Gerald McBoing-Boing - Original Recording, UPA Film and Sequels

Original Recording, UPA Film and Sequels

Dr. Seuss's story had originally appeared on a children's record in 1950, scored by Gail Kubik, issued by Capitol Records, and read by radio personality Harold Peary.

This film was the first successful theatrical cartoon produced by UPA, after their initial experiments with a short series of cartoons featuring Columbia Pictures stalwarts The Fox and the Crow. It was an artistic attempt to break away from the strict realism in animation that had been developed and perfected by Walt Disney. While Disney's animation methods produced lush and awe-inspiring images, it was felt that realism in the medium of animation was a limiting factor. Cartoons did not have to obey the rules of the real world (as the short films of Tex Avery and their cartoon physics proved), and so UPA experimented with a non-realistic style that depicted caricatures rather than lifelike representations.

This was a major step in the development of limited animation—though despite the abuse of the form that would arise in the future because of cost-cutting, Gerald McBoing-Boing was meant as an artistic exercise rather than merely a way of producing cheap cartoons.

The story describes one Gerald McCloy, who at 2 years old begins "talking" in the form of sound effects, his first word being the titular "boing boing." His panicked father calls the doctor, who informs him that there's nothing he can do about it. As the boy grows up, he picks up more sounds and is able to make communicative gestures, but is still incapable of uttering a single word of the English language. Despite this, he is admitted to a general public school, where he is chided by his peers and given the derogatory name "Gerald McBoing-Boing." After startling, and angering, his father, he decides to run away and hop a train to an unknown location. However, just before he catches the train, a talent scout from the NBC Radio Network (as identified by the NBC chimes) discovers him. He is then hired as NBC's foley artist, performing shows for a division of the company labeled "XYZ" on the microphones, and becomes very famous, with the last scene showing him riding with his parents in a very expensive automobile among throngs of fans.

UPA produced three follow-up McBoing-Boing shorts: Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony (1953), How Now Boing Boing (1954), and Gerald McBoing-Boing on the Planet Moo (1956), an Academy Award nominee. The second and third films maintained the Dr. Seuss-style rhyming narration, but were not based on his work. The final film abandoned this approach.

All four Gerald McBoing-Boing shorts were released in 1980 on home video under the title Columbia Pictures Presents Cartoon Adventures Starring Gerald McBoing Boing. The shorts looked far from their best, especially "On Planet Moo", which was squeezed to fit the CinemaScope frame to standard TV screen size. It was reissued in 1987 as part of RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video's "Magic Window" series of children's videotapes and fell out of print in 1995.

The first short was included as a special feature on Sony's 2001 DVD release of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. All but the second were included in the special features of the two-disc special edition of the DVD Hellboy (released July 27, 2004), as the cartoon can be seen playing on TV monitors in the background in several scenes. In January 2006, Sony reissued the four shorts on DVD, featuring cleaned-up prints and all presented in their original aspect ratio.

A revised reprint of the 1952 book adaptation of Gerald McBoing-Boing appeared in 2000 (ISBN 0-679-89140-4).

McBoing-Boing is also featured as Tiny Tim in the 1962 NBC Television Special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, a rare speaking part for the character. On the 2001 DVD release, an animated short was included that features Mr. Magoo babysitting for McBoing-Boing.