TheLittleSongbird Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. 'Magical Maestro' may fall short of perfection, with cutbacks showing in some background art limitations and a few of the characterisations not being for the faint-hearted, but regardless it is so creative, so entertaining and so cleverly constructed with an amazing soundtrack and Avery's unique animation style still coming through that it is still one of his best. The theme of 'Magical Maestro' is a familiar one, but this is one of the best cartoons to use the theme with a wonderfully unlikely duo of lead characters.Besides, there are far worse-looking cartoons than 'Magical Maestro' and cartoons that offend much more. Found myself still admiring Avery's character design and the rich colours and also admiring that the uncut version didn't play it too safe.The two lead characters have terrific comic timing and have the endearment factor, particularly Poochini. The voice acting throughout shows the likes of Daws Butler and Carlos Ramirez at the top of their game.Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour styles all over it as can be expected.Once again there is nothing sadistic or repetitious, instead it's imaginative, wonderfully wild and hilarious with some inspired transformations and caricatures.Limited backgrounds aside, the animation is colourful with some inventive expressive moments. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed, while the pre-existing music choices (including "Largo Al Factotum", perhaps the most famous operatic aria in animation) are even more amazing and used so well in providing a lot of the humour.In conclusion, musical magic. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox

Lee Eisenberg As long as we understand that "Magical Maestro" contains some politically incorrect scenes, we can enjoy it for the purely crazy, as a sadistic magician plays all sorts of tricks on a snobbish opera singer by changing the guy's persona every couple of seconds. I think that my favorite one was the little kid.I believe that it was the Klingons on "Star Trek" who declared "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Maybe the magician doesn't go quite that far, but he sure has some funny things up his sleeve! It just goes to show that while Tex Avery may not have been as clever as the people behind the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, he certainly had some great ideas. Worth seeing.

MartinHafer This is a wonderful Tex Avery cartoon. It's very funny and fresh as well as very fast-paced. A singer insults a magician and in turn the magician dresses as the musical director and then uses his magic wand to make lots of crazy and impossible things happen to the singer during the performance. It's completely Tex Avery due to the pacing and humor. There are two problems that keep it from being rated any higher. First, as the 50s arrived, production values on the MGM cartoons (particularly the animation and backgrounds) began to suffer. While this isn't as bad as the later Avery efforts in this regard, the art just isn't up to the standards as earlier Avery classics. Second, it is quite possible that some people could feel offended by the short clip where the singer becomes a black singer (sounding a lot like one of the Mills Brothers). While this isn't the most obvious of racial insults (there were many worse ones during the era), some might not enjoy this or the Chinese characterizations. Don't skip the film, though--that would make you a reactionary idiot.

Popeye-8 For my money, Avery's finest cartoon...for years Avery tried to answer PORKY IN WACKYLAND, with out full manic success...this surpasses all previous Avery efforts with wit, sophistication and of course with dropped anvils. Plus, the satire is razor-sharp.Avoid the butchered "politically correct" edits on Cartoon Network---seek out the slightly offensive but imposingly hilarious original.