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In the late 1950s, Henry G. Saperstein acquired the UPA animation studio and its characters (Columbia retained the rights to the original UPA theatrical shorts) after the studio found itself in financial trouble. Saperstein soon got UPA into the TV business with projects such as this and shows featuring established characters like Dick Tracy and Gerald McBoing Boing. The animation history books haven't been kind to this era of UPA's history and I can only imagine the reactions of horror by UPA buffs as they saw the studio that once produced critically acclaimed cartoons like "Unicorn in the Garden" suddenly begin cranking out low-budget made-for-TV shorts with titles like "Magoo Meets Frankenstein". Many of these TV Magoo shorts ended up being farmed out to outside animation studios and the results are mixed. While some shorts do suffer from the minimal budgets, believe it or not, there are actually some attractive looking shorts among these 130 cartoons (especially on the first couple discs).

It is true that Magoo's personality was toned down a bit for these TV cartoons, but overall he is still the same stubborn and bumbling geezer we all remember. Part of the character's appeal is that everyone knows someone like Quincy Magoo. A typical Magoo situation can be seen in "Safety Magoo" on Disc 3. An advertising agency has randomly selected an upstanding citizen to be the mascot for their million-dollar safety campaign. Of course, the randomly selected citizen just happens to be Magoo. The executives panic as they look out their office window to see Magoo stumbling around a nearby construction site, oblivious to the danger he's in. No matter what happens, in the end Magoo always comes out on top thanks to good ol' dumb luck and still totally clueless to the damage he's caused or injuries he has narrowly avoided.

The writers wisely gave Quincy a stable of regular supporting characters to play off of to keep things interesting. Returning from the theatrical shorts are Magoo's lunkheaded nephew, Waldo and feisty Mother Magoo. While her son may think she is a helpless little old lady, Mother Magoo's favorite hobbies include racing hot rods and wrestling crocodiles. Another regular is Magoo's loyal houseboy Charlie, a rather embarrassing Chinese stereotype by today's standards, complete with buck teeth and fractured English (he regularly refers to Magoo as "Mista Magloo", calls him his "bloss" instead of "boss", etc.). The ever-alert Charlie often attempts to warn his boss of the dangers they are in, but to no avail. It should be noted that Charle's voice was (poorly) redubbed in the 1980s to make him sound more polically correct for later TV airings, and to their credit, Classic Media has restored the original soundtracks to the majority of the "Charlie" cartoons for this DVD set (though a few shorts have the 1980s dubbed voice where the original elements apparently could not be found). You will want to avoid any cartoons with the obnoxious duo of Wheeler and Dealer, two bratty little children Magoo sometimes babysits. Rounding out the cast are Magoo's short-tempered billionaire uncle Tycoon Magoo (who nephew Magoo affectionately refers to as "Uncle Ty") and his British butler, Worcestershire (both voiced by Mel Blanc). Tycoon usually orders his put-upon butler to get rid of Quincy before the nephew destroys something extremely valuable... of course, they never actually succeed in ridding themselves of the pesky Magoo.

Probably realizing that Magoo's "mistake-something-for-something-else" schtick would get old really quick in half-hour chunks, we also got many cartoons where Quincy wasn't the main focus at all. Among these were a series of shorts featuring Magoo's pets including Hamlet the hamster, a little rodent who talks a bit like Jerry Lewis, whose trademark is donning a little helmet and blowing a bugle while yelling "CHAAAARGE!". Hamlet's favorite targets to heckle are laid back Southern hound dog Caesar and a conniving cat named Cicero. These animal characters usually cause their chaos as soon as Magoo leaves to run an errand (only to reappear at the end of the cartoon, to find his house in shambles). These Hamlet/Caesar/Cicero shorts definitely have more in common with the slapstick chases of Warner Bros. and MGM shorts than anything UPA ever produced. These were actually among my favorite shorts of the series. In addition to pet-centric shorts were a spin-off series of cartoons that focused on the globe-trotting misadventures of nephew Waldo and his W.C. Fields-like companion, Prezly. These are admittedly pretty lousy cartoons. You'll be thankful that your remote has a "skip" button. The tip-off you are about to suffer through a W&P cartoon is that the exact same piece of animation of Magoo on the phone is recycled at the start of every single one of these with only new dialogue dubbed over it.

The voice talent used in these cartoons is amazing and is the definite highlight of the series. In addition to Jim Backus as Magoo, there are also characters voiced by a who's-who of classic cartoon voice actors: Mel Blanc, Bea Benadaret, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Dal McKennon, Paul Frees, and others. Comedian Frank Nelson also lends his voice to a few shorts (most notably "Magoo and the Beanstalk" and "Magoo at Blithering Heights"). Even when the cartoons aren't exactly up to par, the voice acting still shines.

Originally slated for a Febuary 2005 release, Classic Media finally released The Mr. Magoo Show - The Complete DVD Collection as an exlcusive on their website in November 2006 with very little fanfare. It has now quitely made its way to being available at most mass-market retailers and websites including Amazon. The 130 shorts are packaged into 26 half-hour episodes comprised of five shorts each. The original opening and closing titles and show bumpers all seem to be intact. DVNR is kept to a minimum, but I did notice some video aliasing. A new copyright notice appears to have been superimposed onto the opening credits to each short. Classic Media really went all-out with the packaging for this. There's no double-sided or overlapping discs here. It is very attractive and clever. It comes with a booklet about Magoo's history and a breakdown of all the cartoons on the 4 DVDs (something sorely missing from CM's Harveytoons box set) and there is also a miniature reprint of a vintage Magoo comic book story. Appropriately (and humorously) enough, the set also comes with a coupon for eye glasses. There are no bonus features, but the goodies included in the box make up for it.

For fans of early television animation from the 1960s and nostalgia buffs, I can definitely recommend this Magoo set, especially if you see it at an affordable price (the price has come down a lot since its initial release). For anyone unsure, I'd suggest renting before buying. These cartoons are very short (about 5 minutes each) and, for the most part, fun. In the end, The Mr. Magoo Show - The Complete Collection is a worthwhile addition to your animated DVD collection.

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