Mr. Magu (character)

Mr. Quincy Magu is an eccentric bald man of small stature, a millionaire (or billionaire) who has very poor eyesight, but who stubbornly does not want to admit it. Because of this, Mr. Magu constantly finds himself in various comical and often dangerous situations for himself and others, but for him, all the alterations always end safely, and the Magu, who often sees not at all what is actually happening, often doesn’t even understands what danger was exposed. In many cartoons, the companion to Magu is the talking bulldog MacBarker, who, like his master, is almost blind ^[3] .

Short cartoons about Mr. Magu twice (in 1955 and 1956) received the Academy Award, regularly began to be released in 1960 ^[4] , and in 1997, a feature film with Leslie Nielsen in the title role was made based on them ^[5] . In 2002, TV Guide magazine put Mr. Magu in 29th place on his list of the 50 best cartoon characters of all time ^[6] , Cracked.com site - on 2nd place in the list of the 5 most insane characters in old cartoons ^[7] , and Hubpages.com - on the 2nd place in the list of 10 most popular cartoon characters of the 1950s - 1960s ^[8] . In 2005, writer Roy Mendelssohn wrote a book about the character and his role in his life called Mr. Magoo Is My Role Model . The name “Mr. Magu” has become a household name in American culture and is sometimes used to describe someone who, despite mistakes or great risk, still ultimately succeeds ^{[9] [10]} . The term "Mr. Magu's Syndrome" is mentioned in relation to a situation of stubborn reluctance to recognize a problem ^{[11] [12]} .

Criticism

At the same time, the image of Mr. Magu is sometimes harshly criticized for allegedly making fun of blind people ^{[13] [14]} .