Does Popeye have teeth?

[clopez]

I keep wondering about this. I don't know that I've ever seen them in the black and whites, at least.

While everyone else has nice pearly whites, Popeye just has these grey gums. If he's supposed to be about 40 years old, wuhappun to his teeth?

 

[Joe Tully]

I remember seeing some old Fleischer model sheets that specified that he had no teeth, just gums. I'm pretty sure it was in The Fleischer Story book. So I guess they figured he just looked better that way.

 

[clopez]

Woops!

Y'know, I read The Fleischer Story earlier this year. Had I the sense to go back and check the model sheet, as I have now done, I woulda found my answer.

Sorry to waste your time folks. Move along nothing to see here.

 

[Geezil]

Re: Woops!

Originally posted by clopez
Y'know, I read The Fleischer Story earlier this year. Had I the sense to go back and check the model sheet, as I have now done, I woulda found my answer.

Sorry to waste your time folks. Move along nothing to see here.

(grumble)(mutter) kids always looking for attention (mutter) ...

Just kidding, really!! You did have as valid a question there as anybody else has ever posed on this board, so never fret. (And anyway, IIRC, Robin Williams' version of Popeye occasionally sounded as if he really didn't have teeth, so all power to the Fleischer version!!)

 

[Matthew Hunter]

I think the original idea was that he had only one eye, too, hence the name "Pop-Eye"...but he really looks more like he's squinting in the cartoons, and I think it varies which eye he squints...
-Matthew

 

[Joe Tully]

Re: Woops!

Originally posted by clopez
Y'know, I read The Fleischer Story earlier this year. Had I the sense to go back and check the model sheet, as I have now done, I woulda found my answer.

Sorry to waste your time folks. Move along nothing to see here.

Actually, I think it's still a valid question, because I dunno if they ever showed his teeth in the comics or explained how he lost 'em. And he did get teeth in at least some of the cartoons.

See? They must've changed that part of the design for the Famous ones, I guess. Or maybe someone wasn't paying attention.

 

[J. J. Hunsecker]

The toothless old salt

It always looked like he just had gums in the early Fleischer Popeye cartoons (perhaps that is why he only eats mushy spinache). Later on, when he became a rich spoiled star, he must have bought himself a nice set of pearly whites.

Poor guy. Not only is he missing his teeth (didn't eat enough limes to ward off scurvy, now did he?) but he has only one eye, deformed forearms, can't speak good english (maybe because he's missing his teeth?), has a scrawny beanpole for a girlfriend who is so fickle she'll occasionally go out with Popeye's number one enemy (and to add to Popeye's further confusion, his enemy changes him name from Pluto to Brutus), and his pappy abandoned him as a baby and doesn't love him ("I hate relicktives!"). And don't get me started on Eugene the Jeep and Alice the Goon!

 

[J Lee]

Popeye had teeth when required -- the end gag in 1949's "Lumberjack and Jill" has Popeye biting down very forceably into one of Olive's concrete biscuits and then having all his teeth break into his mouth (being a tough guy, he just laughs it off at the iris out, of course). So the answer is:

Pre-1949 -- Yes.
Post-1949 -- Dentures.

 

[candy17]

What's Up With That?

Originally posted by J. J. Hunsecker
Poor guy. Not only is he missing his teeth (didn't eat enough limes to ward off scurvy, now did he?) but he has only one eye, deformed forearms, can't speak good english (maybe because he's missing his teeth?), has a scrawny beanpole for a girlfriend who is so fickle she'll occasionally go out with Popeye's number one enemy (and to add to Popeye's further confusion, his enemy changes him name from Pluto to Brutus), and his pappy abandoned him as a baby and doesn't love him ("I hate relicktives!"). And don't get me started on Eugene the Jeep and Alice the Goon!

I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I always thought Popeye's enemy was named Bluto, not Pluto or Brutus.

What's the deal here?

 

[Mibbitmaker]

It is Bluto. Except when it's Brutus (the rationale is that Br. and Bl. are twins. The reality, however, involves lawyers).

A few years after Famous decided Popeye was a 2-eyed sailor who squinted (and not always the same eye, either!), they decided he had teeth after all. The same people that also decided Olive needed a voice-straightening (!) and a 'hep' hairdo, and that Bluto worked up a barrell chest (probably the military exercise regiment), plus he and squint-eye kept their WWII navy uniforms into the 1960s.

