Walter Lantz Goes High Class

Walter Lantz had a bonafide star in Woody Woodpecker. But as World War Two was ending, he wanted something more.

The “something more” wasn’t Andy Panda. Even Lantz understood Andy’s potential stardom was limited. He talked about it to the United Press in this story from June 22, 1946.

Children Favor Cartoon Figures Which Get into Mischief
By PATRICIA CLARY
HOLLYWOOD—(UP)—Cartoon Producer Walter Lantz believes that children like brash cartoon characters because they get away with mischief that would bring the youngsters a spanking.
That's why, Lantz said, his cocky Woody Woodpecker was more popular than gentle Andy Panda, and why noisy Donald Duck outdraws Mickey Mouse.
"Seeing cartoons is what you might call psychological sublimation for the kids," he explained. "They wish to do the things Woody Woodpecker does, but they can't get away with it. So they let off steam by watching him get away with it."
Lantz has other ideas for the children, however. He's going to improve their musical intelligence with cartoons based on famous classical pieces.
"I think that the time is ripe for good music," he said, "but it has to be presented in an understandable way. The stories behind our music will not necessarily have anything to do with the opera, for instance, from which it is taken. But the stories will bring the moods of the music to life."
His animators are having plenty of trouble filling an assignment like that. But they've been well trained for it. It takes nine years, he told us, to train a topflight animator. And there's no way to learn except by working. "We worked out a careful analysis of our training periods in order to help the many veterans who are working as cartooning apprentices under the GI Bill,” Lantz said.
"A first class animator, for instance, starts with an idea and roughs out sketches here and there in the continuity to illustrate his idea.
“Then the class-two animator gets the idea from that and draws every other sketch. The apprentice animator consequently has a close pattern to follow when he draws the in-between panels."
Sometimes, Lantz said, his animators get so well-trained at drawing animals that they forget how to draw humans. Then he tells them to take a week off at art school and get back in form.
But there won't be any human characters in Lantz's cartoons. Not any longer. One pretty—a Latin miss—was enough.
"The censors got after me," he said. "Said she swung her hips when she walked. Who doesn't?"
"I'll stick to animals," he said. "You can't offend them."

The way Lantz is talking, you’d think he had mini-versions of Fantasia in mind. Of course, that kind of animation would be expensive, but Lantz, musical director Darrell Calker and his writers found ways to incorporate gags around a framework of classical music.

Universal released The Poet and the Peasant as an Andy Panda cartoon on March 16, 1946, though Variety reported on June 15, 1944 that cutting had been completed. The cartoon was nominated for an Oscar. Lantz decided to go ahead with a Musical Miniature series, though it doesn't appear all the cartoons bore that title:

Musical Moments from Chopin, (Universal, February 24, 1947, Oscar nominated).
The Overture to William Tell, (Universal, June 16, 1947).
The Bandmaster, (United Artists, December 22, 1947).
Kiddie Concert, (United Artists, April 21, 1948).
Pixie Picnic, (United Artists, May 28, 1948).

The Chopin cartoon was ready well before its release. It was previewed in an interview with Lantz in the Valley Times, October 15, 1946, who explains how they were made.

