“Since Mr. Magoo has trouble seeing, why doesn’t he get glasses?”
Well, the answer is, Quincy Magoo HAS glasses. They make an appearance in the second Magoo cartoon Spellbound Hound (released in 1950).
Mr. Magoo is on the phone in the Point Dim View Lodge when a dog peers through a window. Magoo thinks the window is a mirror. He sees the dog, then grabs his glasses for a better look.
This is what he sees in them.
Magoo can’t believe it. “Boy, I look terrible,” he says to himself.
The answer to the question, from the Tralfaz medical department: “He doesn’t bother with glasses because his astigmatism is so bad, they don’t help.”
UPA director John Hubley probably had a better explanation, recorded in Leonard Maltin’s Of Mice and Magic: “It wasn’t just that he couldn’t see very well; even if he had been able to see, he still would have made the same dumb mistakes, ‘cause he was such a bullheaded, opinionated old guy.”
Spellhound Hound is certainly not a static cartoon. There are some enjoyable stretch in-betweens. I like the short, squat version of Magoo. Even some of the visual-mistake gags are funny because they come out of nowhere. Who expects Magoo to mutter “Yo-yo fish” when he catches his rod pulls a doorknob out of the lake?
Pat Matthews, Bill Melendez, Willie Pyle and Rudy Larriva are the credited animators. Jim Backus shows more emotional range as Quincy Magoo in the early cartoons. Jerry Hausner plays Ralph and likely the dog.
They also make a appearance in Bungled Bungalow as Magoo tries to find the comics section ("House thieves! Hothouse Harry!").
ReplyDeleteThanks for the added info, Jonathan.
DeleteAs you likely know, the glasses appear in a later part of this cartoon but I decided to stick with only one sequence.
Why doesn't he just use the O's he peers through in his own title cards?
ReplyDeleteMagoo doesn't wear glasses because he doesn't think he has a problem (indeed, sometimes his imagined world is more beautiful than the real one).
ReplyDeleteIMHO: If you ask 'why' about things in cartoons you're overthinking things. Just enjoy them. Always loved Magoo.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd how the UPA staff didn't use Magoo as a vehicle to tell more engaging stories. I mean, if there's anything "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" taught us, its that you can do so much more with him other then relying on the same "blind old man" jokes.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a really good point, Anon. It may the writers at UPA were catering to the audience. Magoo's visual mistakes got laughs, so that's what they stuck with.
DeleteI've seen it handled well. This GE spot is an example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h662XUpyaKw
Very interesting. Maybe we could've used more plots where the conflicts come to Magoo instead of him putting himself into all sorts of trouble. The one with "Hot House Harry" was a good one.
DeleteI agree, U. I like this Magoo short. I haven't watched many of them for a long time.
Delete