Customer Reviews

Mr. Magoo Show: The Complete Collection

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

26 episodes of a classic TV show ruined by P.C. edited voice overs. Each show consists of 5 Magoo cartoons and all is running great until Episode # 17 when the PC Correct Charlie rears his absurd over dubbed English voice. Its all down hill after that as the last 9 shows have been butchered. Jim Backus is brilliant and the cartoon hilarious but once again we have to deal with tainted original masterpieces due to the over sensitive over zealous P.C. knuckleheads. Five stars for the 1st Sixteen shows , 1 star for the rest. Disc four is worthless , unless you use it as a frisbee.

In every episode that Charlie has more than one line in, his voice is overdubbed in a ridiculous, intrusive voice that makes the episodes unwatchable. It's not just that they gave in to political correctness and changed his voice, but they didn't even do a good job. Most of the first disc soundtrack is intact (probably so those of us who were watching to see if they would change the voice would put in the first disc, hear the original voice and declare the box set O.K. I think that is what happened to some of the reviewers on this page). Just put in some of the later discs and be prepared for a big shock. These cartoons are great and my rating would be five stars if they were not tampered with. As it is though I cannot recommend this unless of course you really don't mind or, God forbid, you agree that hearing an exaggerated Japanese accent is going to corrupt the world as we know it.

Why did somebody have to go and change Charlie's voice in some of the cartoons in this set? His new voice makes him sound like an English butler, which is completely ridiculous, considering Charlie is Chinese! The original voice of Charlie made the cartoons even funnier, and now with this voice overdub, much of the humor is lost. Everything has to be censored and politically correct these days, and I'm sick of it! Why tamper with a classic like Mr. Magoo?

The original short UPA theatrical release Magoo cartoons, from 1949-1960, were brilliant. Two of them won Academy Awards. Unfortunately they don't seem to be currently available in a DVD format. This collection of Magoo cartoons is from the 1960's television show, and all suffer from inferior animation, boring plots and pointless side-kicks. Furthermore, as many have noted, the overdubbing of Charlie's voice is intolerable. The vocal characterization of Magoo by the great Jim Backus (who also did the voice of Magoo in the theatrical release cartoons), however, is always entertaining and is one of the best features of the Magoo series.

Hopefully we won't need to wait too long for the DVD release of the earlier theatrical Magoo cartoons, but in the mean time don't waste your money on this collection.

I bought this box set hoping for the best. I was happy at first, but for some strange reason they decided to change Charlie's(Magoo's asian house boy)voice in some of the episodes!? I don't know why they would do some with Charlies trademark accent( "Ah Misa Magloo" "Bloss")and some with the edited ridiculous american butler accent(he sounds a little like Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet without the reverb)?? It doesn't make any sense at all!?? If the accent is offensive, why wouldn't they edit all the episodes? It would have been nice to have all of these classic cartoons unedited and show the edits done to them in the extras for comparison. The episodes on the DVD's look pretty clean though and if you can live with the edited junk(I can't), it is a cool set. I might pick it up at a reduced price for the unedited ones, as for now, back it goes! I do not want to support censoring these classics!

I was overjoyed to get this long- awaited set of UPA's most famous cartoon star. My four star rating is a compromise between the five star and three star features of this set. First the five star: Classic Media (which now owns UPA) has gone all out on beautiful packaging, with four one-sided discs in an album that slides into a slipcase. There's a booklet and a miniature repro of a Dell Mr. Magoo comic book, as well as a lenticular screen cover with a changing picture.

You get all 26 shows, each of which consists of five cartoons, with cartoon lead-ins or bumpers between them. these are the early '60s UPA TV 'toons from The Mr. Magoo Show, not the theatrical cartoons from Columbia/ UPA made from 1949- 1959. Nevertheless, most people who remember Mr. Magoo, recall him from this '60s show, which features an excellent opening in which Magoo yells "Road Hog!" and barely escapes numerous collisions. The opening and the lead-ins are better than many of the cartoons, and except for Waldo and Prezley, I didn't remember any other characters.