And in the '50s, everyone had teeth that were a size too big, top and bottom.

 

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Re: Re: The toothless old salt

Originally posted by candy17
I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I always thought Popeye's enemy was named Bluto, not Pluto or Brutus.

What's the deal here?

Oops, you're right. It was Bluto not Pluto (then later on, brutus).

 

[candy17]

What's His Name?

Originally posted by J. J. Hunsecker
Oops, you're right. It was Bluto not Pluto (then later on, brutus).

But why was Bluto changed to Brutus?

 

[Jon Cooke]

Re: Re: Re: Re: The toothless old salt

Originally posted by candy17
But why was Bluto changed to Brutus?

http://www.povonline.com/IAQ1.htm


-Jon

 

[clopez]

Phew!

After the initial response lead me back to The Fleischer story model sheet, I thought this poll stopped dead in it's tracks. I'm glad to see all of you were as confused as I.

The article at POV is excellent info. Thanks for that link.

 

[Matthew Hunter]

Yeah, the Evanier article is interesting. I have seen merchandise calling him Brutus using the Bluto from the Fleischer design, and then Bluto too. But, if there was a cartoon using Bluto and Brutus together, that clears it up from a non-legal standpoint. Somehow I think I actually saw a Brutus cartoon or two, but I don't know how or where, as those cartoons are long gone. My mom always used to tell me she remembered him being called Brutus, and I always insisted it was Bluto...because she'd seen the cartoons made for TV as a kid, and I'd only seen the old classic ones on TNT and in syndication, or at least public domain on local TV. I asked that question a long time ago on this forum and got the answer, but it's not surprising it comes up sometimes.
-Matthew

 

[J Lee]

Just on a side note -- SCTV once did a great in-joke on this, with John Candy (as Johnny LaRue) interrupting interrupting a TV broadcast of Shakespear's "Julius Caesar" to talk to one of the cast members, who he called "Bluto" instead of "Brutis." Popeye fans got the throwaway gag right away...

 

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally posted by J Lee
Just on a side note -- SCTV once did a great in-joke on this, with John Candy (as Johnny LaRue) interrupting interrupting a TV broadcast of Shakespear's "Julius Caesar" to talk to one of the cast members, who he called "Bluto" instead of "Brutis." Popeye fans got the throwaway gag right away...

Speaking of SCTV: they once did a parody of "The People's Court" where a Mrs. Jones was suing her husband, Mr. Jones, for painting the surface of the garage door so it would appear like it was opened. She had crashed her car into it and injured herself. Mr. Jones was ordered by the judge to be thrown off the highest cliff they could find. Instead of appealing his decision, Mr. Jones felt if he simply grabbed onto a branch on the way down the cliff or wore springs on his feet, he would be okay.

 

[Matthew Hunter]

hmm. Jones...I wonder.....
-Matthew

 

[Geezil]

Originally posted by J Lee
Just on a side note -- SCTV once did a great in-joke on this, with John Candy (as Johnny LaRue) interrupting interrupting a TV broadcast of Shakespear's "Julius Caesar" to talk to one of the cast members, who he called "Bluto" instead of "Brutis." Popeye fans got the throwaway gag right away...

And also speaking of SCTV, that sketch might dovetail nicely with their rendition of "Ben-Hur," which somehow morphed into a Three Stooges version...! Rarely less than priceless was the Melonville gang.

 

[SarahWitch]

Popeye is a caricatured sail-ship sailor, who has long arms and very muscular forearms from working with ropes all day, and who lost his teeth to scurvy. He was modeled after a sailor named Rocky who was a boxer that would come out and fight tough kids, while having a pipe in his mouth, and he never lost it. I don't think there was any mention of Popeye's teeth back before the cartoon, because they weren't a necessary part of a comic-strip, since Popeye never talked with his mouth open; just a speech-bubble; but Popeye did mention that he lost his eye in "the most arful battle I've ever seen!" i.e. he was a war-hero, possibly during WW1.

Max Fleisher bought the rights to the character from Elzie Segar, and so then the matter of teeth did come up since obviously he had to use his mouth to articulate speech.
When King Features bought the rights to Popeye from Fleischer, obviously they changed the character a lot, including adding teeth, and really crappy animation.