Mr. Magoo
Mr. Magoo is a cartoon character created by UPA. Voiced by Jim Backus, he is a little old man who gets into a series of sticky situations as a result of his failing eye-sight. He is notable as one of the only cartoon characters to be an alumnus of a real-life university, Rutgers.
Mr. Magoo's first appearance was in the theatrical short cartoon The Ragtime Bear (1949). Columbia was reluctant to release the short, but allowed it to pass only because it included a bear. However, audiences quickly realized that the real star was Magoo, one of the few "human" cartoon characters ever produced in Hollywood at the time. The short became a box-office success. John Hubley, who created Magoo, handed the series completely over to creative director, Pete Burness. Under Burness, Magoo would obtain two Oscars for the studio with When Magoo Flew (1955) and Magoo's Puddle Jumper (1956).
In 1959, Mr. Magoo starred in 1001 Arabian Nights, directed by Jack Kinney, UPA's first feature-length production.
In the 1960s, UPA transferred its attention to television, and began producing Mr. Magoo television series. UPA was forced to churn out cartoons at a far greater quantity than the studio had done for theatrical release; this caused the Mr. Magoo series to sink to an embarrassing level.
One bright moment in the UPA television era came with Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, the first episode of an animated TV series entitled The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, which placed Magoo in various well-known stories. Christmas Carol captured the spirit of Charles Dickens' tale in a manner that few of the many retellings of the story would, and it is considered to be a holiday classic of the 1960s, ranking alongside A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
In the 1970s, Mr. Magoo appeared in a new television series called What's New Mr. Magoo?. This series was made under license by the DePatie-Freleng studio, as UPA had by this time ceased in-house cartoon production.
In 1997, during a fad for live-action films based on cartoon characters, Mr. Magoo was portrayed by Leslie Nielsen in a live-action Mr. Magoo feature film. It failed to find critical or popular success, in part because many support groups for the handicapped protested it on behalf of the blind.
Classic Media/Sony Wonder began issuing the Mr. Magoo cartoon series on DVD in 2001, beginning with Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.
Characters
- Mr. Quincy Magoo - An elderly, bald, man, whose eye-sight is failing (though he apparently does not know it).
- Waldo - Magoo's nephew
- Cuddles - Magoo's dog in the original UPA shorts
- Mother Magoo
- Charley - Magoo's Chinese houseboy
- Prezley - an English nephew
- Bowser - Magoo's dog (really a cat)
- Wheeler and Dealer - two children
- McBarker - Magoo's nearsighted dog who looks exactly like his owner (appeared only in the 70s cartoon series, What's New Mr. Magoo)