The Rise and Fall of UPA (Part 3 of 3) 

The thing people don't realize about Mr. Magoo, what made him work fundamentally, was that he wasn't just vision impaired, he was arrogant, ie "blind to progress." He's an old man so set in his ways that he disavows anything and everything better for him and everyone else, and that never gets old. But even if you do pick up on that, he WAS more or less sold on gags about blindness.

I really love your UPA series it was seriously a very good watch and a fascinating history lesson. You should seriously do a three or five part series on Fleischer Studios and the Fleischer Brothers (Max and Dave Fleischer) in the future. The Fleischers seriously deserve more credit with today's audiences. Hell, Max Fleischer even made the first animated adaptation of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1948.

Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse felt like the first time in the 20th century where I could see a feature length animated film take influence from UPA, even if only for a few scenes. It was surrealist at times in the best way and it felt like real artists breaking the boundaries of what 3D animation can stylistically achieve when moving away from realism.

This is the Star Wars trilogy of animation documentaries. Awesome.

One has to keep in mind the context in which these cartoons were originally viewed. You're sitting in the theatre waiting for the Columbia movie you paid for to start, wondering what cartoon you'll be getting beforehand. The anticipation was wonderful. And then ... Magoo!! You clap along with the other patrons, because you remember how much you laughed at the last Magoo short you saw (probably months ago). You have watched many many other cartoons, feature movies, Three Stooges shorts, and TV shows since then. You don't recall any repetitiveness, you just remember that it was about this grouchy blind-ish guy that said (and did) funny things. (Jim Backus was allowed to ad-lib under his breath, which gave these cartoons an extra Popeye-like charm.) These were never meant to be binge-watched! Even if you wait a few days between viewings, it would be too soon. Binge watching any cartoon or movie or television show made before 1990 would be a mistake, because you would see not only repetitiveness but inconsistencies as well. UPA produced anywhere from three to nine (in 1957 only) Magoo theatrical cartoons a year (1950-1959). So you can see that it would be months between seeing that old goofy guy. In the 1960s many new lower-quality Magoo shorts were created for TV (most kids love repetitiveness, by the way). I know it wouldn't be feasible to wait two months between watching each cartoon when doing a great series like you have put together here, but I wanted to be sure your audience realizes that the original producers of not only this series, but others such as the great Fleischer Popeye series, knew that the repetitiveness wouldn't really be noticed since viewers would see them so "spaced out" time-wise. Be prepared for much repetitiveness is those Popeyes, and to a lesser extent, Betty Boop.

UPA was indeed an animator's independent paradise, and this series did it justice. Well done. ❤💙💛

Loved this whole series but was very disappointed that Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol was never mentioned! It’s the only UPA product that I really grew up with, and watching it in the weeks leading up to Christmas made me even more excited for this video. It’s not much different from the usual Christmas Carol adaption, but its music and unique animation always made it my favorite version, and it doesn’t use too many of the usual Magoo jokes. It’s never on television like all the other Christmas specials, and I’ve never seen it casually referenced anywhere, but it deserves way more recognition IMO

This mini-doc is a work of art in it’s own right! Beautiful motion graphics that are stylistically perfect and the editing, as always, is sublime.

Disney animation needs a rival or else they become complacent(Fleschers, Looney Tunes, UPA, Don Bluth, Dreamworks) just like they need Disney to react to to forge their own identity.

Basically it was UPA's overuse of Mr. Magoo that add to their fall. Ironic how they wanted to be less like Disney and Warner Bros Animation, yet to rely on pumping out formulaic gag-based shorts just like the.

Astounding work! However, I was somewhat disappointed that my first exposure to UPA's work, 'Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol' was not referenced. Although not an example of their best work, it was reportedly the first animated Christmas special--a milestone of sorts and a full-length foray into the television medium.

