Magical Maestro

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Magical Maestro
This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1993.

Magical Maestro is a 1952 American animated short comedy film directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It features the Great Poochini (played by Butch Dog), a canine opera singer who spurns a magician. The magician is able to replace Poochini's normal conductor prior to the show through disguise. In 1993, Magical Maestro was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", making it the only Tex Avery cartoon so far to be inducted.

Why It Rocks

1. While Tex Avery's works are famous for always trying to outdo each other in their rowdy, delicate search for animated perfection, Magical Maestro would probably be an example of Tex Avery at his absolute finest.
2. The story's set up with a nice simplicity and incredible grace, using a flash-forward to provide dialogue after the opening scene.
3. The three main characters are all variations on stalwart figures in MGM cartoons:
   • One's an alternative take on Avery's characters Droopy the Dog (the conductor)
   • One's an evolution of the wolf who appeared in many of his adult fairy tales (Mysto the Magician)
   • And the other's a bulldog who was often the third leg of MGM's slapstick triangles. (Butch The Great Poochini)
4. Tons of humorous moments that makes the cartoon a knockout, even for Tex Avery's standards with his flawless comedic timing and great wacky execution.
5. It features the infamous "hair projector gag" which was used in a past Tex Avery cartoon a decade earlier (“Aviation Vacation”), but with the ten-year gap between the films, it made a vast difference in timing and filmmaking, and allowed the quality to be refined. Here, Poochini's more aware of the presence of the hair and literally pulls the hair off the screen. It got to the point where a note had to be sent to theaters informing them the hair was simply a gag for the picture.
6. The cartoon could serve as a culmination of Avery’s greatest period, as it was one of the last cartoons Avery finished in mid-1950 before he left the studio for a 17-month sabbatical, due to being issues with Fred Quimby (the at-the-time MGM cartoon studio producer), and Scott Bradley, (the cartoons’ musical composer for the period), and constantly being nervous of his works' quality.
7. The short pokes fun of pompous, self-proclaimed “high culture”, and paints it as an antagonistic figure. Mysto the Magician -- the short's most humorous character -- is kicked (literally) out of Poochini’s dressing room after an unsuccessful, buoyant sales pitch to add his magic act to the show, to which Mysto would try getting revenge by sabotaging his performance with his not-so-phony magic. This involves capturing and impersonating Poochini’s conductor (a caricature of Bradley), and throwing everything he can at the singer. -- rabbits, flowers and other magic props as mere irritants. The concept is creative, yet unique and outright hilarious.
8. Incredible Looney Tunes-esque animation help to takes a hit at poking fun of the idea of stereotypes in its writing, to amp up the clever gags, especially as shown during the transformation scenes in the singer’s rendition of “The Barber of Seville” where Poochini's repeatedly interrupted as he takes on various singing personas, via magic, at any moment the audience is least expecting it. These include a square dance caller, a Hawaiian, a Carmen Miranda-esque singer, a blackfaced Ink Spot, among others. The preposterous and humiliating were completely fair game here (for the most part, see BQ#2).
9. There is little influence of other drawing hands in the cartoon, despite the capable, individualistic styles of animators Mike Lah, Grant Simmons, and Walt Clinton. Tex Avery's personal drawing style was closer to the surface than before.
10. Great musical score from Scott Bradley, and vibrato in its voice work to go along with.
11. Funny execution in its plot twist, with Poochini's priceless reaction as he finds out about Mysto sabotaging his performance as he finishes it off, before he takes revenge on Mysto by taking his wand, and forces his tormentor through all the same ridiculous routines in a matter of seconds, finally bringing the curtain down (literally) on Mysto and the rabbits.

Bad Qualities

1. Like a fair share of Avery's work, the short film has a sometimes faulty story structure. Even at only 7 minutes, the piece feels like it's running out of ideas.
2. While it's done playfully and used in a humorous way, some of the stereotype usage in the film isn't going to sit very well with a number of audiences, considering blacks, hillbillies and South Seas natives are all uncomfortably dug at. The scenes involving a Chinaman and an African-American singer with blackface makeup, in particular will more than likely be offensive to some viewers. It got to the point where those two scenes were cut from numerous airings in television networks.
3. A handful of characters and subplots were left unresolved. For instance, the audience never finds out what happened to the conductor that got his hair, clothes, and nose stolen by Mysto.

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