Have you ever heard of Magilla Gorilla?
I must say that this cartoon was before my time, so when I first saw this puzzle I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I thought maybe it’s just a gorilla on a skateboard wearing a derby hat. But it felt a little specific, his name, and the fact there is a production company credited on the box – Hannah Barbera Productions.
So I did look up Magilla Gorilla and it seems that it was a children’s show in the 1960s. The premise was that there was a pet store owner who had this gorilla and he was always selling him or even giving him away to a new cast of characters every episode.
By the end of the episode, Magilla would be returned because they got into so much trouble and then the whole process would happen again next episode.
There’s actually a full episode list on the Wikipedia page so you can get a sense of what kind of capers this gorilla gets into. He is sometimes bought by jewel thieves who need a gorilla to help them pull off a jewel heist, etc. What a specific need for your heist!
This cartoon ran from 1963 to 1965.
Magilla has made some appearances in other shows over the years, Scooby Doo was a popular one, and there was even a comic written in 2018 where Magilla was reimagined and less cartoonish.
And finally, author Christopher Lehman wrote a book called American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary of Films and Television Programs, 1961-1973.
He theorizes that Magilla’s trials mirrored the beliefs that some held about segregation during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Now, I’ve never seen the show, I can’t comment on this at all, I can’t even say if it was decent animation. I do always find it interesting to hear people’s interpretation of film and tv. We recently watched the Shining again and then the documentary – Room 237 – and talk about some wild interpretations! All very interesting, too. Is there truth to them? We’ll never actually know.
This puzzle was another of Carolyn’s puzzles, I am glad they took such care of it over 45 years.
1979 Milton Bradley, 100 pieces and complete.
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