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| Fairy Tale Media Fix title card |
United Productions of America, also known as UPA, was a cartoon studio formed in the wake of the 1941 Disney Animators' Strike. UPA rejected Disney's adherence to trying to strictly imitate cinematic reality and was devoted to more experimentation in animation style. After forming a partnership with Columbia Pictures and a string of successful animated shorts, in 1959 UPA released its first feature-length animated film. It would be an adaptation of the story “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp” and be titled 1001 Arabian Nights.
Also, it would feature UPA's signature character, Mr. Magoo.
No, I'm not kidding.
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| DVD cover for 1001 Arabian Nights. |
This movie is in some ways a bit of a head-scratcher. In so many ways, it's exactly what it says on the tin. A UPA film based on the story of “Aladdin”. It has the decidedly more abstract, experimental style you'd expect from a UPA cartoon. Not quite as experimental as they would get, but definitely more experimental than Disney. It depicts the story of Aladdin with all the changes you'd expect to be made in the name of being family-friendly or just streamlining the story. They take out the part where Aladdin lies next to the princess in bed and places a sword between them. It removes the Genie of the Ring, so that there's only the Genie of the Lamp. It condenses down the stories two antagonists, the wicked magician who poses as Aladdin's uncle and the ambitious Vizier into one character: the Wicked Wazir (if anyone can't remember all this stuff from the story, I don't blame you. I will leave a link to the original story of “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”). There are also songs, though they're not very memorable.
Those are all changes we'd see Disney make decades later and which we probably saw in numerous adaptations.
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| Movie poster for 1001 Arabian Nights |
But then there's the Magoo of it all.
For those who don't know, Mr. Magoo is UPA's signature character. He's a stubborn, proud, self-important and extremely near-sighted old man who stumbles through crazy situations because he can't see very well and refuses to wear glasses. He's unaware of this though, because he will never accept that there's anything wrong, so he just assumes he's seeing what he wants to see.
In 1001 Arabian Nights, Magoo plays Aladdin's uncle, a lamp-seller. He basically takes the role that Aladdin's mother takes in the original tale. He also plays a little of the princess's role in trading away the lamp. That is, until the climax. Instead of Aladdin setting off to find the missing princess and evil magician after they've disappeared, Aladdin gets accused of causing their disappearance and gets imprisoned and gets sentenced to beheading. At that point, Uncle Magoo stumbles onto a flying carpet (which didn't come out of nowhere. It was foreshadowed from the beginning of the movie) and gets carried to where the Wicked Wazir and the Princess Yazminda are. He then, bumbles and stumbles his way to saving the day. (Sorry for all the spoilers).
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| Uncle Magoo with the Wicked Wazir |
Look, I actually like Mr. Magoo myself. I wrote a whole blog post elsewhere about it. But it's so strange how this movie turned into a Mr. Magoo vehicle. It wouldn't be so bad if Aladdin got to be the hero of his own picture and Magoo just stayed in a comic relief role. But no, Magoo had to save the day.
The movie has other good points. It comes very close to being a decent Hollywood adaptation of the Aladdin story. UPA's simplified art style is fun to look at. There are some fun characters. The Wicked Wazir is fun in an over-the-top, cartoonishly evil kind of way. There's a funny, dim-witted executioner who runs around yelling “Chop! Chop! Chop!”. It just didn't have to turn so Magoo-centric.
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| The Wicked Wazir, Princess Yasminda and the Sultan. |
Oh, well. I wrote more about Mr. Magoo just as a cartoon character, over on my other blog Universes Beckon. Go over there and check it out if you're interested.
