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When Magoo Flew
The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA
Sales Date: 2012-03-09
The story of the renegade artists who brought modern art to the world of animation
What do Franklin Roosevelt, Dr. Seuss, the U.S. Navy, and Mr. Magoo have in common? They are all part of the surprising story of the pioneering cartoon studio UPA (United Productions of America). Throughout the 1950s, a group of artists ran a business that broke all the rules, pushing animated films beyond the fluffy fantasy of the Walt Disney Studio and the crash-bang anarchy of Warner Bros. Instead, UPA's films were innovative and graphically bold—the cartoon equivalent to modern art. When Magoo Flew is the first book-length study to chronicle the complete story of this unique American enterprise. The book features cameo appearances by Aldous Huxley, James Thurber, Orson Welles, Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Jim Backus, Eddie Albert, and Woody Allen, as well as a select filmography of the best of UPA.
Ebook Edition Note: The ebook has three images redacted: figures 1, 2, and 51.
Publication of this book is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Author's Note
BEFORE THE BEGINNING
Fantasyland in Revolt
Wartime Experiments
UPA AND THE ANIMATED IDEAL
Industrial Films
Columbia Pictures Presents
Modern Art Triumphant
INTERRUPTION
The Red Menace
FLIGHT OF ICARUS
Mr. Magoo: Blindness and Insight
Television and Advertising
An Arabian Goodnight
After the Fall
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Select Filmography
Image Credits
Index
ADAM ABRAHAM has written for film, television, and theatre, and he has taught at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in England.
"Adam (Abraham) writes well, and certainly did his homework; I learned a lot and pass along my highest recommendation."
~Leonard Maltin, Movie Crazy
"This splendid, and long-overdue, book traces the colorful history of the studio that sought to reinvent American animation. Abraham has done his homework and weaves the individual stories of UPA's many artists and personalities into a seamless and highly readable narrative. A first-rate piece of film history."
~Leonard Maltin
"At last! The story of UPA, the influential little-studio-that-could—and did—challenge Disney's domination of animation design and content, has finally been told accurately, with wit, clarity, and insight.""
~John Canemaker, Oscar-winning animator and director of animation at the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University
""The research is impeccable, the writing solid, the story fascinating...""
~Amid Amidi, Cartoon Brew
""Adam (Abraham) writes well, and certainly did his homework; I learned a lot and pass along my highest recommendation.""
~Leonard Maltin, Movie Crazy
""Readers familiar only with the studio's most famous creation, the nearsighted and befuddled Mr. Magoo, can hardly begin to appreciate the range and diversity of the studio's best work. But Adam Abraham's When Magoo Flew, the first full-scale history of UPA, is a good place to start.""
~Will Friedwald, Wall Street Journal
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