The Talking Magpies (1946) User Reviews

This is technically the first Heckle and Jeckle short-sort of.

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 30 August 2006]

This is the short that basically launched the Heckle and Jeckle series-more or less. There will be spoilers:

This is basically a formative Heckle and Jeckle short, even though the two magpies are a couple and one is female. The basic style of the shorts is first seen here, the dog in this one is one of the regular foils for Heckle and Jeckle in a good many later shorts and this short laid the groundwork for the idea of a team of two magpies. Call it "Test version 1.0".

The farmer is Al Falfa-the character design is precisely the same for all intents and purposes. He basically wants some peace and quiet so he can get some sleep (he could, of course, simply close the window-but it would make for a very short cartoon if he did). There are some nice visuals in here and the gags are pretty much the kinds of bits you'll find throughout the Heckle and Jeckle series. It was probably a good idea to change the characters from a male-female couple, as that probably would have been too limited a dynamic to sustain for all that long.

There's a good caricature of Hugh Herbert early on and some other nice touches. Well worth seeing and recommended.

This is one of the 1,002 films banned as of Today . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 7 December 2023]

. . . that is, December 7, 2023, by the Governor of Florida and his sister Fuhrers in 32 other egregious Red States. The penalties for any school teacher screening THE TALKING MAGPIES in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa or Miami range from being unhanded for a first offense to decapitation for a third. This may sound harsh to the vast majority of Americans living in normal states such as New York, Massachusetts or California. However, THE TALKING MAGPIES was one of the first salvos in America's on-going Culture Wars. Leading Elephantine Party Sects Police such as Wendy Will-Key, Ricky Noxious, Dwight Ike-Man, Headless Hopper and Ginger Snaps Rogers noticed immediately that one of the title birds of this children's influence vehicle had a sects change within a couple months. This was perceived as invidious Blue State perversion.

Heckel and Jeckel move home.

[Trevor Hallatt · 17 January 2002]

The talking magpies Heckel and Jeckel rent a nest which happens to be outside the window of an old man and his dog. The old man sends the dog to tell the magpies to be quiet. They chase the magpies around the house and in the end the magpies end up in the hose and the old man and dog in the nest outside. Not a bad animated short

Not too entertaining or relevant

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 1 May 2016]

"The Talking Magpies" is an American 6.5-minute short film that was made one year after World War II, so if you do the math you will realize that it has its 70th anniversary this year. Now this would be a thing to celebrate if this was an actually good film, but I personally felt it wasn't. The director, writer and the voice actors all had pretty prolific careers in the industry and I genuinely hope their other stuff is superior to this one here. This film is unfortunately an example of how Terrytoons were probably not on par with Disney and Warner Bros (LT) around that era, even if they weren't too far behind in terms of sheer quantity. The story about a pair of magpies here is not good enough to entertain me, not even for such a short runtime. I give it a thumbs down.

These Birds Are Brutal - And Funny

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 14 July 2007]

This Terry Toon story of Mr. and Mrs. Magpie turned out to be hilarious. It has the typical elements of a classic cartoon: tons of sight gags, an abundance of violence with a touch of sadism and sarcasm and a lot of slapstick humor. That seems to be the ingredients of a successful cartoon many times. Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweety, Droopy, The Road Runner....all of them had the same things.

There are "no vacancies" at the Magpie Hotel nor in nearby nests so the married blackbirds go to the real estate man (bird) who sells them a nest. Within seconds of flying there, the "wife" is nagging the guy and all upset. It doesn't meet her standards. Their squabbling wakes up the farmer and his dog in the house next to the nest. The dogs asks them nicely if they could be a little more quiet as he and "the boss" are tying to sleep. The birds just tell him off.

The cartoon gets outrageous - and funny - when one of the magpies sneaks into the house, goes inside the big radio and pretends to be an announcer, saying, "Hey friend, do you have a magpie problem in your house?"

Well, they sure do and the rest of the way is one gag after another, all of them having the two birds torment the old man and his dog. At the end, they have been so successful that they've found their dream house - the farmer's! They are now sleeping in his bed!

Note: as another reviewer points out, this is not a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon......at least the married characters in here are not called that.

Chaos and fun

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 17 July 2020]

Terrytoons Studios had a lot of characters that didn't really have regular appearances. The studio though did have a lot of regular characters and theatrical series for each of those characters. The effectiveness varied with some characters working (Heckle and Jeckle, Gandy/Sourpuss), some characters leaving me mixed (Mighty Mouse and it was dependent on the cartoon) and some didn't work (Clint Clobber). Each of the theatrical series tended to mostly mixed, some more consistent than others in either a good way (Heckle and Jeckle) and bad (Clint Clobber).

