Editing Magical Maestro

{{Short description|1952 film by Tex Avery}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Magical Maestro
| image          = MagicalMaestroTC.png
| caption        = 
| director       = [[Tex Avery]]
| story          = Rich Hogan
| music          = [[Scott Bradley (composer)|Scott Bradley]]
| animator       = Grant Simmons<br>[[Michael Lah]]<br>Walter Clinton
| starring       = [[Daws Butler]] (voice of Mysto, uncredited)<ref name="cartoonresearch">{{cite web|title=AVERY…. Vol. 2??? WELL, IMAGINE THAT!|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/avery-vol-2-well-imagine-that/|website=cartoonresearch.com|access-date=14 December 2020|date=7 December 2020}}</ref><br>[[Carlos Ramírez (singer)|Carlos Julio Ramírez]]<br>[[Tex Avery]]<br>[[Paul Frees]]<br>Frank Ross (voices of Poochini, uncredited)<ref name="cartoonresearch"/><br>[[Mary Kaye|The Mary Kaye Trio]] (Vocalists, uncredited)<ref name="cartoonresearch"/>
| producer       = [[Fred Quimby]]
| studio         = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|MGM Cartoons]]
| distributor    = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| released       = {{Film date|1952|2|9}}
| color_process  = [[Technicolor]]
| runtime        = 6 minutes and 30 seconds
| language       = English
}}

'''''Magical Maestro''''' is a 1952 American [[Animation|animated]] [[short film|short]] [[comedy film]] directed by [[Tex Avery]] and produced by [[Fred Quimby]] for [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|MGM Cartoons]]. Distributed by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], the short was released on February 9, 1952.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |pages=146–147}}</ref> It features the Great Poochini (played by [[Butch (film series)|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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Librarian Announces National Film Registry Selections (March 7, 1994) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin|url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/94/9405/film.html|access-date=2020-07-22|website=www.loc.gov}}</ref>

==Plot==
Attention-craving Mysto the Magician rudely interrupts a world-famous [[opera singer]], the great Poochini (a pun on opera composer [[Giacomo Puccini]]), in the midst of rehearsal and asks to perform an opening act at the show that night. Mysto's tricks primarily come from his magic wand, which can summon flowers and rabbits. Poochini is not impressed by Mysto's tricks and kicks him bodily out of the opera house.

Mysto realizes that he can pass himself off as the orchestra conductor, using his wand as a baton, and get revenge on Poochini. As the performance begins, he freezes the conductor in place; steals his tuxedo, nose, and wig; and takes his place to conduct the music. As Poochini (performed by the [[Colombia]]n baritone [[Carlos Ramírez (singer)|Carlos Julio Ramírez]]) sings the ''[[Largo al factotum]]'' aria from [[Gioacchino Rossini]]'s 1816 opera ''[[The Barber of Seville]]'', Mysto unleashes a variety of tricks with his wand. He begins by summoning rabbits and flowers and tricking Poochini into removing his own pants, changes his clothing several times, and causes him to sing in other styles. At one point, Poochini notices a hair protruding onto the screen (the "hair gag"; see below) and briefly pauses in his singing to pluck it loose and toss it aside.

An irate audience member in a balcony seat interferes with the performance three times. He first throws an armload of fruit at Poochini, turning him into a [[Carmen Miranda]]-esque singer, then sprays him with black ink from a fountain pen, causing him to sing tenor in the fashion of the [[The Ink Spots|Ink Spots]]. Finally the man drops an anvil on Poochini's head, crushing him to a shorter height and changing his vocals to a spoken bass line in a parody of the group's "Top & Bottom" format. After one rabbit washes the ink off Poochini's face with a fire hose and another one works his arm like an automobile jack to get him back up to full height, Mysto turns him into a Hawaiian singer.

In the final bars of the aria, Mysto's borrowed wig falls off and Poochini recognizes him. He takes the wig and wand for himself and levitates Mysto onto the stage when he tries to flee. Poochini uses several of the magician's own gimmicks against him in quick succession, with the curtain falling to flatten Mysto and his rabbits and end the cartoon.

