Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- On Tuesday, Dec 1 The Paley Center in New York will host a screening of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. After the screening there will be a panel discussion which includes the following guests:
- Darrell Van Citters, Animator and Author of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making ____of the First Animated Christmas Special,
- Judy Levitow, Daughter of Magoo Director Abe Levitow
- Marie Matthews, Voice of “Young Scrooge”
- Moderator: Jack Doulin, of the New York Theatre Workshop.

The program starts at 6pm and general admission is $20. All guests will receive a complimentary DVD of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol.

I’ll post this again as we get closer to the date, but you might want to buy tickets in advance for this special program. Hopefully you’ll have the dvd at hand to wash out the taste of the all-Jim Carrey version coming to a theater near you.

- This announcement gives me the opportunity of recommending, again, Darrel van Citters’ excellent book, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special. Reading this attractive book gave me new insights into the program as well as the production of animation in the relatively early era of tv production. There’s a wealth of behind-the-scenes material about the production from concept to completion.

Some bits:

As a fan of Jule Styne‘s work, I find it remarkable the amount of information given about this composer as well as his score for this show. Styne and Bob Merrill were writing FUNNY GIRL for Broadway at the same time, and found themselves bogged down with producton delays. They took the UPA cartoon because they thought it’d be fun and they’d be able to squeeze it in before their Broadway show got up and running again. They also thought they could make a quick buck. Of course, the music gives the show the weight it needs with solid, strong tunes. (There were also a few others asked before Styne was selected.)

Abe Levitow was directing Gay Purr-ee at the exact same time he was doing Magoo’s Christmas Carol. This presented logistic problems which are detailed here in an entertaining read.


Gerard Baldwin had only two weeks to animate the “Despicables” song.
He completed the sequence, which was one of the highlights of the show, on time.

Shirley Silvey had a limited amount of time away from her work on The Bullwinkle Show. She used it to design the story board for Magoo and help in the early stages of the show’s Layouts.

A Shirley Silvey storyboard drawing alongside a matching Layout by Sam Weiss.

It’s a good read with lots of the business side mixed in with the artistry. Darrell Van Citters is a Producer/Director/Animator by day. Consequently, the informed animation reader feels in safe hands throughout the book. He knows what rocks to turn over, and his curiosities in this film are ours. He talks about the things you want to know, and he opens up avenues you didn’t expect to see explored. Van Citters financed this book, himself; he believes in it, and you feel that from the first page. It’s a fine book.

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