The Magic Fluke
US (1949): Animated/Fantasy/Short/Comedy
Foxini (first known as "Hot Lips Fox") needs a baton for his first big performance. His old night club pal makes the mistake of taking a magician's magic wand, and giving it to the Fox. (Big Cartoon Data Base) The second short done by UPA for Columbia and the second Academy Award® nomination for UPA. The Magic Fluke is a funny, well animated marvel and worth watching. Directed by John Hubley.
In the late 1940s, Columbia decided to farm out the production of their animated shorts and UPA offered to do them. Columbia had visions of just continuing along the same lines as before and do cartoons heavily weighted towards the standard talking anthropomorphic animals and made it clear they wanted the Fox and Crow characters to continue. UPA really didn't want to just do the same old thing, but needed the contract, so the first two shorts they made were Fox and Crow, but both were atypical of the series Columbia had done previously. The Magic Fluke is the second (and last) Fox and Crow UPA made and both are very good. The third short UPA made proved so popular (and more lucrative for Columbia) that they saw the light and gave UPA their head and let them do pretty much what they wanted, as long as it made a profit. The third cartoon? Ragtime Bear (1949), which featured the first appearance of one Quincy Magoo and the rest,as they say, is history. (Robert Reynolds, IMDb)
1 nomination
· Short Subjects (Cartoons) 1949: UPA, Columbia (Fox & Crow) Stephen Bosustow, producer