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Abe Levitow

Abe Levitow

Visual Effects

Biography

Abraham Levitow (July 2, 1922 – May 8, 1975) was an American animator who worked at Warner Bros. Cartoons, UPA and MGM Animation/Visual Arts. He is best known for his work under Chuck Jones' direction. Levitow began working as an in-betweener and assistant animator at Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1940 at the age of 17. He briefly left Warner Bros. when he was drafted during World War II working on training films. Levitow returned to the studio, working as an assistant animator for Ken Harris under the Chuck Jones unit, and he was later promoted to animator in 1950 and would receive his first animations credit in 1953 for the cartoon Wild Over You. He worked steadily for Jones over the remainder of the 1950s, and directed several cartoons for release in 1959, including the Pepé Le Pew cartoon "Really Scent". While working under Jones, he made characters' joints more angular than most other animators. Those characters with fur (Wile E. Coyote, for example) looked especially shaggy in Levitow's scenes. Levitow joined UPA in 1958 to work on the Mr. Magoo feature 1001 Arabian Nights, staying behind even after the studio was sold to Henry G. Saperstein. In 1962, he directed the first feature-length animated television special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. 1962 also saw the release of his theatrical feature Gay Purr-ee. By 1962, he was working with Jones at MGM as an animator and a director in the Tom and Jerry series. He co-directed the feature film The Phantom Tollbooth with Chuck Jones at MGM. In addition, he worked with UPA on more Mr. Magoo cartoons, including The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, and also collaborated with Chuck again on the program Curiosity Shop through Format Films. He animated on the Chuck Jones-produced A Christmas Carol, directed by Richard Williams at Williams' London studio in 1971. In 1972, he and producer Dave Hanson founded Levitow/Hanson Films. The studio produced several animated pieces for Sesame Street, the most notable being Willie Wimple. His last completed project was B.C.: The First Thanksgiving, which aired in November of 1973. At the time of his death, Levitow was in line to direct the animated feature film Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. The project was taken over by Richard Williams when Levitow died from a bone tumor during pre-production at the age of 52. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]

Known For

Popeye the Sailor
7.1

Follows the adventures of the famed spinach-eating sailor man. Popeye is one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time. This spunky but loveable spinach-eating sailor continues to delight young and old with his comic adventures, and the entire gang is around to provide plenty of rousing fun and action: Olive Oyl, Swee'Pea, Wimpy and Bluto.

Popeye the Sailor

1960
The Mr. Magoo Show
6.7

The Mister Magoo Show is an American animated television series which was produced from November 7, 1960 to February 2, 1962. A single episode included five five-minute shorts and could either be aired together with bumpers as a single half-hour show, or it could be split up with one short aired each weekday, along with other cartoons. It was produced by United Productions of America.

The Mr. Magoo Show

1960
Looney Tunes Golden Collection
N/A

Looney Tunes Golden Collection is a series of six DVD sets from Warner Home Video, each containing approximately 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection

1946
The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo
6.7

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo is an animated television series, produced by United Productions of America, which aired for one season. The television series was based on the original cartoon of the same name, with Jim Backus reprising the voice over of the role he did on TV: while doing this show, he continued with the prime time show Gilligan's Island. Unlike the theatrical cartoons, which focused on the extremely nearsighted Quincy Magoo's bumbling, the show featured the Magoo character as an actor in adaptations of such literary classics as Don Quixote and Gunga Din. Each of these roles was played seriously, with few if any references to Magoo's nearsightedness; however, introductory segments in each program featured Magoo backstage stumbling into scenery and talking to props, thus connecting the older cartoons to this series. Some stories were contained in a single half-hour episode, but others ran to two and even four episodes. As UPA did not have its own studio facility the production was farmed out to the Grantray-Lawrence and Format Films studios. Among the most ambitious adaptations mounted in this format were the four-part Robin Hood, in which he took the role of Friar Tuck; Treasure Island, in which he played the villainous Long John Silver; and a version of Snow White in which he portrayed all seven dwarves.

