Making Killer Food

Shamus Culhane found interesting ways to use the camera during his first stint as a director. There were several Lantz cartoons where the camera jerks in and out and upside down when there’s some kind of impact. And in others he has the camera move in and out and pans to different parts of the drawings around for an interesting perspective.

One example of the latter is in “Woody Dines Out,” when the taxidermist brews a poisonous concoction so he can make Woody Woodpecker unconscious, skin him and collect $100,000 (not exactly the kind of Woody plot you’d see in the late ‘60s, is it?).

You can’t get the full effect with these frames because you’re not seeing the movement, but you can get an idea of what Culhane was going for as the taxidermist is not shot in the same position each time. While he’s moving, the camera’s moving, too, and not on a horizontal plane.



Don Williams gets the only screen credit, though other animators worked on this as well.