Alberta Siegel Sets a Rubber Knife, 1955
No one who worked on Walter Lantz’ “Ace in the Hole” could possibly have anticipated what it would unleash when the cartoon became part of a controlled experiment to gauge children’s behavior.
Tag Archives: Woody Woodpecker
Stanley Kubrick and Violent Cartoons, 1956
As Stanley Kubrick’s directorial career progressed the argument could be made that he had studied some Walter Lantz cartoons. Not just any cartoons, but specifically the brutal ones directed by Shamus Culhane.
Animation Anecdotes #226
Jim Korkis with anecdotes on Woody Woodpecker, Gigantor, Lilo and Stitch, Jeffery Katzenberg, dubbing Miyazaki, Betty Boop and the Incredibles.
Shamus Culhane Makes it Modernism, 1943
There it was, a hidden treasure inside of a cartoon explosion, a desperate few seconds of avant-garde filmmaking that played to millions of post-war moviegoers and then to Baby Boomers…
Recalling An Afternoon With Walter and Gracie Lantz
For this week, I decided to turn my column over my colleague Chris Buchman – whom I wrote about here in May 2014. With Chris, Thunderbean produced and released “A…
Walter Lantz’ “The Beach Nut” (1944)
Today, the Lantz studio introduces a new comic foil for Woody Woodpecker! On paper, the concept for this cartoon seems thin, but director Shamus Culhane provides one of the finest…
“Wet Blanket Policy” (1948)
“Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha! Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha! That’s the Woody Woodpecker Song…” In 1947, musicians George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss played Walter Lantz their new song about his famous manic woodpecker over the phone. Tibbles…
More Christmasy Cartoonz
Has it been a whole year since my last posts on Christmas animation? Around Christmas 2013, I devoted six columns to Christmas-themed cartoons. American theatrical shorts, American TV Specials, direct-to-DVD…
Even Cartoon Characters Have To Pay The Bills
If your favorite cartoon character told you to buy something, you’d buy it, wouldn’t you? Of course you would. That’s why cartoon characters make such wonderful pitchmen. I mean, if…
American Cartoon Stars in Japanese Commercials
Editor’s Note: Mike Kazaleh is taking a well-earned break this week, traveling back to his home town in Detroit. In his place today our colleague Charles Brubaker steps in with…
