W. Wren, Take Two

“Here is a terrible cartoon,” proclaimed H. Goldson, manager of the Plaza Theatre in Chicago.

He or she is talking about Magic Strength, a 1944 Columbia cartoon starring a guy with a name that you’d think is a bird character—Willoughby Wren.

The cartoon is another pre-UPA style effort. About the first minute is done in pose-to-pose limited animation. Later in the cartoon, you’ll find representational backgrounds, instead of the watercolours found at other studios. UPA loved that kind of thing. Columbia did, too, because the opening was re-used from the 1943 cartoon Willoughby’s Magic Hat. In fact, this is kind of a re-working at that cartoon, but is visually less interesting.

In the frames below, you can see sketchy backdrops to the action, and some silhouettes.



A wonder if the piano player is a caricature of someone at the studio, where Dave Fleischer was producing. The cartoon was directed by Bob “I-Work-Cheaper-Than-Art-Davis” Wickersham, and the animation is credited to Chic Otterstrom and Ben Lloyd, while the music was by Eddie Kilfeather.



Chuck Jones went for a similar kind of burlesque in The Dover Boys, including limited movement and stylised backgrounds. It was superior in every way. Jones had funny characters. This cartoon has a bunch of zeroes.

Dun Roman came up with the story. John McLeish is the narrator and several other characters. I don’t know who plays Willoughby.