Today on the blog, we're getting LANTZ-ED!
In general, this blogger's all-time favorite Walter Lantz Cartunes were made in the 1940's.
When it comes to the early Woody Woodpecker, we love that cameo appearance (starting at 4:29) in the WW2 themed Swing Symphony cartoon 21 DOLLARS A DAY ONCE A MONTH.
Of the loony bird's adventures, we consider those directed by former Disney and Fleischer animator James "Shamus" Culhane to be tops.
Another former Disney animator, Dick Lundy, also directed a bunch of classic cartoons for Lantz.
We're fans of the Musical Miniatures series.
A talented crew of former Disney artists revisited their days working for the other Walt at the Lantz Studio with the following clever and entertaining Andy Panda cartoon, The Bandmaster, which includes animation by the legendary Fred Moore. It's arguably the best of the Musical Miniatures.
And, speaking of the Walter Lantz Studio's predecessors of Woody Woodpecker, wrote about OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT in one of the very first posts on this blog back in 2006. Read about the quite bizarre Ozzie opus THE HASH SHOP but had never seen it then. Now it is up on YouTube.
Since that day five or six lifetimes ago, somebody posted THE HASH SHOP among a slew of wonderfully weird Ozzie cartoons on YouTube.
This is great because THE HASH SHOP is not on the new Walter Lantz Woody Woodpecker Screwball Collection Blu-ray. NOTE: a Lantz Ozzie playlist is up on YouTube!
Many moons ago, long ago and far away, my favorite way of getting LANTZ-ED was to watch The Woody Woodpecker Show on TV - and see none other than Walter Lantz, a terrific host!
Today, we conclude this salute to the woodpecker and Walter Lantz by tipping the Jimmie Hatlo top hat to the artists who made these excellent cartoons. . . to name just a few, the aforementioned Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy, Bill Nolan, Tex Avery, Grim Natwick, Emery Hawkins, Manuel Moreno, Les Kline, Pat Matthews, Laverne Harding, Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, Milt Schaffer, Philip DeGuard, Art Heinemann, Alex Lovy, Don Patterson and music man Darrell Calker.
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