I recommend the book 'When Magoo Flew - The Rise & Fall of Animation Studio UPA.' They formed because they wanted to break away from Walt Disney's control. Ironically one of their great weaknesses was that they didn't have any one person like Disney guiding them and holding them together. Instead they had too many guiding voices, all strong individuals, and none of them could quite agree on what their mission was. Great minds don't always think alike.

If you think the theatrical Magoos are hard to watch, try looking at the later T V ones. He’s not only half-blind, but seemingly senile as well. His destructive antics were painful to watch. I do like a few of them, however, like the Oscar-winning “When Magoo Flew.” In that film, the nearsightedness gags actually are funny, as he continually frustrates a criminal on board a plane.

What a fantastic series. Really excellent work. Looking forward to those shorts!

12:05 "Animation was a mistake" - Saperstein Sorry... Couldn't resist. :P

“Who killed animation?” - Henry Saperstein

I wouldn't say that the TV Dick Tracy and Mr. Magoo series were cancelled after a season, both cartoons were technically made for syndication TV, and after filling how many episodes were necessary, that was all they did, the cartoons continued to run for decades on and off TV simply because stations did buy 'em.

Your editing is absolutely amazing. I mean, also your writing, research, and overall topic/theme. But really, that editing. Wow. In an internet filled with video essays, yours could rise to the top of the mountain based on professional quality alone. I look forward to what you do in 2019.

It's cool seeing where this style, which was referenced *often* in 90s cartoons (i.e. Angry Beavers, Sponge Bob, etc...), originated.

Thank you for doing this and really hope to see more. I am a former Animator who worked at Hanna Barbera and have always been a fan of animation since I was little. I been a fan of the work of UPA since seeing a few of their shorts on TV back in the early 60's. Mr. Magoo was never a favorite of mine, because most of those shorts fell into a formal that became tiring after a while. But I did enjoy "Magoo's Christmas Carol" and became a special I looked forward to viewing every holiday season. UPA was an interesting place and I was lucky enough to work with and got to know a number of the Key personal from that studio. I'm glad their work still lives on. Thanks again for your video essay.

I hope the UPA design will going to have a comeback in modern cartoon someday.

What made them stand out was their originality, and how besides some visual comedy the visuals expressed ideas and themes all on their own. I love computer animation, but it's something very often lacking today. In animation, anything can happen. Anything. Why try and make things as realistic as possible when you can be much more than reality??

I watch Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol every year. It always gets me in the mood for the holidays. UPA and it’s cartoons have always been a favorite of mine.

I appreciate the reference to Gennedy, Craig, and Brad Though no mention of Magoo Christmas Carol?

And don’t forget “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, the animated series became so iconic, but it used some striking resemblance to the UPA cartoons, the animation, the stylings, and the background looks a lot like UPA. Lauren Faust created the show and it ran from 2010 through 2019 with a total of 9 seasons, the series looks really good, but similar than what UPA has done during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Hasbro produced the show, but the styling was UPA-like animation. And like I said “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” is the show that influenced the animation style like UPA did.

MR. MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL pioneered the animated Holiday Special, and was something of a jump start if not for a short time for UPA. This lead to THE FAMOUS ADVENTURES OF MR. MAGOO on NBC. This was the period 1962-1964, and their last chance of survival. This was part of this history as well.

man... and then Disney made the live action Magoo Movie... my heart just broke

Years ago I fell in love with the UPA aesthetic. That infatuation was anchored in the highly stylized compositions with limited palettes that inspired my own art. Seeing this 3-part series was enormous fun. // Don't ask me what I think of the hyper-realism of new "cartoons." I knew I could never love 3-D versions of Alvin and the Chipmunks. And everything in that same vein. That new world is premised on the visual stupidity of its target audience.

Thanks for the info on the UPA. As a kid all I thought they made was the Mr. Magoo series which didn't impressed me either but now I know they made tons of other stuff.

