''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

instead of

spoken words Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...

. Produced by

United Productions of America United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio and later distribution company founded in 1941 as Industrial Film and Poster Service by former Walt Disney Productions employees. Beginning with industrial a ...

(UPA), it was given a wide release by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

on November 2, 1950. The story was adapted by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott from a story by

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel ( ;"Seuss"
'' John Hubley John Kirkham Hubley (May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American Animation, animated film director, art director, Film producer, producer, and Screenwriter, writer, known for his work with the United Productions of America, United Product ...

(also a producer) as the supervising director;

Stephen Bosustow Stephen Reginald Bosustow (November 6, 1911 in Victoria, British Columbia – July 4, 1981) was a Canadian-born American film producer from 1943 until his retirement in 1979. He was one of the founders of United Productions of America (UPA) and pr ...

served as an executive producer.

Marvin Miller Marvin Julian Miller (April 14, 1917 – November 27, 2012) was an American labor union leader and baseball executive who served as the first executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 to 1982. Miller l ...

was the narrator. ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' won the 1950

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for

Best Animated Short The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

. In 1994, it was voted #9 of

The 50 Greatest Cartoons ''The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals'' is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, with a foreword written by Chuck Jones. The book features the fifty greatest cartoons of all time, selected by a group ...

of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked UPA cartoon on the list. In 1995, it was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Original recording and UPA film

Dr. Seuss's story had originally appeared on a children's record, scored by

Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet (TV series), The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad (TV series), T ...

, issued by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

, and read by radio veteran

Harold Peary Harold "Hal" Peary (born Harrold José Pereira de Faria; July 25, 1908 – March 30, 1985) was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, films, television, and animation. His most memorable role is as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, whi ...

as "

The Great Gildersleeve ''The Great Gildersleeve'' was a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States from August 31, 1941 to 1958. Initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, it was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. The series was buil ...

". This film was the first successful theatrical cartoon produced by UPA after their initial experiments with a short series of cartoons featuring Columbia Pictures stalwarts the Fox and the Crow. It was an artistic attempt to break away from the strict realism in animation that had been developed and perfected by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

. Cartoons did not have to obey the rules of the real world (as the short films of

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (; February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of America ...

and their cartoon physics proved), and so UPA experimented with a non-realistic style that depicted caricatures rather than lifelike representations. This was a major step in the development of

limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerc ...

, which had the added advantage of being much less expensive to produce. The story describes Gerald McCloy, a two-year-old boy who begins "talking" in the form of sound effects, his first word being the titular "boing boing". Panicked, his father calls the doctor, who informs him that there is nothing he can do about it. As the boy grows up, he picks up more sounds and is able to make communicative gestures, but is still unable to utter a single word of the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. In spite of this, he is admitted to a general public school, but more problems arise when he is chided by his peers and given the derogatory name "Gerald McBoing-Boing". After startling (and enraging) his father, he has no choice but to run away and hop a train to an unknown location. Just before he catches the train, however, a talent scout from the

NBC Radio Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

(as identified by the

NBC chimes The NBC chimes are a sequence of three tones played on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcasts. Originally developed in 1927 as seven notes, they were standardized to the current three-note version by the early 1930s, and possibly as early ...

) discovers Gerald and hires him as NBC's

foley artist In filmmaking, Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. It is named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley (sound effects artist), Jack Foley ...

, performing shows for a division of the company labeled "XYZ" on the microphones, and Gerald becomes very famous.

Sequels

UPA produced three follow-up shorts: ''Gerald McBoing Boing's Symphony'' (1953), ''How Now Boing Boing'' (1954), and ''Gerald McBoing! Boing! on Planet Moo'' (1956), an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nominee. The second and third films maintained the Dr. Seuss-style rhyming narration, but were not based on his work. The final film abandoned this approach. All four ''Gerald McBoing Boing'' shorts were released in 1980 on home video under the title ''Columbia Pictures Presents Cartoon Adventures Starring Gerald McBoing Boing''. The shorts were presented in sub-par quality, especially ''Planet Moo'', which was squeezed to fit the CinemaScope frame to standard TV screen size. It was reissued in 1985 as part of RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video's "Magic Window" series of children's videotapes and went out of print in 1995. The second short was included as a special feature on Sony's 2001 DVD release of '' The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T''. All but the second were included in the special features of the two-disc special edition of the DVD ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a superhero created by Mike Mignola and appearing in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots ...

