What is bizarre about this film is besides for very short scenes at the beginning and the end, there appears to be very little of what we except from Mr. Magoo here. Mr. Magoo plays Ebeneezer Scrooge in a Christmas play and he is so good at this with the exception of about three jokes, during the play scenes his eyesight seems to get better. Though in the two short scenes before and after the play he is a more typical Magoo, unlike in A Flintstones Christmas Carol, these scenes play a very small part. This is mostly a straight adaption of A Christmas Carol. However it works quite well as a straight adaption, and is well worth watching. Though this must be distinctly understood our little magic can come out of this story.
The UPA studio started because of the Disney strike in 1941. Though this strike was mainly done for finical reasons, many took this as an artistic opportunity, Some where tired of doing animation the Disney way and wanted to do it their own way. They didn't like how realistic looking much of the Disney animation was and they wanted to do something different. The wanted to do something much more stylized, experimental, and something further away from live action. Part of this was inspired by Walt insisting that his animators have a class teaching about fine art. This backfired when it came to the artists that formed UPA, because the art they were inspired by was the ones that were the most different from the traditional Disney style. They were also inspired by the work of Chuck Jones and John McGrew on a Merrie Melodies cartoon called The Dover Boys, a cartoon that was definitely quite different from the norm at Warner Brothers. Chuck Jones would in fact direct the first UPA film Hell Bent For Election. This was a campaign film for FDR. Some of the men working at UPA at that time included, John Hubley, Steven Boustow, Zach Schwartz, and David Hiberman. These four were the founders of the studio. They followed this up with some films made for the army , and an anti-racism short directed by former Chuck Jones animator, Bobe Cannon. It was around 1948 that they signed a contract with Columbia Pictures (who were very unhappy with their animation department). Before they distributed UPA's own characters (of which they had none), they had the studio work with former Columbia stars, The Fox and the Crow. After these cartoons were finished a new star arouse. UPA wanted to work with human characters, and despite the popularity of Popeye, Columbia was reluctant to let this happen. So they got around this by making a cartoon called Ragtime Bear, which despite the bear being the title character, the main character was Mr. Magoo. Magoo hit it big with audiences, who couldn't get enough of the near sighted stubborn old man. UPA made many more experimental films such as The Tell Tale Heart, and The Unicorn in the Garden, however their main bread winner was Magoo.
It is important to note that little of the people who worked on those classic shorts were working at UPA when this film was made. The director of this film was Abe Levitow. Levitow was a former Chuck Jones animator, and even directed some Looney Tunes cartoons (okay techinacaly one Looney Tune (A Witch's Tangled Hare) and one Merrie Melody (Really Scent)) , taking over Chuck Jones' unit after he left the studio. The song writers for this film were Julie Stine and Bob Merrill, who were also working on the live action Funny Girl at this time. The film's writer Barbara Chain had worked on Jay Ward's Crusader Rabbit TV show. The animator included Tom McDonald, Casey Onaitis, Hank Smith, Ed Solomon, John Walker, and Xenia. Of these only Tom McDonald and Casey Onaitis worked on the classic Magoo theatrical shorts.
This film is quite entertaining and a well done adaption, of A Christmas Carol. Though it could have easily benefited from more time, as the whole movie just feels rushed. Surprisingly it can be quite touching at times. The songs The Lord's Bright Blessing, Winter Was Warm, and Alone in the World are excellent songs by any standard and deserve much more attention. These are the emotional highlights of the film. Unfortunately the song We're Despicable, should have been left out to make room for more emotional depth, or funny humor. This film does have humorous moments, but very few really funny moments that were prevalent in the classic theatrical cartoon shorts. The film sometimes captures the great graphic design of classic UPA, and at other times just feels stilted. While the design work doesn't always work when it does it reminds one of how great UPA can be. This is not my favorite film version of A Christmas Carol (that would be the 1951 version), or even my favorite version where classic cartoon characters are put into the famous story (that would be A Flintstones Christmas Carol), but it is still a well made movie, that I really like a lot.
This film was first released as a made for TV movie, however it was so popular that it later recieved a theatrical release. It was also the first made for TV animated Christmas special, something which you might have noticed has caught on.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
DVD Commentary by Darrel Van Critters
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