The Magic Pencil (1940) User Reviews

Whither Do You Wander?

[boblipton · 6/10 · 3 July 2008]

Gandy Goose, one of Paul Terry's innumerable second-string series stars, was a take-off of Ed Wynn, complete with a voice imitator and a silly hat. In this one -- it's the only one of the series I've seen -- he resides with a cat who talks like Jimmy Durante.

Listening to a radio announcer who looks like Paul Whiteman, he hears a boxtop giveaway for a 'magic pencil', On receiving it, he finds that it can draw items in the air, which immediately become real.

This part of the cartoon is fairly imaginative and interesting. However, in the second part, he draws a cartoon cat, which becomes involved in a typical Terrytoon melodrama takeoff -- the sort of 'Perils of Pearl Pureheart' that was used time and again in the next decade for Mighty Mouse cartoons. It might have been fresher in this iteration, and certainly the basic idea and first half make this a pretty good cartoon for Terry.

Drawing magic

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 29 September 2018]

The Terrytoons are oddly interesting, mainly for anybody wanting to see (generally) older cartoons made by lesser known and lower-budget studios. They are a mixed bag in quality, with some better than others, often with outstanding music and with some mild amusement and charm and variable in animation, characterisation and content.

1940, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch though more consistent actually than the previous years. Of which 'The Magic Pencil', another Gandy Goose cartoon with Sourpuss, is one of the high middle ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the better 1940 cartoons. It is a decent cartoon if not much special at the end of the day, with the second half letting it down after a promising start. 'The Magic Pencil' is also worth the look, completest sake is the main reason to see it but it's not the only reason.

Best asset is the music, which predictably is incredible. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, as is the comparatively improved fluidity of drawing and movement, and some synchronisation in movement and sound is neat.

A number of well timed and amusing moments, some really neat and inventive drawing touches, some imaginative and there is lots of zest and natural charm. Many parts of it and the basic set up are nicely done, actually thought the first half was great. The supporting characters are great fun, especially the villain. Sourpuss gets more amusing and more interesting with each cartoon and Gandy has actually grown on me. In his solo outings he wasn't very appealing and was pretty bland, but once his chemistry with Sourpuss got going he became funnier, more interesting and more likeable.

Outside of the backgrounds and more fluidity than seen previously however, a few of the transitions are not always polished.

A few of the gags later on are not as fresh or as well timed and the second half as has been said already becomes far too predictable and melodramatic, seen many times in the 30s Terrytoons melodrama cartoons, and it jars with the imagination and fun seen in the first half. 'The Magic Pencil' is definitely a case of a cartoon with two halves to the extent it feels like two cartoons in one, one better than the other.

Overall, decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox

The Magic Pencil was a pretty entertaining Terrytoons cartoon starring Gandy Goose and Sourpuss

[tavm · 7/10 · 31 March 2009]

Just watched this black and white Terrytoons cartoon starring Gandy Goose and Sourpuss on YouTube. In this one, Gandy is listening to a radio show that offers the title item if the announcer gets about two thousand box tops and ten cents. There's a funny gag here in which those items are vacuumed into the speaker before landing off the microphone into the announcer's face! Then the pencil goes through the mic out of the radio speaker's mouth which spits it to Gandy! From there, Gandy draws several things that must have been pretty imaginative at the time before he draws a girlfriend for his cat buddy and then a mustachioed villain who both bear some resemblance to Oil Can Harry and Pearl Pureheart of the later Mighty Mouse cartoons. While at this point it becomes an old-fashioned melodrama, there are still some amusing gags involving that pencil. The end probably doesn't make a lick of sense but this was still pretty entertaining. So on that note, I recommend The Magic Pencil.