VISITING POPEYE THE SAILOR'S VILLAGE IN MELLIEHA

Popeye & Olive welcome the visitors

Today, Claire Fontaine, who is a great fan of cinema and comics, has proposed to visit Popeye Village in Mellieħa, the set which was used to film Popeye and which is now a fun park. The four friends have spent a funny day in the village.

Popeye Village, also known as Sweethaven Village and Danish Village, is a purpose-built film set village, now converted into a small attraction fun park, consisting of a collection of rustic and ramshackle wooden buildings. It is located at Anchor Bay, 3 kilometres from the village core of Mellieħa. 

More information: Popeye Village

It was built as a film set for the production of the 1980 live-action musical feature film Popeye, produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions starring Robin Williams. Today it is open to the public as an open-air museum and family entertainment complex.

It was designed by Danish architect Hans Munk Hansen. It is made of modernist and post-war buildings and pathways. There have been significant changes since then to turn it into a sea-side resort, such as a recreational waterpark and a Christmas village.

Visiting Popeye's Village in Mellieħa, Malta

The construction of the film set began in June 1979. A construction crew of 165 working over seven months was needed to build the village, which consists of nineteen wooden buildings. 

Hundreds of logs and several thousand wooden planks were imported from the Netherlands, while wood shingles used in the construction of the roof tops were imported from Canada. Eight tons of nails and 2.5 cubic metres of paint were also used in construction.

In addition, a 60–75 metre breakwater was built around Anchor Bay's mouth to protect the set from high seas during the shooting.

More information: Vanity Fair

The set was completed in seven months, and filming commenced on January 23, 1980 and wrapped later that year on June 19. The film, based on the comic strips by E. C. Segar, is set around the fictional village of Sweethaven, where the sailor Popeye arrives in an attempt to find his long-lost father.

The Grandma & Joseph in Popeye's Village

Although the film had mixed reviews, Popeye Village remains a popular tourist attraction.

Popeye Village is open to the public seven days a week and, apart from the film set itself, has a number of family attractions for the visitor to experience. 

There are shows, rides and museums, as well as play houses where children can climb and explore the village. Children may also get to meet the main characters from the show such as Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto and Wimpy.

Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip, Thimble Theatre, on January 17, 1929, and Popeye became the strip's title in later years; Popeye has also appeared in theatrical and television animated cartoons.

More information: Popeye

Tina & Claire sailing across Popeye's Village

Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. 

After Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.

In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer, and later Paramount's own Famous Studios, continued production through 1957. 

More information: Animation World Magazine

These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements, and peripheral products, ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman, starring comedian Robin Williams as Popeye.

In 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye #20 on its 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time list.

More information: The Telegraph

I'm Popeye the sailor man. I'm Popeye the sailor man. 

I'm off on a trip. On me sturdy old ship. I'm Popeye the sailor man.

Popeye, The Sailor