Grizzly Golfer (1951) Online

This is a very good early short in the Mister Magoo series from UPA Studios. There will be spoilers ahead:

This short features a bear (either the same bear from Ragtime Bear or his clone). Magoo mistakes the bear for his nephew Waldo while going out to play a round of golf. Strangely enough, the bear develops a taste for golf balls and follows Magoo around as his caddy.

The usual predictable gags from a Magoo cartoon. Magoo doesn't have the slightest clue that he's being caddied by a bear, Waldo having run like a wise man upon seeing the bear at the beginning of the short.

The cartoon is quite funny, with the bear providing his share of the laughs. The ending is a bit predictable but good.

This short, along with all the other Mister Magoo theatricals, is now available on a DVD set from Shout! Factory. The set is excellent and this short is very good. Recommended.

It's a pity that time is erasing the UPA cartoons which were sensational in the fifties, when they represented a break away from the ubiquitous funny animals and a step towards the best Newspaper Cartoons and advertising art. That was soon forgotten. The American program director at the London NFT just about went into shock when his audience started boo-ing the UPAs he included a few years later.

Magoo is their one legacy and this is one of his better outings. The bear (still with the funny animals) is a hoot.

Pacing, design, gags and music are all exact without being as revolutionary as the studios best work.