Fun for all the Family (Popeye Village)

Member Name: meah

Product:	Popeye Village
Date:	12/10/01 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Day Out

Disadvantages: None

In my opinion Popeye Village is without doubt one place you must visit if you are ever on holiday on the beautiful island of Malta. The village was built as the film set of the Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions musical Popeye, which was made in 1980 and stared Robin Williams as Popeye. The musical is the story of Popeye discovering Newfoundland, which he calls Sweethaven.

The construction of the authentic wooden village took seven months and the buildings were made from tree trunk type logs imported from Holland and special wood shingles for the roof tops were imported from Canada.

Popeye Village can be found at Anchor Bay, just past Melliaha Village on the road to Cirkewwa ferry landing. After the musical was filmed and the crew left Malta the Maltese Government decided to preserve the Village and adapt it to become a tourist attraction.

The village itself consists of nineteen wooden buildings. There is a School House, Fire House, Sawmill, Bakery, Seafarers Hotel (the pub), Cobbler Shop, Post Office, Tailors, Fish Shop, Tobacconist, Laundry, Hotel, Tower, Barbershop, Blacksmiths, Church and Cemetery, Ferryboat, Toilet – outside and up the hill away from the other buildings and The Rough House Gaffe (the cinema).

You can wander around the village for as long as you like and all the buildings are open so you can go in, most of the buildings have either models of characters from the film inside or those painted boards with a hole cut out that you put your head through for you to have your photo taken to make it look as if you are a character in the village.

There are regular film shows in the cinema of the history of the village and the making of the musical Popeye, the film lasts around forty-five minutes.

Next to the village there is a small amusement park with bumper boats, dodgem cars, remote control cars and boats, roller coaster, small train, motor cycle track, go kart track, two or three o
ther merry-go-rounds, swings and slides.

Popeye Village and the amusement park are open seven days a week and whether you have seen the musical Popeye or not it really is a great day out for both young and old alike.

Summary: