I was familiar with Mr. Magoo from the television series,
which I loved when I was growing up. The character of Mr. Magoo was quite a bit
different at the beginning of his career, and it’s wonderful to watch the way
he developed and changed over the course of these fifty-three short films. In
the first short, The Ragtime Bear,
Mr. Magoo was more ornery. When his nephew Waldo plays the banjo, Mr. Magoo
reprimands him: “Waldo, stop that guitar.
Can’t stand noise!” The bear then plays the banjo, and Mr. Magoo grabs it
from him, telling him to get a new coat (his nephew wears a fur coat). There’s
a wonderful moment when Mr. Magoo falls off a landing, and it seems like the
bear is going to catch him, but catches the banjo instead, allowing Magoo to
fall. The bear is a fan of bluegrass and puts up with a lot for his love of
music. (This episode has an audio commentary by John Canemaker, in which he
talks about UPA, the film’s director, the style of the characters and so on.
There is a lot of great information packed into a short span of time.)
Mr. Magoo is cantankerous throughout many of the early
shorts, and slowly becomes more loveable as the series goes on. I actually
really love the early shorts with the more ornery character. And of course, his
nearsightedness always plays an important part in the troubles he encounters.
Trouble Indemnity
is one of my favorites of the early films. An insurance salesman bothers Mr.
Magoo (after Mr. Magoo first dismisses a man on his television screen and then
a coat on a rack). The insurance company is The Fly By Night Insurance Company,
a nice touch of honesty. Magoo ushers the man out of his home, though actually
into his closet, where the man finds Magoo’s college gear, and dons it, making
another attempt at selling him insurance. One thing I love about all of these
films is the stuff that Magoo mutters under his breath. In this one, there is a
bit where he laughs about eighty thousand people dying in bathtubs. This film
also features that classic bit where Magoo gets on a girder instead of the
elevator. The insurance company men then see Magoo out on the beam and realize
he’s a huge insurance risk and so they need to protect him, leading to all
sorts of silliness.
In many of these shorts, Mr. Magoo inadvertently foils
the plans of criminals. In Bungled
Bungalow, Magoo’s house is stolen and he manages to get it back without
ever knowing it was gone in the first place (that short has the perfect final
line, by the way). It’s not just criminals who are brought down, but also
anyone who is perceived as less-than-honest, such as the insurance people in Trouble Indemnity, and used car salesmen
in Sloppy Jalopy (another of my
favorites).
Magoo always gets himself into terrifying situations, but
he is oblivious to the danger. And somehow his being in frightening scenarios
without being afraid helps us take our own fears less seriously. He also
exhibits a bizarre sort of optimism that is delightful. One manifestation of
this that I absolutely love is that when he comes across a sign, he reads
whatever he needs the sign to say rather than what it actually says (and in
fact only looks at signs when he needs information). It’s a great running gag
throughout the series. And while that optimism puts him into dangerous situations,
it never actually harms him. Things turn out all right for Mr. Magoo. And I
think that is certainly part of the appeal of this character.
Of course, part of the appeal of these films is the
humor. There is a delightful scene in Hotsey
Footsy where Magoo dances with a wrestler, mistaking him for his friend’s
wife. The German girl that Waldo tries to pick up in Magoo Goes Skiing makes that short so enjoyable – her reactions and
expressions are hilarious. And Kangaroo
Courting features a great running gag in which a kangaroo has been trained
to punch someone whenever it hears a bell, which leads to several funny
moments. In Magoo’s Canine Mutiny, a
criminal’s fur coat makes Magoo mistake him for a puppy, and he puts him on a
leash and takes him home. He also hits him with a rolled up newspaper, which is
great. Magoo’s Masquerade opens with
Magoo in a devil costume saying, “Merry
Christmas.” Wonderful.
A great deal of the credit for Magoo’s appeal has to go
to Jim Backus, who provides the voice. From the interviews and commentaries
included on these discs, it’s clear that he was allowed to improvise a lot of
Magoo’s comments, and it is those mutterings of Magoo’s that make him so
delightful. Plus, his readings are just so perfect. There is a moment in Magoo’s Check-Up where an advertisement
on a television says, “Now then, Mr.
