Un Mago Musical

Let me first state that I think that Tex Avery is to the animated short what Walt Disney was to the feature-length animated film. So many of the conventions of animated shorts were either started by Avery or so effectively used by him that he gave us the cartoon format that we know and, hopefully, love. And Magical Maestro is vintage Tex Avery-gags fired at the viewer one right after another, most of them hilarious. This is excellent work from a master of a highly under-rated art form. Bravo! Encore!

Tex Avery did for writing cartoons what Mel Blanc did for voicing them. Magical Maestro is yet another of his brilliant concepts. As in almost all of his cartoons, the jokes are non-stop and damn funny, the re-occuring theme of one person making anothers miserable is in full bloom here. Lets hope that an Avery collection is released soon on DVD.

For my money, Avery's finest cartoon...for years Avery tried to answer PORKY IN WACKYLAND, with out full manic success...this surpasses all previous Avery efforts with wit, sophistication and of course with dropped anvils. Plus, the satire is razor-sharp.

Avoid the butchered "politically correct" edits on Cartoon Network---seek out the slightly offensive but imposingly hilarious original.

Down and out variety magician gets his own back on haughty opera singer, by changing everything the tenor can sing, technically this is really brilliant, with a soundtrack that must really stretched the MGM orchestra. Unfortunatly the cutbacks in the cartoon department at MGM at the time really show in the lack of backgrounds in this late Avery 'toon, but the quickfire sight gags fall thick and fast to make up for this. As a projectionist working in the cinema, the can containing the print of the film carried a warning that the scene where the hair gets stuck in the gate was an integeral part of the film and should be ignored. Enjoy this great 'toon, and watch out for the rabbits!!!!

One of the best gags of the toon, IMHO, is the stray fleck on the film. We've all seen them in old films, but nobody would ever expect what happens with this one!