When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA

321 Pages·2012·20.53 MB·English

by  Adam Abraham

When Magoo Flew

When Magoo
Flew
The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio
Adam Abraham
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
© 2012 Adam Abraham
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Publication of this book is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abraham, Adam.
When Magoo flew : the rise and fall of animation studio UPA / by Adam Abraham.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8195-6914-1 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8195-7270-7 (ebook)
1. UPA Productions of America—History. 2. Animated films—United States.
I. Title.
NC1766.U52U733 2012
384’.850973--dc23
2011041674
“… abandon hopelessness, all ye who enter here.”
—G. K. CHESTERTON
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C
ONTENTS
PREFACE IX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XIII
AUTHOR’SNOTE XVII
PART I Before the Beginning 1
CHAPTER 1 Fantasyland in Revolt 3
CHAPTER 2 Wartime Experiments 24
PART II UPA and the Animated Ideal 41
CHAPTER 3 Industrial Films 43
CHAPTER 4 Columbia Pictures Presents 63
CHAPTER 5 Modern Art Triumphant 87
PART III Interruption 119
CHAPTER 6 The Red Menace 121
PART IV Flight of Icarus 141
CHAPTER 7 Mr. Magoo: Blindness and Insight 143
CHAPTER 8 Television and Advertising 165
CHAPTER 9 An Arabian Goodnight 189
CHAPTER 10 After the Fall 210
EPILOGUE 232
NOTES 240
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 278
SELECTFILMOGRAPHY 286
IMAGE CREDITS 290
INDEX 291
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P
REFACE
UPA requires some explanation. Although dimly remembered or
completely forgotten today, United Productions of America (UPA) was a
phenomenon, a groundbreaking studio that changed the look and feel of
the American animated cartoon.
In the 1950s, the artists of UPA moved beyond the rounded realism
of the Walt Disney Studio and the crash-bang anarchy of Warner Bros.
to create films that were innovative and graphically bold—the cartoon
equivalent to modern art. UPA’s influence could eventually be seen
everywhere, from Hanna-Barbera in California to the Zagreb Film studio
in Europe—an influence that continues to this day, in television cartoons
and in computer animation produced for the Internet.
When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA examines
this achievement and chronicles the birth, joyous reign, and regrettable
decline of a unique American enterprise.
The origins of the studio can be traced to the bitter 1941 strike at
Walt Disney Productions. Among the artists who left Disney’s during this
turbulent period were the three men who eventually formed UPA: Stephen
Bosustow, David Hilberman, and Zachary Schwartz. Schwartz was the
iconoclast of the group. He insisted that animated films were a form of
graphic art—closer to painting and magazine illustration than to live-action
cinema. Hilberman was the political conscience of the trio. After helping
to organize the strike, he felt that his future would lie in producing films
for government, industry, and educational organizations. Steve Bosustow
was the designated businessman, not so much for his financial acumen
but probably because he was a less assured artist than his two partners.
As America entered World War II, this fledgling triumvirate gained
commissions to produce animated propaganda and training films. Limited
budgets and the need for utter clarity led to innovations that formed
the kernel of the UPA look: flattened character designs, streamlined
backgrounds, and stylized movement.
After the war, UPA won a contract to produce theatrical cartoons
for Columbia Pictures; this deal led to a flowering in the 1950s, when
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