From: empower@smart.net
Subject: Magoo
I thought the article below, published in the Winter 1997 issue of 
Dialogue Magazine, may be of interest here.  I also went to the movie 
to see what it was like.  I found it pathetic in plot, character 
development, and portrayal of life from a nonvisual perspective.  
Arguably, the cartoon version may have been more fictional to an 
audience, and thus less destructive as humor.  The 
real life/special effects nature of this movie, however, made the 
damaging stereotypes of blindness unmistakable and unexcusable.
Regards,
Jamal
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                               Magoo is Back
                             by Martin Kleiber
                            Wayne, Pennsylvania
     The Disney Company purchased the movie rights to MR. MAGOO
and released the full-length live-action film based on the
character of Magoo on Christmas Day, 1997.  Merry Christmas,
indeed!
     I grew up with Mr. Magoo in the late 1950s and 1960s, and I
thought I was done with him.  To me he wasn't funny then, and I
doubt that I'll find him funny now.
     The joke seems to be that Magoo is nearsighted.  In addition
to this, Magoo has no sense of reality.  He doesn't know a man
from a manikin, a baby from a baby doll, a bear from a bear skin,
or a person from a post.  He doesn't know whether he is on ship
or on shore.  It's not that Magoo is blind; the problem is that
Magoo can't see.  By that I mean he can't see with his mind.  He
has neither sight nor insight.  His sense of sight is impaired
and his common sense is lacking.  He just doesn't get it.  He is
out of touch with the world and with himself.  If he were to fall
out of the window on the tenth floor he might say, "My, this is a
fast elevator!"  When he lands on the sidewalk, he is likely to
say, "Wow!  It comes to a quick stop."
     Furthermore, he doesn't have enough sense to be embarrassed
when he realizes his mistakes.  He doesn't feel the pain of his
predicament.  The poor man is constantly pursued by unmerciful
disasters, which never seem to befall him.  There, I think, lies
the joke.  A clown who steps on a banana peel and slips is only
funny if he doesn't fall and get hurt.  So it is with Magoo. 
Nothing bad happens to him.  At a great height Mr. Magoo walks on
a girder.  He is too blind to know how precarious his situation
really is.  He just doesn't know where he is.  He feels no pain. 
He is so oblivious to the world that he has no clue as to what's
happening to him.
     Magoo ends each of his episodes with the words, "Oh, Magoo,
you dun it again."  The ungrammatical statement is also funny. 
He mistakenly thinks that he has accomplished something and he
rejoices.  That leaves me to feel the pain for him because, I
know that no one, blind or sighted, can be as anesthetized as
Magoo constantly seems to be.  People so out of touch with
themselves cannot form relationships.
     I feel the pain for the public who will pay good money to be
entertained by Mr. Magoo's misfortunes.  I feel the pain for
young children with poor vision who will have Magoo inflicted on
them.  I feel for all young children who don't understand about
poor vision, and who might think that Magoo is the norm rather
than the exception.  There is great possibility for harm here.
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End of Document
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