Woody Woodpecker on DVD!

[LizzieMaine]

I've been spending the past couple of days going thru the new DVD collection of classic Walter Lantz cartoons -- over 75 of them, including a chronological collection of all the Woodpecker shorts from 1940 to 1952, the classic "Crazy Woody" era, and I'd forgotten how good these shorts can be. The Lantz cartoons have never gotten the attention of the Warner, Disney, or MGM product, and they've gotten very little TV exposure over the past twenty years or so. But for my generation, they were regular and constant after-school TV fare, and it's great to see them again, looking better than ever. I'm especially glad to see several of the black and white 1930's Oswald The Lucky Rabbit shorts included on the set, with wild, rubbery, more exaggerated even than Fleischer animation. (The 1933 short "Confidence," a Depression-era propaganda piece, features the only singing-dancing FDR caricature I've ever come across in a cartoon!)

Another thing that strikes me in watching these shorts is how good the music scores are. Most of the Lantz scores of the '40s were done by Darrell Calker, a Hollywood sideman who had a lot of connections in the jazz world, and he tended to emphasize swing much more than Carl Stalling at Warners or Scott Bradley at MGM. The Lantz "Swing Symphonies" series -- well represented on the DVD set -- may be the best musical cartoons of the '40s, often featuring top name soloists and equally hot animation. They may lack the technical polish of the bigger studios' product, but they're definitely overdue for rediscovery. Hopefully this set will be the first of many!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Nice to hear that this set is so good, Lizzie.

And of course, the first volume of the complete Fleischer Popeyes comes out tomorrow - 60 b/w cartoons (plus the first two color two-reel specials) for about what I used to pay for just one or two Popeye cartoons in my 16mm collecting days in the 70s/80s!

It's certainly a great time to be an animation fan...

 

[The Wolf]

The third disc has some great cartoons.
It has "Sh-h-h-h-h" which features the Okeh "Laughing Record" that was mentioned (I think by Lizzie) in another forum.
It has a Tex Avery (whom I didn't know worked at Universal ((I was just used to his WB and MGM)) with Lantz) cartoon called "Crazy Mixed Up Pup" which is an all time great in lunacy.
I was surprised by the women in "Mother Goose on the Loose" however. They were racier than Tex' MGM sexy women.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Doctor Strange]

Wow, "Sh-h-h-h-h"! I haven't seen that one in many years: one of my friends used to have a 16mm print.

Those last few (4?) cartoons that Tex Avery did for Lantz are great, and are pretty much his last masterworks - after making them he only did work for TV, e.g., the original Raid commercials. While his Lantz shorts are clearly low-budg, they feature that wonderful Avery lunacy, and they are arguably better than his final work at M-G-M. I'm very happy to hear that these are included on the set!

"...Could you please stop blowing that horn?"