1946 was again Mighty Mouse and Gandy/Sourpuss heavy, the latter not as much as the previous year though but it was again another big year for the former. It was also though a quite interesting year, with it introducing one to one of the studio's better theatrical series, that for Heckle and Jeckle. 'The Talking Magpies' kicks the 1946 batch off, and even twenty one cartoons later it turned out to still be one of that year's best and among Terrytoons' better and most entertaining efforts too.

Again, have nothing to fault the animation for. Vibrant colours, nice attention to detail, far from static or simplistic backgrounds, the drawing is so much smoother than when the studio first started and the transitions are much more fluid and less choppy, nowhere near as much recycling or cutting corners either. The music never disappointed with Terrytoons, always the best asset of their worst efforts and it is one of the best things here still. It is so lovely to listen to and there is such an uplifting vibe hearing it because of the snappy character it has. The magpies (Heckle and Jeckle prototypes rather than them themselves, their first official cartoons being 1946's 'The Uninvited Pests') are great fun and their personalities are very strong, their comic timing on point.

Don't think there were as many gags in a Terrytoons cartoon up to this point than in 'The Talking Magpies'. The cartoon is filled with them and they all range from amusing to hilarious. The pace is fast and furious and the action is wonderfully chaotic, yet remarkably it doesn't feel too much of an overload. The story is not novel, but the character interaction, constant entertainment value and eventful content helped always make it interesting. The parodies are very clever and not randomly timed, they may go over the heads of those unfamiliar but the delivery is so great that they will still be funny.

Here and there though there are a few continuity issues.

Its weak link though for me was Farmer Al Falfa, the old man. He is not an annoying character, he works well with the magpies and he has personality. Like what was said for 1945's 'Swooning Swooners' though, he doesn't really transition well into colour and his character design is pretty primitive.

Otherwise, this was very strong stuff and one of the best first cartoons for any of Terrytoons' individual year batches. 8/10

Not the real Heckle and Jeckle

[rudy-30 · 10 November 2004]

Although this film does feature two talking magpies, they are husband and wife, and the wife's name is Maggie. They do resemble Heckle and Jeckle, but they aren't. One of the interesting features of this TerryToon is the idea of using radio parodies, something Warner Brothers cartoons are notorious for. Of course, Tex Avery did work for both studios, so there may be some of his influence involved. Anyway, two magpies go looking for a home. They find one via a real estate agent (Hugh Herbert) who sells them a nice cozy place. When the couple start fighting, they disturb the neighbors, an old man who looks suspiciously like Farmer Alfalfa from silent cartoons. The poor old man and his dim-witted dog are finally bested by the noisy magpies. There are parodies of Walter Winchell and The Shadow, but the continuity is lacking. It is still a fun film, but please do not refer to them as Heckle and Jeckle.

Anarchic, sadistic and rather funny!

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 11 July 2012]

When Mr and Mrs Magpie move into a new neighbourhood the only nest available is right outside the bedroom window of an old man and his dog. Their arguing disturbs the man but they ignore his protestations. When the man and his dog start to try to get rid of their new neighbours things don't go well for them as they are left battered and bruises while the two magpies take over their home.

For the early part of this short I thought it was going to be a let down but once the Magpies came up against the man and his dog it got much better. Some may find it a little too mean spirited... the Magpies certainly got a lot of pleasure from the suffering of their foes; personally I found their antics very funny. The animation style may look somewhat old fashioned now but I think it looked good and had a fairly distinctive style.

As other comments have pointed out these Magpies aren't the famous 'Heckle and Jeckle' however they are clearly prototypes for them.

One of the greatest animated cartoons of all time

[VioletGirl37 · 9/10 · 30 March 2023]

I was fortunate enough to have this on a VHS tape from when I was pretty young; so I saw it many times. Even now, many years later, with much more options through the Internet, I still watch it often! Wonderful music and incredible voice acting, and solid sound effects, perfectly paced and synchronized with great animation. TerryToons get such a bad name, but this is truly legendary and the début of the Heckle & Jeckle series! My only disappointment is what poor shape it's in, I hope a decent print turns up some day and gets restored?

Spoiler: the magpies are a straight couple in this pilot episode, whereas I'm told that before the second episode, they break up, and the female magpie transitions to male. I can't say first hand since this is only one I've seen so far!