Sunday, January 07, 2007
Woody Woodpecker
I'm keeping the Lantz model sheets going with their biggest star. Here's Woody and the various designs he went through in the 1940's. It's a shame that Universal has no interest in promoting Woody. He's without a doubt one of the greatest cartoon characters created. I remember coming home from school and the first thing I would do would be to flip on the TV and watch Popeye and then Woody, all the way through high school. Woody was one of the biggest cartoon stars of the 40's, how many big bands recorded the "Woody Woodpecker Song"? I've got more versions of it that I care to listen to. The cartoons by directed by Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy are my personal favorites. Dick Lundy's are particularly pleasing to the eye and some great animators worked on those cartoons. Check out Thad's blog, he's the only person who seems to focus much attention on the cartoons made at Lantz.
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13 comments:
HAHAHAAHA!! freaking tight!! i love the original woody woodpecker design, its SO HILARIOUS! with his cool huge googly crazed looking green eyes
i love Walter Lantz, i just saw Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (i had never seen it before). MAN, the title card & intro music was SO good, and i mean SUPER GOOD!!!!!!
can you recommend any other Lantz cartoons with great music besides Scrub Me Mama & Bugle Boy?
I think I like the Fred Moore one best. Who did the first Woody modelsheet?
Thanks again for putting modelsheets up.
Wish I could return the favor.
Is there anything modelsheet-wise or cartoon-wise that you're looking for?
Hi Ryan, I think Lantz produced some of the best musical cartoons. There's a load of them, The Swing Symphony series are all worth checking out. Thad posted Abou Ben Boogie some time back, I hadn't seen that in a real long time until he posted it. I actually have a model sheet of "Miss X" from that cartoon and "The Greatest Man in Siam". "Pied Piper of Basin Street" is another good one. I had posted that many months ago but it was taken off Youtube. I think I'll post it again though. "Jungle Jive" is another good one that I remember being on TV whole lot. Most of those were directed by Shamus Culhane who admittedly knew nothing of jazz when he started at Lantz.
The Musical Miniatures series was set to classical music. These were directed by Dick Lundy. "The Poet and The Peasant" is a good one along with "Musical Moments From Chopin". There's also "Pixie Picnic" "The Bandmaster" "Overture to William Tell" and Kiddie Koncert". I'd recommend all of these cartoons. Some are pretty hard to find, at least they've been hard for me to get a hold of.
Hey Stinker, I'm pretty sure that Walt himself designed the original Woody, though I don't think he drew this model sheet. As for returning the favor there's really no need to. I'm just glad people actually look at the damn things. Though if you come across anymore Lantz or even any Famous studios model sheets or art, particularly Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip point me to them. I can't seem to find many of them.
I don't think Moore drew that modelsheet... That doesn't look much like his animation of the character (which isn't that great).
Those two pages of drawings from "Dippy Diplomat" and "Loose Nut" are most certainly Emery Hawkins' work.
THAD
That model sheet was credited to Fred Moore, I think, but I have to agree with you, it doesn't look the same as his animation. I think Emery Hawkins draws the most appealing Woody.
thanks a lot for the informative reply Kevin
yeah after i posted that i went to bcdb.com to look up Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy & it ended up recommending these cartoons to me:
Boogie Woogie Man (Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out) (1943)
Boogie Woogie Sioux (1942)
Cow-Cow Boogie (1943)
Abou Ben Boogie (1944)
I was only able to locate Abou Ben Boogie that Thad had posted, and it was AWESOME.
Have you seen the other three? If you have, what are they like? Do you have any idea where I could see them?
thanks Kevin!
-Ryan
Kevin, I know I have a Baby Huey and I might have Katnip.
I got a bunch of Fleischer stuff
and a few Terrytoons- a pretty good Mighty Mouse one.
I'll have a flip through my books.
You're a member of GAC, yes?
I could send the stuff through there. Let me know. I'll check back in a couple of days.
Hi Ryan, I've seen Boogie Woogie Sioux and Cow-Cow Boggie but it was so long ago I couldn't tell you much about them. I know I have a copy of Boogie Woogie Man, I believe I posted it on Youtube but it was taken down with the rest of the stuff I posted. I'll find it and repost for you. Though it's a pretty shitty copy of it. If I'm not mistaken this was Shamus Culhane's first cartoon at Lantz.
Stinker, I have some Fleischer models and just a few Terrytoons, not much though. I am a member of GAC and anything you could share would be awesome. Thanks a lot!
awesome awesome thanks for sharing. this is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know I have a copy of Boogie Woogie Man, I believe I posted it on Youtube but it was taken down with the rest of the stuff I posted. I'll find it and repost for you.
THANKS MAN
FRed Moore could still do very slick model sheet art in addition to his animation work where he worked much rougher(of course), so it's possible that he did these--certainly possible these are his poses cleaned up by someone else, perhaps Ken O'Brien who followed Fred to Lantz(and bacl to Disney in '48).
As for whether his animation is "that great" in Woody cartoons...well, in those days imho Lantz' stuff was terribly dull and Moore livened it up quite a bit. But it's all totally subjective as far as entertainment goes.
Actually, The Woody Woodpecker Hatter model being done by Freddie Moore most certainly is FALSE, the real actual artist who drew that Woody Model is obviously and indeed Kenneth O' Brien, and i must say looking at those drawings, it is, by far, the most well drawn Woody Woodpecker ever made, next to the awesome cool stupendous Emery Hawkins, who drew absolutely the best version of the character, not to mention his animation is extremely superb and a stroke of pure genius and ultra 'uber talent.
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