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo

1964
The Dick Tracy Show
7.0

The Dick Tracy Show was an American animated television series based on Chester Gould's comic strip crime fighter. The series was produced from 1961 to 1962 by UPA.

The Dick Tracy Show

1961
Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes
6.7

Bugs has to defend the Earth's right to exist in an intergalactic court.

Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes

1991
Scaredy Cat
7.5

Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat spend the night in an old dark house, whose horrors only Sylvester sees.

Scaredy Cat

1948
Baton Bunny
6.8

Bugs conducts the Warner Brothers Symphony in Franz von Suppé's "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna" while reacting to a bothersome fly.

Baton Bunny

1959
Hare-Way to the Stars
7.1

Bugs Bunny groggily climbs out of bed and his hole and, unknowingly, into a rocket ship that's parked directly above. It transports him into outer space, where he is chased by martians.

Hare-Way to the Stars

1958
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume One
8.8

A Blu-ray Disc and DVD box set containing 50 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements. All but seven cartoons included on this volume - Lovelorn Leghorn, The Hasty Hare, Hare-Way to the Stars, Bill of Hare, A Witch's Tangled Hare, Feline Frame-Up, and From A to Z-Z-Z-Z - have been previously released, either as a part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection or a Looney Tunes Super Stars DVD.

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume One

2011
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol
6.3

In this animated musical version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", Ebenezer Scrooge - via Mr. Magoo's starring performance in a stage production of the classic - doesn't have a ghost of a chance unless he learns the true meaning of Christmas from the three spirits who haunt him one Christmas Eve.

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol

1962
Gay Purr-ee
6.6

Mewsette is a starry-eyed cat who grows weary of life on a French farm and heads for the excitement of 1890s Paris. Her tomcat suitor, Jaune-Tom, and his furry cohort, Robespierre, chase after Mewsette, but she's already fallen under the spell of a feline modeling-school racket run by Madame Rubens-Chatte and her slimy assistant, Meowrice.

Gay Purr-ee

1962
The Phantom Tollbooth
6.9

The Phantom Tollbooth, based upon the children's adventure novel by Norton Juster, tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo. Unexpectedly receiving a magic tollbooth and, having nothing better to do, Milo drives through it and enters a kingdom in turmoil following the loss of its princesses, Rhyme and Reason.

The Phantom Tollbooth

1970
A Christmas Carol
7.2

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

A Christmas Carol

1971
Uncle Sam Magoo
10.0

Join Mr. Magoo as Uncle Sam, on an all-American animated adventure through our nation's history. Pull up a chair at the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving, march in line with Davy Crockett and dig for gold in California. After all...in Magoo we trust!

Uncle Sam Magoo

1970
Broom-Stick Bunny
6.8

On Halloween night, Bugs Bunny, masquerading as a witch, trick-or-treats at the creepy old mansion of Witch Hazel, who prides herself on being the ugliest witch of all.

Broom-Stick Bunny

1956
Nelly's Folly
6.1

Nelly the Giraffe is discovered in Africa and leaves to begin a singing career, but finds that chasing fame brings her nothing but unhappiness.

Nelly's Folly

1961
1001 Arabian Nights
6.1

In this animated retelling of the classic tale, Abdul Aziz Magoo -- an ancestor of Mr. Magoo -- is the lamp-selling uncle of Aladdin. Tired of his nephew's laziness, Abdul insists that Aladdin find a wife. To his uncle's surprise, Aladdin falls in love with the beautiful Princess Yasminda. Before he can make his move, however, Aladdin is whisked away by the evil Wazir on a quest to find a magic lamp that will grant its owner unlimited power in the form of three magic wishes.

1001 Arabian Nights

1959
Robin Hood Daffy
6.9

Daffy attempts to convince Porky, as Friar Tuck, that he really is Robin Hood.

Robin Hood Daffy

1958
Boyhood Daze
5.9

Ralph gets sent to his room for breaking a window. There, he passes the time in Walter Mitty-type fashion, daydreaming that he's a parent-saving jungle explorer, an alien-fighting jet ace and a convict.

Boyhood Daze

1957