‘Popeye’ Animated Movie Set For Release In 2014

The upcoming Popeye animated feature is presently scheduled for release at some point in 2014, according to Cinema Blend.

The newest big screen adaptation of the popular cartoon short will be helmed by Hotel Transylvania mastermind Genndy Tartakovsky. The film will be handled by the folks at Sony Picture Animation, a studio that is quickly adding hits to its filmography.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tartakovsky is turning down an opportunity to craft the forthcoming Hotel Transylvania sequel to work on the aforementioned Popeye project. If all goes according to plan, then the film will arrive in theaters on September 26, 2014.

Not surprisingly, Sony Pictures Animation is also moving ahead with the Hotel Transylvania sequel without Tartakovsky. The film has earned an impressive $253 million worldwide, prompting studio executives to put the sequel into production as soon as humanly possible. Hotel Transylvania 2 has a tentative release date of September 25, 2015.

According to Screen Rant, Tartakovsky said his version of Popeye will not opt for the photorealism. Instead, the project will be “as artful and unrealistic as possible.” In other words, the director intends to stay as true to the original cartoon series as his bosses will allow.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the director explained his frustrations of working on a movie like Hotel Transylvania:

“You’re the chef. You’re hired because they like the taste of your soup. You start cooking and they go, ‘No, no, no more salt, take out the chicken.’ And you’re like, ‘But this is chicken soup.’ Really, nobody’s wrong. It’s just all opinions. You’re coming into the situation thinking you’ve been hired because of your point of view. All of a sudden my point of view is gone. So I feel like that’s where I fight.”

Are you a fan of the Popeye cartoons? Do you think the Hotel Transylvania director is the right choice for the project?