Monday, 18 January 2016

Woody Multiples

The first Woody Woodpecker cartoon released after the Walter Lantz studio had shut down for almost two years was “Puny Express” (1951). The first few Woodys when Lantz returned had been timed by director Dick Lundy before the shutdown from stories by Heck Allen and Bugs Hardaway. There was no dialogue, apparently to facilitate their sale in foreign countries.

There are lots of brush strokes and multiples in a scene where Buzz Buzzard pushes the plunger on a dynamite detonation box—only to be squirted with water. He looks inside to see what’s wrong. The selected drawings below tell the story. The first five are consecutive frames.



The next five drawings are consecutive as well.



Three more consecutive drawings.



And the next three are consecutive frames.



Ray Abrams, La Verne Harding and Don Patterson get screen credit for animation.
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3 comments:

  1. J Lee18 January 2016 at 09:49

    This one seemed to have been planned as a follow-up to 1949's "Wild and Woody". It would have been fun to see how the characters would have moved if Lantz hadn't run out of money and Lundy and his team of animators had been able to finish the cartoon.

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  2. MFM18 January 2016 at 17:23

    Well, it's not a terrible cartoon. But in the history of theatrical animation was there ever a fall as sad as the Lantz cartoons, post-UA (not forgetting Warners in the '60s)? And Mrs. Lantz's irritating Woody voice just seemed to exemplify the whole mess.

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    Replies
    1. Unknown23 September 2016 at 08:38

      With Grace Staffords voice, Woody sounded like a girl. Ben Hardaways voice is better.

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