Well, it's supposed to be. In fact, current MAME more matches this cabinet recording from an arcade:
-- And this one, from a person who has many actual game recordings to his credit:
Not sure where you got the screenshot, but the only video I saw which shared the color (specifically looking at the levels on which Popeye walks with their blueish glow) is here:
So, what does that mean? I'm guessing that the one with the blueish levels are not on an original board, or at least one that matches the original schematics.
I did some research as well to see if MAME ever showed levels with the blueish hue .. and sure enough, I had to dig back to very early MAME version to see. The bootleg was the first Popeye that MAME supported. The main set was not added until the 33 beta cycle (0.33b1) and was not playable until decryption was discovered years later, for MAME 0.53. The set (popeyebl), starting with MAME 0.20, had colors proclaimed as 100% correct. They match more closely the cocktail above as well as your screen shot. This changed in 0.33b2 when Nicola adjusted the screen using actual board schematics to control the brightness levels.to match schematics. MAME 0.33b2 and onward more closely matches the first 2 videos which are upright and original. I have to argue that the different colors might be due to some board swapping with other Nintendo Games, since the bootleg shared this blue hue until the main set schematics were added.
I attached a snap I took of MAME 0.20, showing the old (pre-schematic) display (converted to .png because .PCX doesn't display here):
Index 
Flat 
Re: Here's a good example of how the colors in Popeye are different
Reply
.png)
.png)
Here's a good example of how the colors in Popeye are different
