Bill Scott weaves a robber, a child being baby-sat, a dog and a tube of toothpaste into the plot, so at the end, police show up to arrest a robber and praise Magoo for being “right on the job.”
Through it all, we get non-stop chatter from Jim Backus. It would impossible to make a silent Magoo cartoon.
In one gag, Magoo mistakes his cuckoo clock for a pay phone.
This sets up the final gag of the cartoon. Magoo has already mistaken a burglar for a police officer. At the end he mistakes a police box for the same officer.
The camera trucks in to show the cuckoo bird reacting to Magoo with a familiar sound. Then Scott adds a nice touch by having the 78 nickels Magoo has slipped into the clock pour out like a jackpot from a one-armed bandit.
To be honest, I was going to talk about another Magoo cartoon, but it had more of the same “almost-blind old guy mistakes stuff” and endless dialogue from Backus, all surrounded by flat backgrounds.
It must be me. Magoo was an incredible popular character, employed to sell light bulbs and beer. The commercials I generally like, and some of the Magoo theatricals I enjoy, but I just can’t get excited about others. And don’t get me started on the TV “Magloo” series after Hank Saperstein took over the studio.
This short was released in 1952. It was directed by Pete Burness, who maintains a good pace throughout, with designs by Ted Parmelee and credited animation by Rudy Larriva, Phil Monroe and Tom McDonald.
It's kinda hard to look at Magoo in a contemporary standpoint when it comes to the theatrical shorts. Sure, the idea of a blind old protagonist wasn't done at all and has potential, but it also limits the character a lot of that's the only thing Magoo is known for.
ReplyDeleteLove the Magoo theatricals but they were definitely designed for the big screen. Those ‘flat backgrounds’ are Magoo’s true straight man, providing just enough suggestion to pass for things they are not. Burness gave the old guy such boundless confidence, the viewer never worries he will have to be disillusioned in his alternate reality.
ReplyDeleteThat's it, exactly. The vision thing defines everything about him so we're treated to a long parade of the same kind of jokes.
DeleteI have never seen the prime time series, but I gather that aspect was played down.
Jim Backus does a great job and the cartoons owe a lot of their success to him.