We’ve now got a look at what Genndy Tartakovsky’s 3-D Popeye movie might look like, thanks to a short clip of test footage released by the Hotel Translyvania director. Tartakovsky, a master of both animation and lowering expectations—he spares some praise in the video for Transylvania’s “physical” comedy, while glossing over the film’s lackluster script—makes it clear that this is only test footage, and that all of the voices and designs will probably change by the time Popeye makes it to theaters.
Still, what they have so far seems pretty great: a fast-moving short about Popeye, Olive Oyl, and bizarre fourth-dimensional cat-thing Eugene the Jeep fighting off a horde of Bluto-sized brutes who fall from the sky. Although there a few moments that set off warning bells—Eugene indulges in some antics that hint that he might be the sort of “cute,” fourth-wall breaking, modern reference-making comic relief monstrosity that we’ve all come to dread from movies like this—on the whole, it’s a great showcase for the action skills Tartakovsky honed on projects like Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars.
Popeye doesn’t have a release date yet, but Tartakovsky apparently plans to start work on it as soon as he finishes his directorial duties on Hotel Transylvania 2.