Alternative rock band Wilco has teamed with King Features Syndicate to produce the first new animated "Popeye" cartoon since 1987 as a music video for the song "Dawned On Me":
The full press release announcing the video and the details behind it follows:
POPEYE & WILCO: KING FEATURES’ MIGHTY MARINER MIXES IT UP WITH WINDY CITY’S ADVENTUROUS ALTERNATIVE ROCKERS
New Video Combines Song from America’s Foremost Rock Band with
A Return to Classic Animation in the First Hand-Drawn Popeye Cartoon in More Than 25 Years
NEW YORK and CHICAGO – January 25, 2012-- Well, Blow Me Down! King Features Syndicate and dBpm Records have combined creative forces with the release today of a new animated music video for Wilco’s “Dawned On Me” featuring Popeye the Sailor Man and the Grammy-nominated Chicago-based band.
In this new video, the first from Wilco since 1999, Popeye vies for Olive Oyl’s affections with his usual nemesis, Bluto, and with a new challenger, Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy! See how their love unfolds here: www.wilcospinach.com
Wilco’s sweet, whimsical love song comes from their latest album, the 2012 Grammy-nominated, The Whole Love. The video is directed by Darren Romanelli, the fashion and pop culture innovator.
As one of the earliest animated characters, introduced in 1933 by Fleischer Studios, Popeye has become one of the most enduring and iconic cartoon characters of all time and is forever entwined in the evolution of animation. The music video marks the first new Popeye cartoon since “Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy,” the 3-D CGI primetime TV special and deluxe DVD release produced by King Features Syndicate for Popeye’s 75th Anniversary in 2004. In what has become a primarily digital world, this new video marks the first hand-drawn, frame-by-frame rendering for Popeye cell animation since the Popeye and Son series from 1987.
This certainly isn’t Popeye’s first foray into love territory: the Sailor Man first met his “goil,” Olive Oyl, in Elzie Crisler Segar’s popular Thimble Theatre comic strip in the 1930s and their legendary love only grew and captivated the imagination of fans all over the world. The couple even made People Magazine’s list of the Greatest Love Stories of the 20th Century.
About Wilco
Wilco was formed in the mid-’90s by singer-songwriter-guitarist Jeff Tweedy. The Whole Love is the third album by the band’s current lineup, which solidified in 2004 when guitarist Nels Cline and guitarist/keyboardist Patrick Sansone joined Tweedy, founding bassist John Stirratt, drummer Glenn Kotche and keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen. Together, they released Sky Blue Sky in 2007 and the Grammy-nominated Wilco (The Album) in 2009. The Whole Love captures the vibrant energy the band brings to its renowned live performances. It earns a 2012 Grammy nomination in the category of Best Rock Album. Wilco has previously won Grammy Awards for their 2004 release A Ghost is Born in the Best Alternative Album and Best Recording Package categories. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy won a Grammy award as producer for Mavis Staples’ 2010 album You Are Not Alone.
Wilco has released 10 studio albums to date, including Mermaid Avenue Volumes 1 & 2, which, in collaboration with British folk singer Billy Bragg, set original music to song lyrics by the truest of American icons, songwriter Woody Guthrie.
Wilco’s newly formed dBpm Records is a full-service label releasing all future Wilco recordings and more. ANTI-Records provides distribution and additional label services for all dBpm Releases.
A Short History of POPEYE
For a character initially conceived to make only a fleeting appearance in the already established comic strip Thimble Theatre in 1929, Popeye, the pipe-chomping, monocular sailor with an affinity for spinach, wound up having an impact on pop culture that his creator, E.C. (Elzie Crisler) Segar (1894-1938), could never have imagined.
Countless generations of fans worldwide have embraced Popeye since his introduction to the public on Jan. 17, 1929. Introduced as a minor walk-on character, Popeye eventually became the strip’s star. With Popeye came a host of new, offbeat and famous characters, including his “goil,” Olive Oyl; Swee’pea, the “infink” Popeye adopted; J. Wellington Wimpy, the world’s most hamburger-obsessed moocher; and Bluto, Popeye’s combative competitor for Olive Oyl’s distracted affection.
Segar’s creation took on a whole new life as the star of the longest-running series of talking animated short subjects in motion picture history. It was in these early short films, produced by Max Fleischer for Paramount Pictures, that the ingestion of spinach to enhance Popeye’s strength became an indelible theme. Popeye was also considered one of the first and most important characters in the merchandising industry, with Popeye toys, books, puzzles, and games.
A licensing powerhouse, Popeye continues to inspire creative merchandise across a wide variety of categories, both in the United States and internationally. Popeye is the world’s No. 1 licensed character in food. The mighty mariner is a major theme park attraction at Universal Orlando Resort in the United States and a crowd-pleaser at Universal Studios Japan. In his most recent venture, Popeye has been featured in a back-to-school promotion at Bloomingdale’s and on Bloomingdales.com with Beetle Bailey and several other popular King Features characters. For more Popeye info, visit www.popeye.com.
About King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate is a member of Hearst Entertainment and Syndication Group, which combines Hearst Corporation’s cable network partnerships, TV programming activities, newspaper syndication and merchandise licensing operations. King Features is one of the largest and most experienced organizations in merchandise licensing and entertainment. It represents some of the most recognizable global brands, including Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor Man and Olive Oyl. For more information, please visit www.kingfeatures.com.
What titles has the largest bookstore on the West Coast thrown out lately? "A Brief History of Underwear"? "The Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom"? A letter bomb recipe? Or maybe something disturbing?
