version her name was Olivia Palito (meaning a thin stick).
Ironically, Olivia Palito was my wife Cristina's nickname as a child (because she was skinny). Interesting that with such a nickname she grew up to marry a man who admired Popeye.
The reason I admired Popeye was not so much his fighting skills, but his personal philosophy. He used to say, "I am what I am and that's all what I am." In the movie Truth, the Mary Mapes character (Cate Blanchett) quoted Popeye (on why she wanted to continue as a journalist after being fired by CBS News).
It seems a simple statement, but I think it is very deep. It's like when my mother quoted William Shakespeare (Hamlet): "to thine own self be true, thou canst not then be false to any man." Popeye and Shakespeare!
Popeye was an Oedipal myth: Bluto was the Father, much larger, with a beard and a deep voice, and was essentially Olive Oil's husband. Popeye was hairless, and spoke what was akin to "baby talk," sometimes even mumbling and cooing. He overcame his father by doing what mother's used to exhort their children to do: eat their spinach. By doing this, he defeated his father AND won his mother's favor over the father.
ReplyDelete