This Is the Way We Wash a Witch

Perhaps the least-scary witch in theatrical cartoons was the nameless one who tried to get back her broom from Woody Woodpecker in Witch Crafty (1955).

This was animated by what looks like a B-list crew from Warner Bros. 15-plus-years earlier: Gil Turner, Bob Bentley and Herman Cohen. There isn’t a lot of fun animation here, except for a little sequence where the witch has tunneled under Woody’s broom factory to retrieve her magic broom. He pushes a washer-dryer into position.



The witch breaks through the floor and the bottom of the washer (powerful witch to bust through metal, isn’t she?). The animator and in-betweener(s) have a little fun with the drawings. Clarence Wheeler tosses in the Irish Washerwoman tune in the background.

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After drying, the witch emerges from the top. This is about a wild as you’ll see in a cartoon directed by Paul J. Smith.



It would appear Mike Maltese started writing this cartoon, then got re-hired at Warner Bros., so Homer Brightman finished it.