Woody Woodpecker and his

 exclusive contract, Woody's voice-over work was taken over by Ben Hardaway, who would voice the woodpecker for the rest of the decade. During that time, Blanc's "Guess Who" and laugh are archive sound.
Audiences reacted well to Knock Knock, and Lantz realized he had finally hit upon a star to replace the waning Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Woody would go on to star in a number of films. With his innate chutzpah and brash demeanor, the character was a natural hit during World War II. His image appeared on US aircraft as nose art, and on mess halls, and audiences on the homefront watched Woody cope with familiar problems such as food shortages. The 1943 Woody cartoon The Dizzy Acrobat was nominated for the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), which it lost to the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse. Woody Woodpecker's debut also marked a change in directing style for Walter Lantz studio, since the character was heavily inspired by Tex Avery-created Looney Tunes character Daffy Duck at Warner Bros, and thus Woody's cartoons intended to have a hint of Tex Avery's style and influence in terms of humor, and that what gave Walter Lantz studio its fame. Curiously enough, Avery himself never directed a Woody Woodpecker short when at the Walter Lantz studio.


Woody Woodpecker and his captive client in The Barber of Seville (1944), directed by Shamus Culhane.
Animator Emery Hawkins and layout artist Art Heinemann streamlined Woody's appearance for the 1944 film The Barber of Seville, directed by Shamus Culhane. The bird became rounder, cuter, and less demented. He also sported a simplified color scheme and a brighter smile, making him much more like his counterparts at Warner Bros. and MGM. Nevertheless, Culhane continued to use Woody as an aggressive lunatic, not a domesticated straight man or defensive homebody, as many other studios' characters had become. The follow-up to The Barber of Seville, The Beach Nut, introduced Woody's original chief nemesis, Wally Walrus.
The post-war woodpecker[edit]
Woody's wild days were numbered, however. In 1946, Lantz hired Disney veteran Dick Lundy to take over the direction chores for Woody's cartoons. Lundy rejected Culhane's take on the series and made Woody more defensive; no longer did the bird go insane without a legitimate reason. Lundy also paid more attention to the animation, making Woody's new films more Disney-esque in their design style, animation, and timing. Lundy's last film for Disney was the Donald Duck short Flying Jalopy. This cartoon is played much like a Woody Woodpecker short, right down to the laugh in the end. It also features a bad guy named "Ben Buzzard" who bears a strong resemblance to Buzz Buzzard, a Lantz character introduced in the 1948 short Wet Blanket Policy who would eventually succeed Wally Walrus as Woody's primary antagonist.
In 1947, contract renewal negotiations between Lantz and Universal (now Universal-International) fell through, and Lantz began distributing his cartoons through United Artists.[5] The UA-distributed Lantz cartoons featured higher-quality animation, the influence of Dick Lundy (the films' budgets remained the same).[6] Former Disney animators such as Fred Moore and Ed Love began working at Lantz, and assisted Lundy in adding touches of the Disney style to Woody's cartoons. Despite the Disney style added for the later cartoons, Woody's cartoons still try to maintain a good dose of slapstick and madcap h

rnia. A noisy acorn woodpecker[1] outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, and when a heavy rain started, they learned that the bird had bored holes in their cabin's roof. As both Walter

7.1 Theatrical cartoons
7.2 TV series
7.3 Other appearances
8 Video games
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
Origin[edit]

According to Walter Lantz's press agent, the idea for Woody came during the producer's honeymoon with his wife, Gracie, in Sherwood Lake, California. A noisy acorn woodpecker[1] outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, and when a heavy rain started, they learned that the bird had bored holes in their cabin's roof. As both Walter and Gracie told Dallas attorney Rod Phelps during a visit, Walter wanted to shoot the thing, but Gracie suggested that her husband make a cartoon about the bird, and thus Woody was born.[4]
Although allegedly based on an acorn woodpecker, Woody shares many characteristics in common with the pileated woodpecker in terms of both physical appearance as well as his characteristic laugh, which resembles the call of the pileated woodpecker. These similarities are apparently the result of the artistic license of the creators, and have caused much confusion within the birding community amongst those who have attempted to classify Woody's species.[1]
History[edit]