They are all quite forgettable, including a talking hamster who frequently feuds with a talking dog or a talking cat. These cartoons are somewhat inconsistent, however, because a different dog, which somewhat resembles McBarker from the later DePatie- Freleng Mr. Magoo cartoons, appears in some of the lead-ins. Mother Magoo also appears in some cartoons, along with Tycoon Magoo and a small cast of recurring bit players. There is one notable exception, that of Magoo's Chinese houseboy, Charlie. In the original 'toons, Charlie is a great character, often wiser and more hep to what's going on than Mr. Magoo, but curious to see what crazy predicaments "Bossman" will get into. Most of the reviews on Amazon in advance of the release of this set were hoping he'd have the original voice. The bad news is he doesn't-- sometimes-- it was redubbed for syndication on USA Cartoon Express.

Now the three star part. The redubbing is truly terrible. Any vestige of humor, or for that matter, inflection, is lost. By my reckoning, about twenty of the cartoons (out of 130) have been redubbed in this set. It's possible kids might not mind, since they may watch mostly for Mr. Magoo and the slapstick humor. Adults will have to turn off the sound to sit through these episodes. That may be worth doing, though, because the modernistic UPA background art is truly a feast for the eyes. Of course, redubbing Charlie's voice misses the point. The UPA 'toons are not accidentally stereotypical. They're meant to be so over the top as to have no relation to any real person. They also don't parody any race or ethnic group, but rather the flat type personae of movies and serials. If other groups like Native Americans or the Irish ever took offense, there would be no cartoons at all, because all cartoons played off some stereotype drawn from B-movies. This was as true of Bugs Bunny as of Mr. Magoo. When they appeared, UPA's cartoons were hailed for, among other reasons, their extreme human characters, as opposed to funny animals. UPA's Dick Tracy Show (also on DVD) is based entirely on caricature.

Animators worked from what they could, and in most cases it was the movies. This is because cartoons were intended to tie into or introduce the main attraction at theaters. How better than by caricatures of the leading stars? Mr. Magoo is a visually appealing cartoon, but Jim Backus' muttering is really what makes the character. In this respect, he echoes Red Pepper Sam's voicing of Popeye. For that alone this set is a treasure, but cartoon afficianados may also find a moral to the story. Against all odds, Mr. Magoo is a confident fighter. Against all the bludgeons of fate, he never gives up or loses his enjoyment of life, and at the end of the day can confidently say, "Oh Magoo, you've done it again!"

As the alien in PLAN 9 said, "...Idiots, you're all idiots!"...Hoping not to lose a few sales to PC consumers the manufacturer dubbed Charlie's oriental voice into proper english thereby losing thousands of sales to customers like me who want the real thing. And now it's probably not profitable to re-issue the cartoons correctly. And the PC people aren't going to buy Magoo anyway, or just complain about poking fun at the visually and/or hearing impaired!!!! Somebody needs to be fired... IDIOTS!!!!

After reading some reviews of this set before opening the box, I decided with the other reviewer that I wont sponser editing classic shows such as this for the political correctness of the day. Lost sale for Sony! What a farse.

Wow. That's very disappointing about the voice-overs. I was going to buy this after seeing the Magoo Christmas special again but I've decided not to buy the "original" episodes in this form. I hope they decide to release this in an unedited format. Thanks for the warning.

I, too, am hoping that these cartoons are the true originals...I had bought a number of them on VHS for my husband last Christmas, after a long search, and we were both VERY dismayed to hear Charlie's voice dubbed in--not only without any accent whatsoever, but poorly done in a monotone. They were ruined, in our opinion, as we remembered the "broken English" Charlie very fondly. If I'd been able to do so, I would have returned them promptly. So...can someone let Mr. Magoo fans know if we're going to get the real thing when we purchase this collection on DVD?