This 1962 special marked the last hurrah of Mr. Magoo, who starred in 43 cartoon shorts, including two Oscar® winners, from the UPA Studio between 1949 and 1959. Magoo appears as Scrooge in a Broadway production of "A Christmas Carol" in this minimally animated hour. The play-within-the-show features forgettable songs by Jules Styne and Bob Merrill: Tiny Tim ("played" by the animated character…
Jules Verne's classic adventure is perfectly matched with Ray Harryhausen's timeless movie magic in Mysterious Island. Based on Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this rousing Civil War-era fantasy begins when a band of Union war prisoners (and one Confederate straggler) escape in a hot-air balloon, which crash-lands on the titular island of mystery. Verne's novel doesn't include a…
Actors: Edward Everett Horton June Foray Paul Frees William Conrad Walter Tetley. Directors: Dun Roman Gerald Ray Gerard Baldwin Jim Hiltz Rudy Zamora. Writers: Bill Scott Chris Hayward Chris Jenkyns. Format: Animated Box set Closed-captioned Color Dolby Dubbed DVD Original recording remastered Subtitled NTSC. Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0) Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0). Aspect Ratio: 1.33…
The General (1926)
The Origins of Film doesn't encompass as much as the title might suggest. The 10-hour program showcases some of the first works by African American and women directors as well as early ventures into the genres of animation, fantasy, and gangster cinema from the silent era. It's not so much a definitive look at the origins of film as it is a survey of pioneering works by often overlooked art…
Two of the all-time cartoon classics It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (a Peabody and Emmy winner from 1965) highlight this three-disc, six-episode set. Although the DVDs contain no extras (good grief!) and could have been combined on a single disc (drat!), the collection looks and sounds wonderful on DVD. The content is the same on the VHS and DVD sets,…
This Disney masterpiece from 1940 will hold up forever precisely because it doesn't restrain or temper the most elemental emotions and themes germane to its story. Based on the Collodi tale about a wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy, Pinocchio is among the most magical, mythical, and frightening films to come from the studio in its long history. A number of scenes make permanent impre…