Mr. Magoo is one of my favorite character from UPA and that Jim Backus provide the voice on the character, who was hilarious by the way. I also only like the early shorts of Mister Magoo, including the ones that are involved in John Hubley, Bill Scott and Phil Eastman. But when these guys left UPA due to red scare and blacklist reasons, the Magoo cartoons starting to decline and became dull and boring, the only Magoo cartoons I like are “When Magoo Flew”, “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” (a cartoon special that I saw when I was a kid) and two Magoo cartoons that was Produced and Directed by Robert Cannon. Bill Scott did briefly returned to UPA to work on UPA’s The Boing Boing Show for CBS in 1956 before joining Jay Ward to co-create Rocky and Bullwinkle.

The criticism against Mr. Magoo, that the cartoons are the same thing over and over again with minor variations, can also be applied to the Roadrunner series.

Gay Purr-ee is a fond memory of my childhood at Grandma's house. Now I understand the context that brought it into being. The only other film I'd seen from those you've mentioned was Madeline. I never would have considered they were made by the same company, but now I see the startling influences in the art and stark difference in the showmanship.

This really changed my perspective on limited animation...wow...amazing!

You forgot to mention Mr. Magoos Christmas Carol, made in 63. U.p.a also had influenced the united artist cartoons, which later became a Saturday morning shows based on inspector Cleuzo produced by Depart and Freeling. They also had a great influence on Trey Parker and Mat stones modern version of Looney tunes and very adult, South Park.

As someone with a creativity-leaning mind, I felt disappointed in hearing about Henry G Saperstein’s disdain with UPAs focus on animation. But as a Godzilla fan, I can’t deny how important his tenure at UPA was to the franchise I love.

Hey, but what if, maybe, possibly, we strived for a society that viewed art as inherently valuable instead or a commodity where its value is determined by a market Signed, A Dirty Commie

I still say 'Gay Purr-ee' deserves to be better remembered - it has beautiful animation, a fine cast and an excellent soundtrack. It's certainly a better movie than Disney's 'Aristocats.'

Waiting for Part 3 of this beautiful documentary were the four longest and most painful weeks of my life. And it was worth going through it.

I... can’t believe I never heard of them before ?? This was absolutely fascinating and has taught me a lot, really. I never realized that some of those cartoons were simple because of budgets, and that they never experimented outside of realism before this!

This is without a doubt my favorite channel on RU-vid. I loved this series so much, keep up the good work!

15:11 Speaking of Craig McCracken, it's worth noting that his latest series, Kid Cosmic, doesn't have the same UPA influence on its character design when compared to McCracken's previous cartoons (Powerpuff Girls, Foster's, Wander Over Yonder), as it's more reminiscent of the Tintin comics. Still, it does show some UPA influence on its limited yet aesthetically pleasing animation. Following the previously mentioned Tintin influence, the series (which I recommend watching for any animation fan) feels like an animated comic book.

Why do all semi documentaries on youtube are plagued with "lo fi beats" music. (Great video, tho)

I’ve been waiting so eagerly for this. This 3 part series is some of the best work I’ve seen from your channel. And most importantly, I learner way more about a studio I was only vaguely familiar with before - but now fondly appreciate.

What an exceptional series! I didn't know anything about UPA and watched on a whim, and I'm so glad I did. Very impressed

Love UPA! I was waiting anxiously for this last episode. Thank you for producing this beautiful work!

This was a fun and fascinating docu-series. I can see what you mean with Mister Magoo, judging by when they were released I assumed they were appealing when view months apart instead of all at once.

Oh man, I'm here crying at the end... thank you so much for an amazing 3-part experience ♡

Saperstein technically owned Magoo and the other animated properties that weren't made for Columbia Pictures for years to come, alongside his handling of several Toho monster features that were the mainstays of TV in the 70's and 80's. I see you choose not to bother with that part of Saperstein's UPA era, but it is a rather interesting one to say the least in how he continued to peddle the IP's he had.

