Mr. Magoo
Mr. Magoo is a cartoon character created by John Hubley in 1949, for UPA. Voiced by Jim Backus (also famed in popular culture for his role as Thurston Howell III in the 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island), Quincy Magoo is a wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of sticky situations as a result of his nearsightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit the problem. He is notable as one of the few cartoon characters to be an alumnus of a real-life university, Rutgers.
History
Mr. Magoo's first appreance in the theatrical short cartoon The Ragtime Bear (1949). Columbia was reluctant to release the short, but did so, 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 1957, the record album Magoo in Hi-Fi was released. Side 1 consisted of a dialog between Magoo and Waldo taking place while Magoo was attempting to set up his new sound system. Music on the album was composed and conducted by Dennis Farnon and his orchestra. Side 2, the Mother Magoo Suite, was a series of musical pieces which included two solos by Marni Nixon.
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 a series for the character. Because of the demands of the television industry, 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.
However, 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 ever did, and it is considered to be a holiday classic of the 1960s, ranking alongside A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
"The Simpsons" spoofed that TV special years later, in "Mr McGrew's Christmas Carol," featured in the episode "Tis the 15th Season".
In the late 1970s, Mr. Magoo appeared in a new Saturday morning CBS 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.
In 2005, Mr. Magoo became the spokesperson of the optical retail store Sterling Optical.
Characters
- Mr. Quincy Magoo - An elderly, bald, man, whose eye-sight is failing (though he either does not know it or is too stubborn to do anything about it). (voiced by Jim Backus)
- Waldo - Magoo's nephew (voiced by Casey Kasem in the 70s series)
- Cuddles - Magoo's dog in the original UPA shorts
- Mother Magoo
- Charley - Magoo's Chinese houseboy
- Prezley - Waldo's "partner in crime" in the 1960 cartoon
- Bowser - Magoo's dog (really a cat)
- Wheeler and Dealer - two children Magoo often babysits
- McBarker - Magoo's nearsighted dog who looks exactly like his owner (appeared only in the 70s cartoon series, What's New Mr. Magoo) (voiced by Frank Welker)