Are you going to sweethaven

Max Original 'Sweethaven' A gritty, grounded journey into the day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of the titular harbour town, made famous by the legacy character 'Popeye'

The picture Popeye [1980] built a set for the imaginary town Sweethaven in Malta, who kept it intact and maintained, turning it into an attraction. It still exists to this day.

Been thinking about Altman's "Popeye" movie. I saw it as a kid, and it has this weird magical spot in my memory. "Sweethaven" - the opening, song, in particular. Spotify has the soundtrack, and there is a track of Harry Nillson's demos, including Sweethaven. It is so beautiful.

If they made a Popeye movie today, the whole town of Sweethaven would be CGI and the movie would suck.

Sweethaven was an absolutely brilliant and insane set and I realized that even when I was eleven

And speaking of ensembles: clever use of acrobats, contortionists, jugglers, and clowns to round out the townsfolk of Sweethaven did a lot to give the live-action movie an appropriately cartoony feel before CGI made it possible to spend a lot of money doing that badly.

The third act falls apart of course. All the stuff with Ray Walston (alas, perfect casting in a bad storyline) got - ironically? - too cartoony. But until that point everything in Sweethaven is so good.

🎶 Sweet Sweethaven

🎵 Sweet, Sweethaven! God must love us! 🎶