Valley Cartoon Master Believes in Artistry
By HAZEL FLYNN
The other night at a preview I saw an unusual cartoon called “Chopin’s Musical Moments.”
Here for the first time was some of the world’s great music combined with cinema art and animation.
The leading character was a cute little fellow, Andy Panda. Andy sat down to play a concert in the barn and was doing nicely when a saucy red-haired chap, Woody Woodpecker, came in to polish the piano. Deciding he could play too, he joined in and soon such selections as “Fantasy Impromptu” and “Scherzo" began to emerge.
Imaginative
Then it waxed dramatic. A fire started and the flames took over, evening running up and down the keys. But did the intrepid performers cease playing? They did not until note of the Polonaise had died away.
It was humor and it was culturally satisfying. I knew at once that it had Academy Award possibilities, so I decide[d] to find out more about it.
Yesterday I met the producer and creative artist back of “Chopin’s Musical Moments"—Walter Lantz. Mild-mannered, greying at the temples, he admits being 46 and one of the industry’s pioneers line.
Valley Studio
At his Valley studio he has turned out literally hundreds of animated subjects. A former New York American employe he created “Colonel Heezaliar," one of the earliest silent cartoons more than 27 years ago. He worked for the famous Bray studios. Ask mother or dad about the early Bray cartoons, such as “Out of the Inkwell”). Lantz was brought to California by the late Carl Laemmle to start a department at Universal . . . He’s been here ever since . . . What is more, he can still draw—which cannot be said of many producers in the same game.
Besides creating Andy and Woody he publishes the Walter Lantz New Funnies magazine, one of the best read comic books in the country. He gets thousands of fan letters from kids who want to know what Woody and Andy eat—whether they are kept in cages, etc. Naturally, he never intends to lose this audience if he can help it.
The Chopin picture is one of the series he calls “Musical Miniatures.” Another uses Rossini’s Overture to William Tell, with a 45 piece orchestra performing. Still another will incorporate the Zampa overture and he may soon do one based on “Die Fledermaus" as well as “The Nutcracker Suite.”
Music Comes First
He has an odd way of doing these “Miniatures." He picks the music first, then has the story tailored to fit—a difficult job, he admits.
The classics are never distorted in Lantz cartoons, for he feels that in making use of them he is doing something which will prove educational as well as entertaining, especially to youth.
Lantz lives in Encino in a ranch house with his wife, the former Grace Stafford, star of the Henry Duffy players for seven years, two great Dane dogs and the "only indoor barbecue in the Valley which doesn’t smoke. He figured out a way to prevent the smoking and paid through the nose to have his plan followed.
Smoke-abater Lantz is president of the Cartoon Producers’ association and he regrets that the cartoon is still underrated. He points to how this type of film has improved in the past ten years. Whereas 2500 drawings were used in silent days, a cartoon today may use more than 25,000. The artists are better. Most of the artists and animators today are art school graduates. The cost of Chopin's Musical Moments” is another example of how they have improved. The negative cost alone was nearly $50,000.
Appreciation Lack
Yet, he says, the average cartoon is still billed as an also-ran, even in critical comment. He hates those "also on the bill" cracks. And the revenue derived from these important portions of the theater program has not increased either. He says cartoons have not benefited from lush easy money, war days.
Perhaps with elimination of “B” pictures the situation will change. Walter Lantz hopes so. He also feels that the vogue for introducing cartoon sequences in big features may help exhibitor appreciation. He did one of the first of these sequences in technicolor for Paul Whiteman’s "King of Jazz."
Another thing which would help the cause would be a new name, he feels. Just imagine, he says, if full length pictures were billed as “longies." The term might run patrons right out of the theaters. Therefore, he’d like a word to substitute for the term "short.”
If you can think of one, let Walter know. He’s pitting his lance on the side of cartoons for culture—and more cash. And don’t you dare call them "shorts," either.

Whatever you want to call them, they had top animators working on them—Freddy Moore, Pat Matthews, Emery Hawkins, Ed Love, among them—and former Disney animator Dick Lundy directing. They may not have been as funny as, say, Rhapsody Rabbit, but they’re enjoyable enough to watch. Hawkins fans, especially, should love his work on The Poet and the Peasant.

This was a high period for the Lantz studio which ended before the decade was out. Lantz’s deal with United Artists went sour and he shut down his operation for over a year, spending his time touring. Erskine Johnson’s column of Feb. 15, 1949 talked of a Woody Woodpecker feature when Lantz returned. When Lantz’s stripped-down studio re-opened, there was no feature. And the Musical Miniatures were finished, too. You can read more about them in this post and enjoys Devon Baxter's examination of one in this entry at Cartoon Research.