Magilla Gorilla

Magilla Gorilla is a fictional gorilla and the star of '' The Magilla Gorilla Show'' by Hanna-Barbera that aired from 1964 to 1967.

Character description

Magilla Gorilla (voiced by Allan Melvin) is a fun-loving yet trouble-prone anthropomorphic Western gorilla who spends his time languishing in the front display window of Melvin Peebles' pet shop, eating bananas and being a drain on the shop's finances. Peebles (voiced by Howard Morris and later by Don Messick) frequently marks down his price considerably, but he is invariably only purchased for a short time, typically by some thieves who needed a gorilla to break into a bank or by an advertising agency looking for a mascot for their new product. The customers always ended up returning Magilla, forcing Peebles to give a refund. In the case of being bought by thieves, he was seized by police for being used in criminal activity and returned to Peebles' store. Magilla often ended episodes with his catchphrase "We'll try again next week."

Like many of Hanna-Barbera's animal characters, Magilla Gorilla sported human accessories: a purple bow tie, red shorts held up by green suspenders, a purple undersized derby hat, and brown dress shoes.

The only customer truly interested in owning Magilla was a little girl named Ogee (voiced by Jean Vander Pyl and pronounced "Oh Gee!"). During the cartoon's theme song, "We've Got a Gorilla for Sale", she asks hopefully, "How much is that gorilla in the window?" (a twist on the old standard, " (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?"), but she was never able to convince her parents to let her keep him.

In Yiddish, a ''megillah'' is a long, tedious, or embroidered account, from the Hebrew ''megillah'', a story written in a scroll. The first episode "Big Game" has Magilla saying, "Such a megillah over a gorilla."

Episodes

Season 1 (1964)

Season 2 (1965)

Inception

As pointed out on the Rhino Records' CD liner notes for their collection of Hanna-Barbera theme tunes, part of Magilla's purpose was to sell likenesses of himself. The show was sponsored by Ideal Toys, which produced a ''Magilla'' stuffed toy.

