Uh oh, best keep Popeye the Slayer Man away from the spinach

Out of copyright, Popeye the Sailor Man will appear in two horror movies in 2025.

Popeye the Sailor Man.

For decades, AA Milne’s beloved Winnie-the-Pooh was no more than a portly and pleasant bear with an addiction to honey.

Then, in 2022, the copyright restrictions that had protected this gentle image were lifted and a new Pooh made his debut: a murderous cannibal who eats his friend Eeyore. With copyright protection now lifted from the childhood staples Tintin and Popeye, cinema audiences face more horror.

The classic characters made their first appearances in 1929 and have entered the public domain in the US, meaning they can be used and repurposed without permission, as Pooh was.

Film-makers have wasted no time in pouncing on Popeye the Sailor. The fist-fighting seaman with the bulging biceps, created by EC Segar, will appear in Popeye the Slayer Man, set in an ­abandoned spinach cannery, and Shiver Me Timbers, in which ­Popeye is transformed into an “unstoppable killing machine”.

Directors may have a harder time turning intrepid hero reporter Tintin into a villain. Belgian artist Herge’s creation was one of the most popular cartoons in Europe for much of the 20th century.

Horror parody film ­Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey grossed $US7.7m ($12.4m) worldwide and a sequel was released last year. Another movie released last year, The Mouse Trap, featured a manic killer wearing a mask inspired by Mickey Mouse in the film Steamboat Willie, after the earliest iteration of the Disney character lost its copyright.

Copyright protections elsewhere in the world will remain, ­depending on local laws. In Britain, copyright exists for 70 years after a creator’s death – Herge died in 1983.

Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke Law School’s Centre for the Study of the Public Domain, in North Carolina, said: “As with Pooh and Mickey, it is the original versions of Popeye and Tintin that are public domain.

“While Popeye 1.0 had superhuman capabilities, he did not ­derive them from eating spinach until 1931,” Ms Jenkins said. “However, it appears that the copyright in this 1931 comic strip was not renewed. If this is true, Popeye’s spinach-fuelled strength is already in the public domain.”

According to Ms Jenkins, Popeye’s damsel-in-distress love interest, Olive Oyl, dates from 1919, so is already in the public domain. Her boyfriend before Popeye was named Ham Gravy.

The Times