Lantz's muted approach to Woody Woodpecker ;o)

[Sogturtle]

Lantz's muted approach to Woody Woodpecker

Okay, in response to the undying speculation as to WHY in the world Lantz made that whole big passel of silent Woody Woodpecker cartoons...

I DO know the real answer because of this... A fairly brief article back in '51 detailed that Lantz had a little earlier taken a trip to Europe... While in Italy he discovered (evidently much to his horror) that NO Woodpecker cartoons were being shown there!! He enquired of the Universal rep WHY this was so, and was informed that they deliberately weren't shown there purely because dubbing in Italian was just too bloomin' expensive! Annnnnd that furthermore the same held true in various other countries..

Okay, so with the knowledge that his English-language Woodpecker was poisoning foreign exhibition, Lantz then hit upon the bright-idea of doing the mute-Woody cartoons purely as a way of getting around that problem. And thus creating much wider distribution and which would hopefully get more money back in the coffers . The article concluded by noting that prints could now be shipped without any changes except to the title and credits. But sadly the article doesn't contain any of Lantz's exact quote.

NOTHING in the article gives any hint that it was to do away with standard English-language recording costs. (Lantz still had to have music written, arranged, and recorded, plus sound-effects recorded and all that properly synched in time to the animation).


Sooooo in a way it WAS related to money, but totally in regards to Lantz wanting to get a LOT more of it!

So now you know "the rest of the story"

[Hmmmm, maybe that 30 years of research DOES pay off ].

[Eugene the Jeep]

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

[Sogturtle]

Originally Posted by Eugene the Jeep

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

Eugene the Jeep~

You're quite welcome!

[David Gerstein]

Amen to THAT! (-: Thanks, Tim.

[lonesome-lenny]

This is really interesting--and it makes sense! I had a feeling there was a business decision behind Woody's muteness. I think that if Lantz had put a little more thought into this, he could have made Woody a truly international cartoon character--one that didn't need language to appeal to viewers.

This is the same thing many of the Eastern European animators tried to do in the '50s and '60s, with non-verbal cartoons (many of which do feature gibberish or voice-like sounds to represent speech--something Lantz might have tried with Woody, and which might have worked well for the little guy).

[Sogturtle]

Originally Posted by Lonesome-lenny

This is really interesting--and it makes sense! I had a feeling there was a business decision behind Woody's muteness. I think that if Lantz had put a little more thought into this, he could have made Woody a truly international cartoon character--one that didn't need language to appeal to viewers.

This is the same thing many of the Eastern European animators tried to do in the '50s and '60s, with non-verbal cartoons (many of which do feature gibberish or voice-like sounds to represent speech--something Lantz might have tried with Woody, and which might have worked well for the little guy

Originally Posted by David Gerstein

Amen to THAT! (-: Thanks, Tim.

Brer Gerstein ~

You're welcome David, I hope you weren't barraged TOO much and hopefully I've undone le damage... (I am sorry for that little mess!! )



Lonesome-lenny~

Yeah it is a really interesting point to ponder that Lantz would be more-than-willing to silence Woody (theoretically permanently ) in order to build up international business and status (and $$$). It'd be fascinating to examine the Lantz accounting ledgers to see how much it boosted business while it was going on... And you are right that it APPEARS that Walter was trying his darnedest for full international stardom for the Woodpecker.

It's equally intriguing to ponder that it was a little while before he got the studio reopened that he'd managed to work out a deal for Woody Woodpecker to appear in a series of cartoonish-records for Capitol Records. With that in mind you can pretty plainly see that he was indeed beating the bushes for cash (and as way of keeping Woody alive) ! And more astounding yet is that by signing with Capitol he was able to get their "new" star to voice the red-topped fowl... Some unknown guy by the unlikely moniker of Mel Blanc!!!
So for the first time in 8 or so years the Woodpecker and his original voice were reunited !! And the ADDED bonus for Lantz was that the stories were written by Warner-ites Tedd Pierce and Warren Foster.

Now how much money Lantz realized from the Capitol records is an interesting area to explore...

[David Gerstein]

Another interesting point is that while Woody was off the screen, his popularity in comic books seems to have actually risen—with the frequency of his Four Color one-shots increasing considerably. Same went for Andy Panda.

