UPA
Series
About UPA
UPA, short for United Productions of America, began as a studio creating political/industrial and World War II training films. After receiving a contract to produce theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, UPA stretched it's wings, and became quite influential as it developed it's own unique animation style and technique, and its innovations were recognized and copied by the other major animation studios. UPA pioneered the technique of limited animation as a stylistic alternative to the growing trend of recreating cinematic realism in animated films, not as a cost-cutting and time-saving measure as it later became.
UPA is most remembered for the Mr. Magoo theatrical among various theatrical series the studio produced, and the The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show for CBS. In the 1960s, UPA produced the Dick Tracy series and Mr. Magoo specials. UPA also produced two features, 1001 Arabian Nights and Gay Purr-ee. After the animation studio shut down, UPA distributed Japanese films from Toho Studios in the 1970s and 1980s.
Cartoons
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Hell-Bent For Election
A full-blown re-election piece for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the expense of Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey. Roosevelt is depicted as a streamlined diesel expres…
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Man Alive!
Shows the need for regular medical checkups from your doctor for symptoms that could lead up to cancer, comparing the human body and a car. Warning signs come to have a car repaired before…
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The Unicorn In The Garden
Using the drawings style of James Thurber to illustrate a story about a meek little man who sees a unicorn in his garden. In this prototypical tale, the meek husband gets the better of his…
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The Tell-Tale Heart
A dark adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story about a man who is haunted by the beating heart of the man whom he has murdered.
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Howdy Doody And His Magic Hat
Featuring Howdy Doody
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Ballet-Oop
The tutor of the Hot-Foot School of Ballet is told that she has only three weeks before the four new pupils have to perform at the local Glendale Ballet Festival. She tutors them to a winni…
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Fudget's Budget
George Fudget tries to get his family to economize in this whimsical story about living on a family budget.
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Pump Trouble
Featuring Cordell Pump, Doctor
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Spare The Child
A son makes a birthday wish to switch places with his father to discipline him the way he thinks it should be done.
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Four Wheels, No Brake
Pete Hothead and his wife have an old car which is giving them trouble. Pete sells it to a neighbor, and he goes to put a down payment on a new red deluxe model. Meanwhile, his wife wins a…
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Baby Boogie
A little girls wants to know where babies come from, but no one will tell her, so she asks everyone that crosses her path.
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Christopher Crumpet's Playmate
In a sequel to the 1953 original, Marvin and Abigail Crumpet allow their son to have an imaginary playmate who turns out to be a gigantic elephant named Webster. When Marvin lets it slip at…
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The Jaywalker
A weird story about a man who gives up everything to jaywalk. He has taken up jaywalking as a hobby, and it quickly becomes manic, almost obsessive, behavior.
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Inside Magoo
A public-service announcement from the American Cancer Society featuring Mr. Magoo. Not part of the regular series, this rare cartoon begins with a bunch of clips talking about the history…
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The Sailor and the Seagull
A United States Navy training film encourages re-enlistment after the Second World War. The cartoon opens with a Navy soldier longing for civilian life. A dream sequence complete with scant…
