{"id":26300,"date":"2016-06-29T00:01:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T07:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=26300"},"modified":"2016-06-29T07:14:48","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T14:14:48","slug":"two-partial-drafts-magoo-goes-overboard-1957-and-the-flying-bear-1941","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/two-partial-drafts-magoo-goes-overboard-1957-and-the-flying-bear-1941\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Partial Drafts: “Magoo Goes Overboard” (1957) and “The Flying Bear” (1941)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s post is a double feature with a caution: the two drafts are incomplete. The first, UPA’s Magoo Goes Overboard<\/em> (1957), only has its first portion of the draft, while the other, MGM’s The Flying Bear<\/em> (1941), contains incomplete animator credits. By coincidence, Pete Burness is involved with both films \u2500 as an animator on The Flying Bear<\/em>, and as the director of Magoo Goes Overboard<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Magoo Goes Overboard<\/strong> (UPA; 1957)<\/p>\n

\"Jim

Jim Backus<\/p><\/div>By the time this film went into production around May\/June 1956, as listed on the draft (along with the time of day each artist began and finished their scenes), Jim Backus had gained more recognition on television, co-starring opposite Joan Davis in the sitcom I Married Joan<\/em> (1952-55), and on film, portraying a dramatic role as the emasculated father to James Dean in Nicholas Ray\u2019s Rebel Without a Cause<\/em> (1955). Magoo\u2019s popularity was apparent during Rebel\u2019s production; Backus taught Dean how to perform Magoo\u2019s voice, which ended up used as a throwaway line in the film. The plot of Magoo falling into a swimming pool set on a cruise ship, thinking he has fallen overboard, makes clear the calloused formula of Magoo\u2019s near-sightedness that hampered the series.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The credited animators\u2014Gil Turner, Tom McDonald, Cecil Surry and Barney Posner (listed as \u201cBarn\u201d)\u2014are present in the draft. Posner and McDonald served as assistant animators in the Hanna-Barbera unit at MGM during the \u201840s. Posner was an assistant to Ken Muse, particularly in the live-action\/animation portion of Anchors Aweigh<\/em> (1945). He animated for UPA in the mid-\u201950s, and worked in various television production studios, including King Features, Total Television, Kayro Productions, Hanna-Barbera and Filmation. Posner also worked in later theatricals for Ralph Bakshi (Heavy Traffic<\/em>) and for DePatie-Freleng on various Pink Panther cartoons in the \u201870s. He passed away in 2011, at the age of 96. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what constitutes as the only extant credits on the draft, which consists of about half of the cartoon: <\/p>\n