Viewer,” and Magoo responds, “The
name is Magoo.” His delivery is just so wonderful, and it’s that delivery
that gets the laugh, more so than the line itself. And in Magoo Goes Overboard,
Magoo says, “Only one thing to do with a
drowning man – render him unconscious.” He sells that silly line by
delivering it as a straight line.
In many of these shorts, Magoo exclaims, “Great balls of fire!” I don’t know why,
but that makes me laugh nearly every time. Only in a few does he say, “Magoo, you’ve done it again” (a line I
remember being a big part of the television series). By the way, in Meet Mother Magoo, we learn that Mr.
Magoo’s first name is Quincy. That short is particularly good, because of the
way she plays along with his silliness while being completely aware of it,
sharing the joke with her cat.
1001 Arabian
Nights
The fourth disc contains the feature-length film, 1001 Arabian Nights. The opening credits
list Jim Backus as providing the voice for Uncle Abdul Azziz Magoo (so not
Quincy in this one). And this time, other actors are given credits in the
opening title sequence – Kathryn Grant as Princess Yasminda, Dwayne Hickman as
Magoo’s nephew, Aladdin (not Waldo), Hans Conreid as The Wicked Wazier, Daws
Butler as Omar the Rugmaker (Butler often provided the voice of Waldo in the
shorts), and Alan Reed as the Sultan.
The idea of displacing Magoo in time and location isn’t a
bad one, but he becomes a supporting character in his own film. There are
entire sequences without Magoo at all. This film tells the tale of Aladdin, who
by the way does not resemble Waldo. It would have been funnier with Waldo as
Aladdin, though at one point Aladdin does call him “Unc,” as Waldo often does in the shorts.
The Wicked Wazir wishes to become the most powerful man
in the world, and consults a spirit in a flame as to how to go about it. The
spirit encourages him to marry Princess Yasminda and use Aladdin to obtain a
magic lamp. (Magoo, by the way, is a lamp merchant in this version of the
tale.) It is funny when the flame spirit warns Wazir about Magoo. Wazir has
been stealing from the sultan’s treasury, so there are jokes about the sultan’s
water being shut off, which are cute. But most of this stuff falls flat.
A lot of this film is just not funny. But there are some
wonderful little moments, like when the Wazir hands some gold coins to Aladdin
(“sample of my generosity”) and then
immediately takes one coin back and drops it into his pouch. And I love the
executioner who even says “Chop chop chop”
in his sleep.
1001 Arabian Nights
was directed by Jack Kinney.
Special Features
All four discs include special features. There are
commentary tracks on several shorts, including The Ragtime Bear, Spellbound
Hound, Bungled Bungalow, Barefaced Flatfoot, Fuddy-Duddy-Buddy, The
Grizzly Golfer, Hotsey Footsy, When Magoo Flew, Magoo Express, Magoo’s Puddle
Jumper, Meet Mother Magoo, Magoo’s Private War, Magoo Saves The Bank and Terror Faces Magoo. The commentaries are
delivered by animation historians and by relatives of some of the key crew
members. Some are better than others. The only completely useless track is the
one on When Magoo Flew, for UPA
animator Bob Longo simply explains what you’re seeing on screen anyway. John
Canemaker provides some of the best commentary tracks, giving us lots of
information.
There is also Interview
With Leonard Maltin. Whom, you might ask, is he interviewing? No one. He
simply talks about UPA, Magoo and the feature-length film. I can’t stand
Leonard Maltin (something about him irritates the hell out of me), but he is
toned down a bit here.
There is a Mr. Magoo documentary on the fourth disc,
which features interviews with many animation historians, who talk about how
UPA’s work was different from that of other studios. There is plenty of
information, but even more enjoyable is A
Princess For Magoo, which is a vintage promotional documentary about the
feature-length film narrated by Jim Backus (who also makes an appearance).
There are shots of Hollywood, while Jim Backus says, “Hollywood has nothing whatever to do with our story.” And then we
see a bit of UPA Studios, including some of the storyboards for the film, and
footage of Kathryn Grant recording her part.
The special features also include a photo gallery, with
stills and sketches from the shorts as well as the feature-length film, and
posters from the film.
Mr. Magoo: The
Theatrical Collection 1949-1959 was released on April 22, 2014 through
Shout! Factory.
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