Jolly Frolics is a UPA animated cartoon series. Thirty-eight films were produced in the series, theatrically released from 1948 to 1959, pioneering the use of limited animation.
Due to their mature themes, they weren't considered animation appropriate for younger audiences, and as a result have never aired on television (with some exceptions, like the cartoons with The Fox and the Crow , Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing-Boing plus some others which were more family-friendly in tone, as they were aired in the package TV series Totally Tooned In ). They were released on DVD by TCM in 2012 with a MOD re-release in 2014.
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Gerald McBoing-Boing is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on November 2, 1950. It was adapted by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott from a story by Dr. Seuss, directed by Robert Cannon, and produced by John Hubley.
United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio and later distribution company founded in 1941 as Industrial Film and Poster Service by former Walt Disney Productions employees. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures such as the Mr. Magoo series. In 1956, UPA produced a television series for CBS, The Boing-Boing Show, hosted by Gerald McBoing Boing. In the 1960s, UPA produced syndicated Mr. Magoo and Dick Tracy television series and other series and specials, including Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. UPA also produced two animated features, 1001 Arabian Nights and Gay Purr-ee, and distributed Japanese films from Toho Studios in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge. The special first aired on December 18, 1962, on NBC and was the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television.
J. Quincy Magoo, better known as Mr. Magoo, is a fictional cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced by Jim Backus, Mr. Magoo is an elderly, wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of comical situations as a result of his extreme near-sightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit the problem. However, through uncanny streaks of luck, the situation always seems to work itself out for him, leaving him no worse than before. Bystanders consequently tend to think that he is a lunatic, rather than just being near-sighted. In later cartoons, he is also an actor, and generally a competent one, except for his visual impairment.
William John Scott was an American voice actor, writer and producer for animated cartoons, primarily associated with Jay Ward and UPA, as well as one of the founding members of ASIFA-Hollywood. He is probably best known as the head writer, co-producer and the voice of several characters from the popular programs Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show.
John Kirkham Hubley was an American animated film director, art director, producer, and writer known for his work with the United Productions of America (UPA) and his own independent studio, Storyboard, Inc.. A pioneer and innovator in the American animation industry, Hubley pushed for more visually and emotionally complex films than those being produced by contemporaries like the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers Animation. He and his second wife, Faith Hubley, who he worked alongside from 1953 onward, were nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three.
Rudolph Larriva was an American animator and director from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Hell-Bent For Election is a 1944 two-reel animated cartoon short subject film.
Gerald McBoing-Boing is an American-Canadian 2D animated children's television series based on the 1950 animated short film Gerald McBoing-Boing. It premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on August 22, 2005, as part of their then-Tickle-U programming block, and on Teletoon in English and French in Canada on August 29, 2005. The show would later be reran on Boomerang around 2007. It uses the same basic art style as the original, but with more detail. Each 11-minute episode features a series of vignettes with Gerald, of which the "fantasy tales" are done in Seussian rhyme. There are also sound checks, gags, and "real-life" portions of the show, It was also internationally broadcast on ABC Kids in Australia.
Herbert Klynn was an American animator at UPA from 1944 to 1959 eventually rising to the role of Vice President and Production Chief. He worked on various Mr. Magoo cartoons and Gerald McBoing-Boing cartoons as well as cartoon shorts such as Madeline (1952) and Christopher Crumpet (1953).
The Vancouver Canucks were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Hockey League, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Inaugurated in 1945 with the PCHL, they became a WHL team with the merger of the PCHL with the Western Canada Senior Hockey League in 1952. The Canucks played 25 seasons in the WHL between 1945 and 1970. In 1970 they joined the National Hockey League along with fellow expansion team, the Buffalo Sabres.
Shirley Silvey was an American animator, whose credits included Mr. Magoo, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Dudley Do-Right Show and George of the Jungle. Silvey was considered a pioneer in animation, as she was one of the first women to work in the field.
1001 Arabian Nights is a 1959 American animated comedy film produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Released to theaters on December 1, 1959, the film is a loose adaptation of the Arab folktale of "Aladdin" from One Thousand and One Nights, albeit with the addition of UPA's star cartoon character, Mr. Magoo, to the story as Aladdin's uncle, "Abdul Azziz Magoo". It is the first animated feature to be released by Columbia Pictures.
Willis Acton Pyle was an American animator known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios, including Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and Bambi (1942), as well as UPA's Mr. Magoo, where he co-created the iconic character, and the short film, Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950), which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1951. Pyle later enjoyed a long career as a freelance animator on such projects as the animated film, Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977), Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), several Peanuts television specials, and Cathy's Valentine.
Events in 1913 in animation.