Swee'Pea

Swee'Pea (alternatively spelled Swee'pea and Sweapea on some titles and once called Sweep Pea) is a character in E. C. Segar's comic strip ''Thimble Theatre''/''Popeye series derived from it. His name refers to the flower known as the sweet pea. Before his addition to the animated shorts, the name "Sweet Pea" was a term of affection used by main character Popeye. In the cartoon ''We Aim to Please'', he addressed girlfriend Olive Oyl that way.

As the years went on, Swee'Pea apparently aged enough to speak normally, and could throw punches if necessary; however, his appearance remained that of a crawling baby. In the strip for August 17, 1933, Popeye christens Swee'Pea as "Scooner Seawell Georgia Washenting Christiffer Columbia Daniel Boom". Although Swee'Pea remains his most common sobriquet, he is occasionally referred to as Scooner by Popeye and others in later strips. In the Sunday strips, which did not coordinate with the dailies, Swee'Pea is not introduced until 1934.

Film

In the animated ''Popeye'' cartoons produced by Max Fleischer and later by Famous Studios, Swee'Pea was portrayed as being in the care of Olive Oyl, although it was unclear whether he was her own child (in the King Features cartoons of the early 1960s, it is implied that Swee'Pea is Popeye's nephew). From 1936–1938 Mae Questel provided the voice for Swee'Pea which was then taken over by voice actress Margie Hines from 1938 to 1943. Mae Questel was recast as Swee'Pea in the (1960s) Popeye shorts. Marilyn Schreffler replaced Mae Questel as the voice of Swee'Pea in the 1970s and 80s, Corinne Orr also did the role as Swee'Pea in ''Popeye Meets The Man Who Hated Laughter'' (1972). Swee'Pea was also voiced by Tabitha St. Germain in ''Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy'' (2004).

In the feature film ''Popeye