Magical Maestro - Censorship

Censorship

Since its debut on television, Magical Maestro has frequently been shown with two gags missing, that were edited out due to their reliance on racial stereotypes.

• Poochini is transformed into a Chinese stereotype when a cymbal is thrown on his head by the conductor, simulating the coolie hat which is wide and flat, with a point in the top. A repeat of this gag near the end of the cartoon (as Mysto is forced to sing and turns into the characters that Poochini was turned to thanks to the magic wand) was also cut.

• An irritated audience member in a box seat right above the stage shows his distaste for the performance by spraying ink from a pen into Poochini's face, leaving him looking like a blackface singer singing in the style of The Ink Spots. When this does not shut him up, the audience member drops an anvil on Poochini's head, squashing him down and giving him a deeper voice reminiscent of the Ink Spots' spoken interludes, or of Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson. The edited version shows the audience member about to drop the anvil on Poochini, then immediately cuts to the rabbits jacking him back up to normal height, having already washed the ink off his face.

Magical Maestro was broadcast throughout the 1970s and 1980s in various formats, depending on censoring rules at the particular television station. New York–based WPIX, for instance, edited out the audience member segment, but left the Chinese stereotype in place. Atlanta-based WTBS (the future parent of Cartoon Network), aired the film uncut.

The current edited version that has aired on Cartoon Network since the late 1990s is missing both gags.