In June 1979, construction began on a remote slice of Malta's northwest coast: Anchor Bay, two miles from the sleepy village of Mellieħa. The location was chosen for its extraordinarily photogenic setting—carved into a cliff face overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean, it was an ideal backdrop for Sweethaven, the fictional village where Popeye lands on a quest to find his father and meets Olive Oyl and her peevish fiancé Captain Bluto.
The Build
A construction crew of 165 workers laboured for seven months to bring the cartoon village to life. The village consists of 19 wooden buildings—rustic, cartoonish structures painted in vivid colours. Materials came from across the globe: hundreds of logs and several thousand wooden planks were imported from the Netherlands, while wood shingles for the rooftops travelled all the way from Canada. The build consumed eight tons of nails and 7,600 litres (2,000 US gallons) of paint.
Before the first nail could be hammered, an access road had to be constructed.
A 60–75-metre breakwater was built across Anchor Bay's mouth to protect the set from the high seas during filming.
Filming
Cameras started rolling on 23 January 1980 and were wrapped on 19 June 1980. The film, based on the comic strips by E. C. Segar, is set around the fictional village of Sweethaven, where Popeye the sailor arrives in an attempt to find his long-lost father. Robin Williams took the lead as the pipe-puffing sailor, with Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.
From Film Set to Theme Park
Once the film wrapped, the set was never dismantled. Instead, it was preserved and transformed into a family entertainment complex and open-air museum. Today, Popeye Village is one of Malta's leading family-friendly attractions, welcoming several hundred thousand visitors every year.
The original 1980 film set overlooks Anchor Bay, with its colourful wooden buildings nestled at the base of a cliff—now a beloved theme park where visitors can walk the same steps as Robin Williams.
What You'll Find Today
Visitors can explore the twenty or so houses, most of which still feature the film's original sets: the dentist, the bakery, the shoemaker, the mayor's office, and Olive's house. The park offers boat rides, mini-golf, live performances, animation activities, and the chance to meet Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Captain Bluto. Inside, you'll find original props, wax figures, a comic-strip museum, a corner dedicated to Robin Williams, and Bluto's House devoted to behind-the-scenes stories.
A little cinema screens a fifteen-minute documentary about the shoot.
Popeye Village is now one of the very few film sets in the world to have become a permanent tourist attraction—a colourful, kitschy, unforgettable slice of cinematic history perched on Malta's coast.
