Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy

From the "why did they even bother" department comes the first (and hopefully last) CGI animated film featuring characters from the Popeye comic strip. Yes, they're all here: Popeye and his spinach can, gangly Olive Oyl, porcine Wimpy, sweet little Swee' Pea, nasty old Sea Hag, wacky Poodeck Pappy, and perennial villain Bluto. What's missing, though, is anything resembling an original idea: the screenplay, co-written by Paul Reiser, shamelessly lifts jokes and gags from both the original Elzie Segar funny pages strip and the iconic Max Fleischer Studios animated shorts, creating an endless sense of deja vu. The only thing different here is the animation (some of the ugliest CGI work ever conceived, in Segar's characters look positively hideous and misshapen) and the length (at 44 minutes, this sluggish and silly endeavor lacks the vibrancy and joy of the compact Fleischer cartoons). DVD extras include four classic animated episodes (that outshine the main production), animated behind-the-scenes interviews with the characters, and a "making-of" featurette. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (P. Hall)