Early years[edit]
Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the short Knock Knock on November 25, 1940. The cartoon ostensibly stars Andy Panda and his father, Papa Panda, but it is Woody who steals the show. The woodpecker constantly pesters the two pandas, apparently just for the fun of it. Andy, meanwhile, tries to sprinkle salt on Woody's tail in the belief that this will somehow capture the bird. To Woody's surprise, Andy's attempts prevail, and Woody is taken away to the funny farm — but not before his captors prove to be crazier than he is.
The Woody of Knock Knock was designed by animator Alex Lovy. Woody's original voice actor, Mel Blanc, would stop performing the character after the first two cartoons to work exclusively for Leon Schlesinger Productions (Later renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons), producer of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. At Schlesinger's, Blanc had already established the voices of two other famous "screwball" characters who preceded Woody, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Ironically, Blanc's characterization of the Woody Woodpecker laugh had originally been applied to Happy Rabbit, a Bugs Bunny predecessor, in shorts such as the aforementioned Elmer's Candid Camera, and was later transferred to Woody. Blanc's regular speaking voice for Woody was much like the early Daffy Duck, minus the lisp. Once Warner Bros. signed Blanc up to an

al cartoons longer than most of his contemporaries, and Woody Woodpecker remained a staple of Universal's release schedule until 1972, when Lantz finally closed down his studio. The character has been revived since then only for special productions and occasions, save for one new Saturday morn

Significant other(s)    Winnie Woodpecker
Woody Woodpecker is a funny animal cartoon character, an anthropomorphic woodpecker[1] who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures.[2] Though not the first of the screwball characters that became popular in the 1940s, Woody is perhaps the most indicative of the type.
Woody was created in 1940 by Lantz and storyboard artist Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, who had previously laid the groundwork for two other screwball characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio in the late 1930s. Woody's character and design would evolve over the years, from an insane bird with an unusually garish design to a more refined looking and acting character in the vein of the later Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny. Woody was originally voiced by prolific voice actor Mel Blanc, who was succeeded by Ben Hardaway and later by Grace Stafford, wife of Walter Lantz.[3]
Lantz produced theatrical cartoons longer than most of his contemporaries, and Woody Woodpecker remained a staple of Universal's release schedule until 1972, when Lantz finally closed down his studio. The character has been revived since then only for special productions and occasions, save for one new Saturday morning cartoon television series, The New Woody Woodpecker Show, for the Fox Network in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
Woody Woodpecker cartoons were first broadcast on television in 1957 under the title The Woody Woodpecker Show, which featured Lantz cartoons bookended by new footage of Woody and live-action footage of Lantz. Woody has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. He also made a cameo alongside many other famous cartoon characters in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Woody Woodpecker and friends are also icons at the Universal Studios Theme Parks worldwide, as well as the PortAventura Park in Salou, Spain (they were originally brought to the park by Universal Studios, and remain there today despite Universal no longer having a financial stake in the park).
Contents  [hide]
1 Origin
2 History
2.1 Early years
2.2 The post-war woodpecker
2.3 "The Woody Woodpecker Song"
2.4 Later films
3 Selected Woody Woodpecker shorts
3.1 Woody in the television era
4 Reception
4.1 Legacy
5 VHS and DVD releases
6 Voice artists
7 Visual media

ody Woodpecker (cartoon). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

 least partially responsible for the recent popularity of short films internationally.
Short shorts[edit]

Short short films are sometimes considered to be a category of their own. The International Festival of Very Shorts is a festival based in Paris, which shows only movies less than three minutes long. Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has presented and promoted a collection of one-minute films across multiple media since September 2006. They are known for their conciseness and entertainment value.
In popular cultureWoody Woodpecker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the 1941 cartoon, see Woody Woodpecker (cartoon).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2012)
Woody Woodpecker
Woody-woodpecker-title-card.jpg
Woody Woodpecker, from the opening title sequence for the 1951 short Puny Express. This logo sequence was used on many Woody cartoons of the time.
First appearance    Knock Knock (1940)
Last appearance    The New Woody Woodpecker Show (1999-2002)
Created by    Ben Hardaway
Walter Lantz
Alex Lovy
Portrayed by    Mel Blanc (1940–1941; speaking), (1940-1949; trademark laugh), (1940-1972; "Guess Who" line), (2001; Woody Woodpecker: Escape from Buzz Buzzard Park)
Ben Hardaway (1941–1949; speaking)
Danny Webb (1941–1942; speaking)
Kent Rogers (1942–1944; speaking)
Grace Stafford (1950–1972, 1990)
Cherry Davis (in Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
Billy West (1999–2002)
Information
Nickname(s)    Woody
Species    Woodpecker
Gender    Male
Occupation    Woodpecker
Family    Splinter and Knothead (niece and nephew)
Scrooge Woodpecker (uncle)