==Voice cast==
*[[Daws Butler]] as Mysto the Magician<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
*[[Carlos Ramírez (singer)|Carlos Ramirez]] as The Great Poochini (main singing voice)<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
**The Mary Kaye Trio as some of Pocchini's comic voices<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
***[[Mary Kaye]] as [[Carmen Miranda]] Poochini<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
***Frank Ross as Chinese, Cowboy, Square-Dancer and Little Boy Poochini<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
***Frank Ross and Norman Kaye as Hawaiian singers<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
**[[Paul Frees]] as [[blackface]] singer Poochini<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
**[[Danny Webb (American actor)|Danny Webb]] as low-pitched [[blackface]] singer Poochini<ref name="cartoonresearch" />
**[[Tex Avery]] as Poochini's speaking voice for a single line: "NO!"<ref name="cartoonresearch" />

==History==
The concept of cartoons with insinuating situations is hardly new&mdash;Tex Avery especially featured a few quick jokes of this nature in his cartoons. ''Magical Maestro'', for example, shows Poochini with a male and female rabbit on each arm. He lowers his arms behind his back and when he raises them again, he now has an additional dozen baby rabbits on them, six on each arm.

This cartoon features a gimmick only seen in Tex Avery films, the "hair gag". If a film strip was incorrectly loaded into a [[movie projector|projector]] at a movie theatre, it could rub against the "gate" mechanism and shave off tiny "hairs" of celluloid. A hair that became caught in the gate would sometimes skitter in front of the projector's lamp, causing the image of a gigantic hair to appear on the movie screen. While singing, Poochini notices a hair on the bottom edge of the screen and pauses briefly to pluck it and toss it aside,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Canemaker|first=John|title=Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955|publisher=Turner Publishing, Inc.|year=1996|isbn=1572152702|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dcEHAAAACAAJ|pages=194}}</ref> one of many ways in which Avery's characters broke the [[fourth wall]]. The gag had previously been used in the 1941 short ''[[Aviation Vacation]]'', also directed by Avery.

The role of Poochini is portrayed by [[Butch Dog (Tex Avery)|Butch the Irish dog]], a frequent star of Avery's cartoons of that era (often alongside [[Droopy]]).

==Influence==
The "hair gag" would later be used by [[England|English]] comedian [[Benny Hill]] in the closing chase sequence of his April 25, 1984 show. As he is being chased by medical staff and an ambulance in and around a hospital area, he notices a hair moving around the bottom right corner of the screen, and at a certain point stops his pursuers long enough for him to pluck the hair out before the chase resumes.

The ''[[Tom and Jerry Tales]]'' episode "Way-Off Broadway" features a gag similar to Poochini's transformations, in that [[Tom Cat|Tom]] is forced to adapt to various pieces music when [[Jerry Mouse|Jerry]] changes them on a radio.

==Availability==
*''[[Tex Avery Screwball Classics#Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 2|Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 2]]'' (Blu-Ray)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*''Magical Maestro'' essay [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/magical_maestro.pdf] by Thad Komorowski on the [[National Film Registry]] website 
*{{IMDb title|0044868}}
*''Magical Maestro'' essay by Daniel Eagan in ''America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry'', A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 454-456 [https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC]

{{Tex Avery}}
{{Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoons}}
{{Figaro Trilogy}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1952 animated short films]]
[[Category:1952 films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Tex Avery]]
[[Category:1950s Italian-language films]]
[[Category:Films about magic and magicians]]
[[Category:Films about opera]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:1950s American animated films]]
[[Category:Metafictional works]]
[[Category:Self-reflexive films]]
[[Category:Films based on The Barber of Seville]]
[[Category:Films produced by Fred Quimby]]
[[Category:Films scored by Scott Bradley]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films]]
[[Category:Animated film controversies]]
[[Category:Race-related controversies in animation]]
[[Category:Race-related controversies in film]]
[[Category:Ethnic humour]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language short films]]