Variety reports that Hotel Transylvania director Genndy Tartakovsky will direct Sony Picture Animation’s CG Popeye feature (produced by Avi and Ari Arad, with David Ronn and Jay Scherick penning the most recent script). This makes perfect sense because at today’s Hotel Transylvania sneak peek Tartakovsky discussed with me how he relied on a Tex Avery influence to inform the graphic, cartoony aesthetic of his debut feature, to the point of doing draw overs like Glen Keane did on Tangled.
One suspects that his strong hand-drawn background would be the perfect driving force for Popeye as well. Tartakovsky altered the designs of Dracula (Adam Sandler), Frankenstein (Kevin James), and Jonathan (Andy Samberg) to be more Looney-like and pushed the rigging beyond the breaking point at Sony to get the squash-and-stretch physicality he required to pull off a 2D/3D blend.