Other appearances

* Magilla Gorilla appeared in the medium of comic books. From 1964 through 1968, he appeared in a series published by Western Comics; the series ran 10 issues. Also in 1964, he appeared in a one shot comic called ''The Magilla Gorilla Kite Fun Book'' from the same publisher. From 1970 through 1971, he appeared in a series published by Charlton Comics which ran 5 issues.
* Magilla Gorilla appeared on both the 1972 made-for-TV movie '' Yogi's Ark Lark'' and the 1973 spin-off '' Yogi's Gang'' series, where he would run the treadmill that powers the Ark as long as there are plenty of bananas.
* In the 1982 special '' Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper'', Magilla Gorilla (alongside Wally Gator and Yakky Doodle) was unable to help Yogi and his friends locate J. Wellington Jones.
* Magilla appeared in the 1985-1988 syndicated series '' Yogi's Treasure Hunt''.
* Magilla made a cameo appearance as an HB reporter in the 1988 TV-movie '' The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound''.
* Magilla Gorilla appeared in ''A Yabba-Dabba-Doo Celebration! 50 Years of Hanna-Barbera''.
* In the "Fender Bender 500" segment of the 1990 series '' Wake, Rattle, and Roll'', Magilla Gorilla was partnered with Wally Gator as they rode a monster truck called the Swamp Stomper.
* In '' Yo Yogi!'', Magilla appeared as superstar rapper Magilla Ice (a spoof of Vanilla Ice).
* Magilla Gorilla appeared as Sinbad on the 1994 TV special '' Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights''.
* In '' Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law'', Magilla Gorilla (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) made several appearances through the show, sometimes appearing as a homosexual prison inmate who is frequently seen stalking Harvey Birdman. In the 2005 episode "Free Magilla", Magilla is kidnapped by radical animal rights activists causing Mr. Peebles (also voiced by Maurice LaMarche) to sue them. Magilla is quickly abandoned by the activists after they grow sick of his many puns. During the course of the episode, Mr. Peebles confesses to having grown attached to Magilla.
* Magilla Gorilla made a cameo in a 2012 MetLife commercial entitled "Everyone".
* Magilla and Mr. Peebles make cameos in the 2013 direct-to-video film '' Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon'' as images in the Hanna-Barbera convention.
* Magilla Gorilla made a cameo in the '' Mad'' segment "Demise of the Planet of the Apes", where he is one of the occupants of the Super Ape Motel.
* In 2018, DC Comics rebooted Magilla Gorilla into a less cartoonish character and featured him in a crossover with Nightwing titled ''Nightwing/Magilla Gorilla Special'' #1. This version of Magilla is a famous actor living with Mr. Peebles who goes by the name Mel Peebles and gets murdered and Magilla is framed for the crime.
* Magilla Gorilla and Mr. Peebles appear in the '' Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?'' episode "Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors" with Magilla Gorilla voiced by Frank Welker and Mr. Peebles voiced by Billy West. Magilla's ability to speak is downplayed by just making sounds and quoting "uh-huh." He is also shown to know how to use sign language. Both Peebles and Magilla are redesigned to match the 1970s look of ''Scooby-Doo''. Wanda Sykes volunteers at Peebles' Pet Supply Mega-Store when a Fish Monster (vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker) hatches from an egg and starts terrorizing the pet shop. In addition, Mr. Peebles has a bookkeeper named Arnie (also voiced by Billy West) working at his pet shop. Mystery Inc. helps solve the mystery of the Fish Monster. From the shadows, Magilla secretly gathers the pets that got loose and puts them back in their cages. With help from Magilla, Mystery Inc. and Wanda Sykes trap the Fish Monster and discover that the Fish Monster is actually Mr. Peebles, who wanted to have his pet shop closed so that he can finally get rid of Magilla, (who Mr. Peebles claimed ate him out of house and home for 30 years during the timeline of the original '' The Magilla Gorilla Show''.) and start his own clothing line for short and small people. After Mr. Peebles is arrested by the police, Arnie becomes the new owner of Peebles' Pet Supply Mega-Store and Wanda Sykes adopts Magilla.
* Magilla Gorilla makes a cameo appearance in the 2020 ''Animaniacs'' revival segment "Suffragette City".
* Magilla Gorilla appeared in the 2021 film '' Space Jam: A New Legacy''. He is seen watching the basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad where he is shown riding a unicycle on the wires of an overhead power line.
* Magilla Gorilla and Mr. Peebles appear in the HBO Max original series '' Jellystone!'', with Magilla voiced by Paul F. Tompkins. In this show, Magilla wears glasses and run a clothing store in this series that Jabberjaw and Loopy De Loop works in. A running gag is that Jabberjaw pronounces his name as "Ma-Jilla" rather than the actual pronunciation.
* Mr. Peebles appeared in the 2021 special '' Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now!''
* Magilla Gorilla appeared in the ''Teen Titans Go!'' episode "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary".

Cultural references

* The Brazilian boxer Adilson Rodrigues called himself "Maguilla" after the cartoon.

''Magilla Gorilla'' in other languages

* Brazilian Portuguese: ''Maguila, o Gorila''
* European Portuguese: ''O Show do Gorila Maguila''
* Greek: The same as in English
* French: ''Maguilla le gorille''
* Italian: The same as in English
* Spanish: ''Maguila Gorila''
* Japanese: ''ゴリラのゴンちゃん (Gorira no Gon-chan)''
* Finnish: The same as in English
* Hungarian: The same as in English
* Polish: Goryl Magilla (pronouncing with double "l")

See also

* List of fictional primates

References

External links

Magilla Gorilla
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on February 12, 2016.

{{Hanna-Barbera

Fictional gorillas
Fictional gay men
Hanna-Barbera characters
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Anthropomorphic apes
Children's television series about talking animals
Television characters introduced in 1963
Male characters in animation
Animated characters introduced in 1963
1964 comics debuts
Comics about anthropomorphic apes
Comics about talking animals