This is not a picnic. Popeye (Robin Williams) and Olive Oyl (Shelly Duvall) are discussing what to do with Swee’pea, a child found in a basket.
Several Popeye stories include picnics –all with spinach. There is one picnic in which Olive Oyl tries to shift Popeye from his tried-and-true diet. It’s Edward Knapp’s What! No Spinach, and at this picnic, Olive offers Popeye baskets packed with salami, fresh rye bread, pickles, root beer, and lemonade. Desperate for variety, Olive hopes he’ll consent to try different foods: “I brought some terrific food, Popeye—everything you love,” she tells him. “Good,” says Popeye. I’ll have spinach.”
Robert Altman’s film Popeye (1980) has a scene where Popeye and Olive seem to be picnicking. But they are discussing what to do with the baby found in a barely visible basket under the umbrella next to the boat. Popeye wants to keep the boy and name him Swee’pea. Olive, a great complainer, reluctantly agrees, and the scene abruptly ends.
Featured Image: “I’ll have spinach.”
See Edward Knapp. What! No Spinach? Illustrated by Manny Campana. Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company, 1981; Robert Altman. Popeye (1980). Screenplay by Jules Pfeiffer sources are based on Elzie Crisler Segar’s originals.; Fred Grandinetti. Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History. 2n edition Jefferson, NC: Macfarland & Co.: 2004; Also, Crosby Newell. Popeye Goes on a Picnic, Illustrated by Bud Sagendorf. New York: Wonder Books, 1958;