Have you guys watched the first episode of Loki? I instantly thought of these videos during the TVA info video.

Incredible series, just stunning. Informative and visually beautiful. As some one who is studying animation at university these videos have been such a wealth of informative and full of inspiration. You don’t just tell the story excellently the visuals are beautiful and how it is put together. The production value has just been incredible. Well done, fantastic job!!!

Just watched this series. Outstanding work sir. I will be taking a deep dive into the rest of your channel.

No mention of Magoo's Christmas Carol? Total success in my estimation. I've watched it many times over.

Bravo Andrew. Great series. Looking forward to your future videos.

This has to be your best work yet. Going to be watching through UPA's history whenever I get some free time

Really enjoyed this UPA series! Thank you for all your work!

Happy that you've covered something most video essayist's haven't even touched. I had no idea this genre of animation really existed. Good Luck on your original animations!

I feel both saperstein and disney are kinda responsible for animation being labelled as “for children only”

The unforgettable force of nature that is Mr. Magoo and handling of the union challenges is fascinating to dive deeper into.🎯✏🎥👓🌅 Stay safe everyone!

In addition to MLP FiM, came the “Littlest Pet Shop”, the animated series from 2012 did took the stylings and animation than what UPA did.

I've had the same thoughts about Magoo v Magoo films, but never directly enough to understand what I was feeling. Well put

This was a great and very fascinating video. You did an amazing job on this series! As an animation fan, I’m glad to know about UPA and their legacy.

Incredible work! The passion you have for the subject was tangible

This was an excellent series. Hopefully you can make more like this in the future.

Rewatched this series... and wow, what a rollercoaster. As an animator, it was wild to go from remembering all the awesome shorts shown in Part 2... to Mister Magoo with Uncle Sam at the very end. Seems like a slap in the face that the scare in the country that was tearing the studio apart was then celebrated like that. Ugh.

Bravo! What a great series. Looking forward to what's next!

Thank you for all the work you put into this series!

5:04 -- I grew up in the late 50s and early 60s. I saw some of the later UPA shorts as lead-ins to feature films, but most of them I saw writ small in black-and-white. I felt at 8 in 1964 (yeah, I'm freakin' old) that the Mr. Magoo cartoons were dull and repetitive. I still love *Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol* though. I'm big into Dickens, and I love the fact that UPA followed the book better than most live-action films have. Edit: Great job on this three-part goodie! You've triggered a lot of memories, and introduced me to some films I've missed. Thank you for your hard work!

This series was incredibly well done. More please

Wonderful series you’ve made! Love your work!

i loved this series! I would definitely be interested in seeing you takle other studios and how they fit in film history. And as always, I appreciate how you treat animation with respect and understanding that it is a valuable medium for filmmaking!

An astounding documentary. Episode 2 dissecting their design philosophy was magnificent. Thank you very much.

Great end to a great series Andrew. Can’t wait to see your own animation

Your videos are so pleasing to watch, like how do you manage to create every explanation look so artistic?

This series was really well made! Both the curation, design and editing.

just watched all 3 parts back to back. YOU ARE SO GOOD AT THIS!!! It would be so cool to see a full 1-hour-long AHOY-style video-essay on some obscure topic like this one. Seriously, you should do that someday

Congrats on the UPA series! I seriously loved it 🙌🏿👏🏿👏🏿

Thank you for this very enlightened documentary. I really enjoyed it.

I always loved UPA cartoons and you did them justice.

