Popeye and Son

Popeye and Son is an American animated comedy series based on the Popeye comic strip created by E.C. Segar and published by King Features Syndicate. Jointly produced by Hanna-Barbera and King Features subsidiary King Features Entertainment, the series aired for one season of thirteen episodes on CBS. It is a follow-up to The All-New Popeye Hour. Maurice LaMarche performed the voice of Popeye in this series, succeeding Jack Mercer in that role. It is also the first set of Popeye cartoons that were produced since Mercer's death in 1984. Following its original run on CBS, this series reran on the USA Network in the 1989-90 season and on The Family Channel from September 1994 to December 1995. It can currently be seen for free on Amazon Video.

Overview
Popeye and his long-time girlfriend, Olive Oyl, are married and have a son named Popeye Junior (or Junior for short), who has inherited Popeye's ability to gain superhuman strength from eating spinach; however, Popeye Jr. hates the taste of spinach (preferring hamburgers, like Wimpy), much to his father's disappointment, although he eats spinach anyway to boost his strength. Popeye's long-time rival Bluto has a wife of his own and they also have a son named Tank. Like old times, Popeye and Bluto are rivals, as are their sons.

Why It Has No Son

 * 1) Poor grasp on the source material.
 * 2) * Popeye Jr. is Popeye’s son in this show, but Swee'Pea is his son in the original cartoons.
 * 3) The animation is usually off at times.
 * 4) The show has less violence and action than the original cartoons.
 * 5) Bluto is married to a new girlfriend for no reason whatsoever, though it could be assumed Bluto moved on from Olive seeing she will never love him and Popeye was married to her in this show.
 * 6) Olive's new character design is way different than her original design.
 * 7) The show has killed the Popeye franchise from getting a new show for several years before Popeye's Island Adventures was finally made.
 * 8) In addition to WIHNS#1, there’s no appearance nor mention of Swee'Pea (Popeye's adopted son) anywhere, which just kills the continuity and events of the comics and original cartoons.
 * 9) Dull writing and storylines.
 * 10) Most of the character designs for the new characters such as Popeye Jr. and Tank don’t fit into the Popeye universe that much.
 * 11) Overuse of stock sound effects from Hanna-Barbera's previous shows.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The concept for this show is at least unique and creative for what it is.
 * 2) The voice acting is passable.
 * 3) The animation and music are good for their time, including the theme song.
 * 4) Aside from Swee'Pea, other characters from the Popeye comics that don’t appear that much in the animated shorts with an exception of the big four (Popeye, Olive, Bluto, and Wimpy) have made appearances on this show such as Pappy, Eugene the Jeep and the Sea Hag.
 * 5) There was one good episode called "Junior Gets a Job".
 * 6) The Italian dub is positive and underrated.

Reception

 * In 2014, including it in an article about twelve 1980s cartoons that supposedly did not deserve remembrance, io9 was largely critical of the series, noting that it did not utilize the conventions established by the theatrical Popeye short films.