[J Lee]

It probably didn't help things any that Universal-International was the second weakest sister of the big majors (behind the dying RKO) throughout most of the 1950s, before being bailed out towards the end of the decade by Doris Day and Rock Hudson (and then by its lot rental for TV to, and eventual merger with, Music Corporation of America). That extra cost to dub into Italian might have been do-able by the other big studios, but then if Universal had the money to burn, odds are Lantz wouldn't have ended up at United Artists, and then shut down for a time at the end of the 40s.

[Studio Toledo]

Originally Posted by lonesome-lenny

This is really interesting--and it makes sense! I had a feeling there was a business decision behind Woody's muteness.

Funny I never thought about that (or else, Italians should just deal with it).

I think that if Lantz had put a little more thought into this, he could have made Woody a truly international cartoon character--one that didn't need language to appeal to viewers.

That's true too.

This is the same thing many of the Eastern European animators tried to do in the '50s and '60s, with non-verbal cartoons (many of which do feature gibberish or voice-like sounds to represent speech--something Lantz might have tried with Woody, and which might have worked well for the little guy).

I remember those cartoons quite well. And many of them tend to have a more universal appeal due to the design of the non-dialogue approach that made it easier to get them seen in multiple countries.

Here's some nice examples...

Krtek ("The Little Mole", created by Zdenek Miler, Czechoslavia)
"Krtek v ZOO" (The Mole in the Zoo)
"Krtek a Televisor" (The Mole and the TV set)
"Krtek a Lizatko" (The Mole and the Lolipop)

La Linea ("The Line", created by Osvaldo Cavandoli, Italy)
#101
#103
#118
#141
#156
#203
#225

Gustavus (Hungary)
"Gustavus is Cheating"
"Gustavus Wants to Marry"
"Gustavus Participates in Traffic"
"Gustavus and Alienation"
"Gustavus Wants To Save Humanity"
"Gustavus' Inferiority Complex"
"Gustavus and the Fly"
"Gustavus the Hunter"

Kockásfülű nyúl ("Rabbit with the Checkered Ears", Hungary)
#1
#2

Bolek & Lolek (Poland)
"Kosmonauci" (The Cosmonaut)
"Dwaj Rycerze"
"Klusownik"
"Uwięziona królowa"
"Czerwony Kapturek" (Little Red Riding Hood?)
"Pali Sie"
"Tajemniczy Plan" (Treasure Map?)
"Podwodna Wycieczka"
"Wycieczka W Gory"

In some way I find it very enjoyable watching these when you don't want to have any real dialogue going on for a while (probably why they never found much of a big exposure in the states).

[lonesome-lenny]

Originally Posted by David Gerstein

Another interesting point is that while Woody was off the screen, his popularity in comic books seems to have actually risen—with the frequency of his Four Color one-shots increasing considerably. Same went for Andy Panda.

Woody, Andy, and Oswald were all gifted by stories written (and sometimes drawn!) by John Stanley, at least up to mid-1948. When LITTLE LULU became a regular comic book, Stanley dropped the Lantz characters.

Stanley did beautiful work with the Lantz properties--especially Woody Woodpecker. He understood something about Woody's character, and made him even edgier and more existential than he is in the contemporary cartoons.

In several issues of NEW FUNNIES from 1945/6, Stanley drew the Woody stories. They're great examples of his work as a cartoonist.

The "Four-Color" one-shots featuring Andy, Oswald and Woody are well worth seeking out. Stanley did the first two Woody one-shots, and several Andy and Oswalds from 1943 to '48... all delightful, slightly twisted stories that are more than worthy of the characters!

In other news... last night, I showed some Culhane Woodys to a cartoon-loving friend of mine. He'd never seen any of these (not hard, since they've been off the market for a long time).

He dug the energy and the visual sharpness of the cartoons, but he kept complaining, re the Woodster: "I can't understand anything he's saying!" I've never had that problem, but it might explain yet another reason Lantz muted our feathered friend... and significantly slowed down Woody's speech patterns when he did return to his former chattery ways, later in the '50s.

And, to Sogturtle... as for those Capitol "kiddie" records... those have some great moments! Fantastic voice work, great music, and some of the nutty spirit of the best WB and Lantz cartoons shows up in the writing. I'm surprised no one has reissued some of these on CD.