Honestly, I don't mind formula-driven cartoons. Heck, some of my top favorite cartoons of all time are formula-driven (i.e. Tom & Jerry, Tweety & Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote & the Road Runner, among others). What makes them work is the endless variations of their respective formulas. To quote a Looney Tunes mega-fan, "You know what's going to happen, but it's how it happens; that's the fun of it!" As for the Mr. Magoo theatrical cartoons, they're great, but I wouldn't consider an A+ & 10/10. I definitely prefer UPA's more experimental & unconventional animated short films, such as 'Rooty Toot Toot', The Unicorn in the Garden', 'The Tell-Tale Heart' & nearly all of Robert Cannon's directorial efforts for the studio. Really great work with your trilogy of UPA mini-documentary videos. The only part of this video I'll criticize is the part where you put The Pink Panther in with other made-for-TV cartoons. The Pink Panther cartoons were made for theatrical release, not television. Otherwise, superb work! 😉👍

this is definitely my favorite video of yours thank you for sharing :^)

Something tells me you should do a series on Hanna Barbera.

For his part, Stephen Bosustow went on to form a new studio of his own called "Stephen Bosustow Productions" (later Bosustow Entertainment) who produced a number of animated shorts, often based on storybooks and other subjects through the 1970's and 80's. ru-vid.com/group/PLTnbwiCw-mMSPBTd9y5GxchRYvvxqEIhe Other former UPA alumni have also operated their own studios as well, including animator Bill Melendez, production manager Abe Woolery (Playhouse Pictures) and Herb Klynn (Format Films).

Awesome work! We really enjoyed this documentary.

Bravo sir. These videos are beautifully crafted and inspirational to an animator like me. I've gone out and watched all the Jolly Frolics DVD set, and I will continue to study this studio for my next semester at CalArts. I will attempt to integrate these experimental and limited animation practices into my own stop motion and 2D work. Thank you for these videos and for introducing so many to this catalog of masterpieces.

Also, I would love for you to talk about Craig McCracken and his collection of cute and cartoony shows that were my childhood on Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. Also, Looney Tunes and other Animation Videos. Also, Do Yellow Submarine, Please!

Wow, that was a wonderful series of videos!

I loved the whole series about UPA. Thank you very much

This serie was so great, please, could you make another videos about other studios? Or videos about animation history, just an more? Please, this is so great!!

Thanks for such a great series!

Again, great, much needed video on an under-appreciated animation studio! Thank you! (And If I may, I'd like to put in a good word for one Magoo film that you didn't mention: THE first animated television Christmas special, UPA's musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" which premiered in 1962 (predating "Rudolph" and "Charlie Brown Christmas")! Very well done, keeping close to the Dickens story and tone, and not so formulaic like the other Magoo films. (This film also had well-written and memorable songs!) If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol", with Magoo perfectly cast as Ebenezer Scrooge.) - - Also, regarding your closing remarks, actually a ten year run of innovative and influential work for a studio like UPA is pretty good by any measure!

Love this series!! Can you upload all three in one video??

Bring on the animation shorts. Some of the best short films ever made. Looking forward to seeing them. :-)

Really loved this series!

I am hype for your animated short, didn't even know you drew

Very good series. Thanks for your work:)

Magoo is a callback to the old slapstick masters like Chaplin and Harold Loyd. Sure, they have less edge than the one-off titles, but they helped keep animation alive and inspired guys like Ralph Bakshi (my favorite director) and Gennady Tartokofski(I just know that I misspelled his name). Everything that a person needs to know about being human can be found in cartoons. Morality, emotions, spirituality, even strategic thinking if you're a devotee of Bugs Bunny. It's all there. Magoo just deals with adversity with good humor and an obliviousness that is inspired. Great videos, you're going to do interesting things, it's inevitable. Thanks for this in particular, I adore UPA.

I enjoy the Mr. Magoo shows when he was in classic stories. You get Jim Backus, you get Mr. Magoo, and you get original/revivals of classic stories, with less of a focus on just his blindness.

I LOVE ALL OF THIS

again, THANK YOU for the effort and the sharing. BIG thumbs up from a very appreciative subscriber. ;-)

For a young man you have a great understanding of such a great part of my young life. Thank you for calling out the moguls who crushed the industry that promised so much. Are longus Vita brevis. Thank you...Subscribed