'' (released on July 27, 2004), as the cartoon can be seen playing on TV monitors in the background in several scenes. In January 2006, Sony re-issued the four shorts on DVD, featuring cleaned-up prints and all presented in their original aspect ratio.

Television

UPA

''The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show'' (1956–57) In 1956,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

created a half-hour ''Gerald McBoing-Boing Show'', with well-known radio announcer

Bill Goodwin William Nettles Goodwin (July 28, 1910 – May 9, 1958),Palm Spr ...

narrating. Broadcast at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday evenings, it was a showcase for UPA's cartoons, including ''Dusty of the Circus'', ''The Twirlinger Twins'', and ''

Punch and Judy Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr Punch and one other ...

''. The program proved too expensive to continue and lasted only three months. The episodes were repeated on Friday nights in the summer of 1957. Thus, ''The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show'' apparently became the first cartoon series broadcast regularly during

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

, preceding ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions, which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the R ...

'' by two seasons. TV specials A character similar to Gerald McBoing-Boing appeared as Tiny Tim in the 1962 TV special ''

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol ''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'' is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'', and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge ...

'', now as a speaking character. A bonus feature of the 2001 ''Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol'' DVD features Gerald McBoing-Boing being babysat by the nearsighted Magoo, also a UPA character. The short is titled "Magoo Meets McBoing-Boing".

''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' (2005–2007)

A series based on the original cartoon started airing on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

(United States) on August 22, 2005, as part of their short-lived ''

Tickle-U Cartoonito (also known as Cartoonito on Cartoon Network) was an American weekday morning programming block on Cartoon Network and a content hub within the Max streaming service that launched on September 13, 2021 and ended on May 23, 2025. It a ...

'' programming block, and aired on

Teletoon Cartoon Network (formerly Teletoon) is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts animated series aimed at children and teenagers. It was launched on October 17 ...

Télétoon Télétoon (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment that broadcasts animated series aimed at kids, teens, and adults. Its name is a portmanteau of " télévision" and "cartoon". Télé ...

(Canada) on August 29 the same year. It uses the same basic art style as the original except more detailed: each 11-minute episode features a series of vignettes with Gerald, of which the "fantasy tales" are done in Seussian rhyme. Sound checks, gags, and "real-life" portions of the show are also included. It was also broadcast on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

in Australia. Gerald still only makes sounds (but is praised for it instead), but now has two speaking friends, Janine and Jacob, as well as a dog named Burp, who only burps. Gerald's parents (names unknown) complete the regular cast, although his mother has black hair in this series instead of blonde. The series was produced in Canada by

Cookie Jar Entertainment The Cookie Jar Group, commonly known as simply Cookie Jar and formerly known as CINAR, was a Canadian animation studio, media production and distribution company that existed from 1976 until it was folded into DHX Media, now WildBrain, on Dec ...

, and directed by Robin Budd and story edited/written by John Derevlany. The animation was done by

Mercury Filmworks Mercury Filmworks is a Canadian independent animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario. The studio was originally founded in Vancouver by Clint Eland, the current CEO, in 1997. Mercury Filmworks has produced animated television series and feature ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

In print

A children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

illustrated by Mel Crawford was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

in 1952 and as of 2024 was still in print in multiple formats. Crawford also illustrated a

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

adaptation of the story for the first issue of the

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark"Wh ...

series ''Gerald McBoing-Boing and the Nearsighted Mr. Magoo'', also in 1952. Further adventures of the character were portrayed in four more issues of the series published through 1953.

References

External links

*
''Gerald McBoing-Boing''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on August 24, 2016.
The Big Cartoon DataBase
* ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 442-44

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerald Mcboing-Boing 1950 animated short films 1950 films 1950 children's films 1950s American animated films Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Child characters in animated films Columbia Pictures animated short films McBoing-Boing, Gerald Film characters introduced in 1950 Films scored by Gail Kubik Animated films based on works by Dr. Seuss Surreal comedy films United States National Film Registry films UPA films DreamWorks Classics franchises UPA series and characters Columbia Pictures short films Films about disability 1950s English-language films Books by Dr. Seuss English-language short films Animated characters introduced in 1950