Reactions to the Hotel Transylvania trailer were a bit mixed — yours truly thinks Adam Sandler colors people’s reaction to a fair degree — but I take this as a good sign for that project’s eventual outcome. According to ShowBlitz, director Genndy Tartakovsky is continuing his relationship with Sony Animation by helming and, most importantly, helping to overall “develop” their 3D Popeye.

Avi Arad (a name you’ll recognize if you’ve seen, oh, just about any Marvel movie) is producing with his son, Ari, while Jay Scherick and David Ronn (Zookeeper, The Smurfs) were commissioned to work on the screenplay. There’s no word on what exactly they’ll be shaping a story around, with the obvious exception of a seaman who enjoys the consumption of spinach and defending the honor of his true love, Olive Oyl.

But, whatever. Tartakovsky is one of modern animation’s most successful and unique creative voices — just look at how he made the Star Wars prequels into really good material with The Clone Wars — and his attachment to Popeye honestly has me “into” a character that, even as a kid, I could never connect with. (I always ate my spinach, though.) Maybe I’m setting expectations a tad too high, but yours truly expects something great to come with this clash of helmer and material. No, really.

Do you want to see what Tartakovsky can do with Popeye? Is there a good film to be made from the character?