![Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol [DVD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/710-HBYYHJL._AC_UL116_SR116,116_.jpg)
There is just so much in the history of animation! After collecting Warner Brother's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons recorded from broadcast tv and buying Hanna Barberra's Tom and Jerry mgm cartoons and Max Fleicher's POPEYE cartoons vol 1, 2, and 3 I have FINNALY all of the U.P.A. theatrical MR. MAGOO cartoons in a 4 disc DVD set! If it wasn't for You Tube I would not have seen any of the U.P.A. made for theater cartoons! I had read about their influence on Disney, Warner Brothers and other rival cartoons and I saw TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM the academy award winning short by Disney made in the U.P.A. limited animation style but it was only in the last few years that I saw any of the original U.P.A. shorts on You Tube! And all of these shorts have been beautifully remastered on both the JOLLY FROLICS DVD SET as well as the MR. MAGOO set It's the one shot cartoons by U.P.A. that got the most praise from the critics with each short being in it's own unique style! UNICORN IN THE GARDEN was made in the style of N.Y. cartoonist James Thurber while Edger Allen Poe's THE TELL TALE HEART shows it's story from the point of view of the madman with dark stylised human figures and creepy shadows! This same style of artwork was used to begin each episode of Serling's classic TWILIGHT ZONE series in it's first season and U.P.A. is credited with animating this opening title sequence!!
But it's the Mr. Magoo series that was the most popular with 1950s audiences. To me they are much better crafted and written then the cranked out Magoo tv show! RAGTIME BEAR started the series with Magoo being a grouchy old man in a W.C. Fields kind of way who sees the world out of focus but stubbornly refuses to admit that he's wrong about everything around him! He mistakes a banjo playing bear for his human nephew Waldo! Waldo winds up being the victim of his Uncle's nearsightedness. I wind up feeling sorry for Waldo many times through the series! The next cartoon, SPELLBOUND HOUND has an excaped criminal being persued by a determined bloodhound and Magoo mistakes the dog for his sad faced friend Ralph! A hilarious gag showing Magoo spinning a record turntable like it's an outboard motor on a boat really cracked me up!! Especially when the fast spinning record is playing "Frankie and Johnny" at a fast chipmunk sound speed! Of these early Magoo's FUDDY DUDDY BUDDY is one of my favorites with Magoo talking to his old pal Bottomly but then Magoo mistakes a Walrus for his tennis playing friend Bottomly! Well the Walrus's big tusk teeth do look like Bottomly's long white mustache! This is the one cartoon where Magoo is forced to face his nearsightness when the hotel's detective tells him,"that walrus is going back to the pond!" Magoo looked sad and momentarly depressed but then he smiled and said, " I don't care whether he's a walrus or not, I LIKE HIM!!"
This fine cartoon and others before this one were supervised by animater John Hubley, who had gotten his animation training at Walt Disney. He directed the RITE OF SPRING sequence of FANTASIA, my favorite classic Disney movie! After the 1941 strike many disney animaters left Walt and went in a modern art direction with backrounds and character design influenced by artists such as Picasso and other abstract painters. And so U.P.A. was born! The remastering shows off the backround art beautifully with bright swatches of painted color and sponged on paint textures for brick walls. Other favorites on this disc include HOTSY FOOTSEY, CAPTAINS OUTRAGEOUS and MAGOO'S MASTERPIECE. HOTSEY FOOTSEY has Magoo confusing a dance contest with a wrestling match with hilarious results! And seeing Magoo do the Charelston dance while Jim Bacchus sings for Magoo is just hysterical! In CAPTAINS OUTRAGEOUS Magoo is determined to catch the giant sailfish, Mighty Moe! And poor Waldo fell over board and Magoo has mistaken a seal to be Waldo! When the seal catches Mighty Moe by raising the anchor, hooking the sailfish Magoo of course takes all the credit and poor Waldo was left out on the water on a buoy and he's left out crying for his uncle,"HEY UNK! OH UNK!!!" Like I said I feel sorry for Waldo!
Like Peter Seller's Inspecter Clousseu, the more Magoo goofs up the better things work out for him in the end! In MAGOO'S MASTERPIECE our nearsighted hero needed to do some sculpting to keep his hands busy at the advice from his docter. So he went to his artist friend's art studio to sculpt, but so has the Spirit criminal to hide from the cops! The Spirit disguised himself as a female model while Magoo got ready to "capture your Spirit in clay!" When the police showed up a wild chase ensued and Magoo felt, "Oh she has fainted!" and he threw wet plaster of paris on the Spirit to revive "her" and thus the Spirit was frozen as a lady statue for the police to take away and Magoo became a hero! Most cartoon characters when they mess up they end up being the losers. Not Magoo!! He wins for himself in spite of his mistakes! As is the case for any animated series some shorts are better then others but overall this is a funny, cool collection of 53 short subjects! The last Magoo short on disc 3, TERROR FACES MAGOO is a very funny parody of Ed Murrow's interviews of celebrities in their homes, remember Ed interviewing Ricky Riccardo in his apartment on I LOVE LUCY? But here Ed's cameramen interviewed Mr. Magoo in his mansion while a gorilla was trying to rob the place! Once again comic confusion resulted and Mr. Murrow stated, " We have to leave now, Mr. Magoo! There's TOO MUCH TOGETHERNESS for us here!" And Magoo commented, "I'm sorry Ed, but NOTHING much happens in Magoo Manor!!" And as Waldo was misstaken for the gorilla by the cops ( Waldo got covered by a bear skin rug) and he was arrested Magoo went back to watching the Tv but it's really the window and the gorilla was there with him as he said," you really need to shave Waldo!" for the punchline!
As an added bonus 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS, Magoo's first feature film is on the 4th disc! A DVD extra is the black and white movie trailer that shows Katheryn Grant performing her lines at a voice recording for the Princess Yasminda in 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS. Miss Grant played the Princess in love with Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) in Ray Harryhausen's THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD! Directer of ARABIAN NIGHTS, Jack Kinney is also shown listening to Katheryn and then watching the finished animation. And Jim Bacchus, voice of Magoo, narrates the trailer while the film shows character sketches and storyboard drawings of Princess Yasminda! Nice behind the scences peek of making of the movie!
It really made a differance seeing this movie on DVD without commercial interuption and uncut!I especially enjoyed the confrontation of Magoo(Jim Bachcus) and the Wicked Wazir (Hans Conreid) Both of those stars were old radio veterans so there was very good comic sparks between them! Apparently the handsome Alladin had a much better time with his Uncle Magoo then poor Waldo! It's obvious that the Disney Corporation "ripped off" art design ideas and character designs for their ALLADIN movie! Disney's Alladin and Princess Jasmine are closely similar to U.P.A.s Alladin and Princess Yasminda in both character design and costume, perhaps similar enough for U.P.A., if they existed today, to sue Disney enterprises for copyright infringement! I say "ripped off" since I have NO RESPECT for the "New" Disney!! I prefer the Genie in this U.P.A. film over the Robin Williams, run off with the mouth genie in Disney's ALLADIN!! The U.P.A. Genie looks like a huge, giant Sumo Wrestler!! Well that was a lot for me to say! Highly recommended! Now if the MGM Barney Bear cartoons DVDS would be released!
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The Mr. Magoo Theatrical Collection (1949-1959)
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Item damaged before shipping. cases were cracked and broken
I thought this item was new. it was not sealed in plastic, box cover was scratched and torn. Plastic cases were cracked and broken. Looked like the disks were OK. Item was shipped that way. the shipping carton and other items in the carton were perfect and undamaged.
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Robert van der vos
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