This weekend, we pay tribute to pioneering animation producer and director Walter Lantz (1899-1994). Posted a Lantz cartune-filled salute to Walt and Woody back in December 2024, but dang it, that ISN'T ENOUGH!
Do we LOVE Woody (both the woodpecker and San Francisco Giants curveballing LHP Kirk "Woody" Reuter), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, Buzz Buzzard, Chilly Willy, and the excellent Swing Symphonies and Musical Miniatures series?
Yes, emphatically!
Here's Walter with his wife and ace cartoon voice artist Gracie Stafford Lantz (the voice of Woody Woodpecker after the departure of voiceman/storyman Ben Hardaway).
Walter Lantz began producing cartoons for J.R. Bray back in the silent era, with the Dinky Doodle, Unnatural History and Pete The Pup series. Walter appears in many of his silent era productions!
Over his many decades producing animated cartoons, Mr. Lantz was assisted very aptly by, to name just a few extremely talented collaborators, directors Shamus Culhane, Tex Avery, Dick Lundy, Alex Lovy, Don Patterson, Sid Marcus and Jack Hannah, animators Pat Matthews, Grim Natwick, Emery Hawkins, Manuel Moreno, Bill Nolan, Clyde Geronimi, Ray Abrams, Les Kline, Laverne Harding, Paul Smith, Art Davis, avatars of layout, backgrounds and character designs Philip DeGuard, Art Heinemann, Ray Huffine and Art Landy, storymen Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, Milt Schaffer and Cal Howard, voice artists Dick Nelson, Lionel Stander, Daws Butler, Dallas McKennon and (sometimes, before 1941) Mel Blanc, plus excellent music men Jimmy Dietrich, Frank Marsales and Darrell Calker.
Now, let's bring on the Walter Lantz "Cartunes", starting with WOODY THE GIANT KILLER.
LOVE the terrific Swing Symphonies by the Walter Lantz Studio, especially The Greatest Man In Siam and Abou Ben Boogie!
Indeed, our mission, just a few days short of Walter's 127th birthday on Monday, is to continue deluging you with vintage Walter Lantz "Cartunes", starting with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit.
The gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog remain enthusiastic about the Lantz Ozzies of the early talkie era.
Here's the color segment (preceding the Ted Eshbaugh Studio's Goofy Goat Antics and the Disney Silly Symphony Flowers And Trees) starring Ozzie from the 1930 Universal feature THE KING OF JAZZ.
A caricature of Paul Whiteman, bandleader and star of The King Of Jazz appears in an Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoon, My Pal Paul.
Lantz' Oswald cartoons from 1929-1931 are filled with wonderful, cartoony, imaginative, way-out ideas and Bill Nolan's extra rubbery animation.
We close this too brief homage to the great Walter Lantz with cartoons directed by the equally great Tex Avery during his brief second stint there. That's right, the Tex Avery, whose first act after leaving the employ of Walter Lantz and joining the ragtag Leon Schlesinger Studio, producers of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, was to create "Termite Terrace" and give the middle finger to that other more famous Walt. Avery directed Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) and A Wild Hare (1940), effectively throwing down the gauntlet.
As always, the blazing and ever-inventive comic genius of Tex Avery is quite something to behold. Too bad Tex never met Buster Keaton when they were both working on the MGM lot.
