Voices of Jim Backus, Lennie Weinrib, Bob Holt, and Patti Gilbert
Directed by Abe Levitow
Music and Lyrics by various
This would be the second and last Magoo TV special after the wildly popular Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. In many ways, it's a lot more ambitious than Christmas Carol, with Magoo playing Uncle Sam and inspiring figures from more than 200 years of American history. It may also be a continuation of the prime-time animated show The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, which had Magoo playing literary and historical characters. How well does everyone's favorite nearsighted old codger do as one of the most beloved American icons? Let's begin with his arrival in Hollywood, bumping into everything in sight and complaining about the state of the country, and find out...
The Story: Magoo (Backus) is supposed to be appearing in a movie, but he's devastated when it turns out he's in an Uncle Sam costume. He was hoping to be a debonair man about town. The spirit of Uncle Sam (Weinrib) insists he has a far more important job to do. Magoo accidentally knocks himself out...and finds himself traveling through various times and places in American history, from the discovery of the US to the real untamed Wild West. He finishes out explaining the importance of these events to the President as we hear from great statespeople and speakers...finally making Magoo understand how history helped shape the country as we know it, too.
The Animation: While Magoo and and most of the historical characters are done in the simple, slanted UPA style, the colors are bolder and brighter than usual, as per the subject matter. UPA eschews the slanted look in the elaborate medleys from various American wars set to stunning artwork. Some of the more dramatic characters, like George Washington and Kit Carson, are also done a little less cartoony than the rest of the special.
The Song and Dance: Stirring and impressive, this look at American history has surprisingly dark edges. The sequences depicting the Civil War and the Wild West in particular don't stint on the uglier sides of those time periods, showing the West in all its violent, land-destroying reality. The choral arrangements are appropriately stirring and beautiful, bringing many old American hymns and songs to life. Backus appropriately is a little more subdued as Uncle Sam after doing his usual myopic gags in the opening.
Favorite Number: We open with Magoo claiming "They'll Love Me In Hollywood." They might like him a bit more if he was less likely to run over side walks and making a mess of a star trying to get his hand print in cement. He sings "Yankee Doodle Boy" on the moon in an attempt to show how good he'll be as Uncle Sam. Magoo gets two sailor shanties as Viking Leaf Erikson sings "Sailing, Sailing" and Christopher Columbus and his men and John Smith and his crew perform "Blow the Man Down" as they (accidentally) discover the US. The Pilgrims perform a lovely traditional blessing over their first Thanksgiving. We get an instrumental "Yankee Doodle" and "But for You, My Sally Ann" to lead us into the American Revolution.
Magoo encourages Francis Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner" during The War of 1812. An abandoned little girl sings "Red River Valley" right before the slaughter at the Alamo. That "storm" takes us straight into an old black spiritual "Hold Down." The Civil War juxtaposes "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" with "Wish I Was In Dixie," set to real artwork of the time depicting actual Civil War battles...and "Columbia" eventually drowning out "Dixie." "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" briefly represents the Spanish-American War of 1898, while World War I and II are represented by "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." "Home On the Range" shows how the American West went from a dusty, beautiful land "where the buffalo roam" to a world of violent cowboys, ruined nature, and natives run off their land.
The only other original song is Magoo reciting the many, many "Inventions" created in the US during and after the Industrial Revolution. This goes straight into an instrumental fiddle square dance for settlers. "I've Been Working on the Railroad" shows the coming of the train to the West and its joining at Promitory Point. Giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan sings a gorgeous "Shenandoah" to make his ox Babe cry and let his logs float downriver. Mark Twain directs Magoo down the "Old Mississippi" as he sees two little boys on a raft who inspire his two most famous characters. The miners who flood California in 1849 lament the loss of "Darlin' Clementine." We end with images of "America the Beautiful" under children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
What I Don't Like: The stereotypes here are both subverted and played straight. The indigenous people are played for comedy, especially in the opening discovery sequences, played for drama in the West, and played as "savages" who try (and fail) to attack Magoo. The Chinese workers, however, are pure comic stereotypes and may offend a few people nowadays. There's very few women. We see Betsy Ross, Priscilla Mullins, and hear Eleanor Roosevelt during the montage of famous quotes in the finale. There's also quite a bit of insinuated violence, not only in the war sequences, but out west as well.
The Big Finale: Stirring introduction to American history for elementary school age kids and their families is a pleasant patriotic surprise that should be far better-known.
Home Media: DVD only from Sony Wonder.
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