Woody Woodpecker is a cartoon character created by American animators Walter Lantz and Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. He appeared in theatrical short films produced by Walter Lantz Productions and Universal Pictures' animation studio from 1940 until 1972. The character, depicted as an anthropomorphic pileated woodpecker, evolved significantly in design and personality over the course of his series' run, from an insane bird with an unusually garish appearance to a more refined-looking and acting character in the vein of the later Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny. Woody was originally voiced by prolific voice actor Mel Blanc, who was succeeded in the shorts by Danny Webb and four others. Woody's cartoons were first broadcast on television in 1957 under the title The Woody Woodpecker Show, bookended by new live-action/animated hybrid footage of Woody and Lantz. Since his theatrical series ended upon the closure of Lantz's studio in 1972, the character has been revived for special productions and occasions; as well as for a Saturday-morning cartoon television series called The New Woody Woodpecker Show, which aired from 1999 to 2002. His recent appearances include a 2017 live-action/CGI hybrid feature film released theatrically in Latin America and direct-to-video elsewhere; a new series of YouTube shorts launched in 2018; and 2024's Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp on Netflix. Woody is the official mascot of Universal and has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. He was also one of many famous cartoon characters to make cameo appearances in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Woody and his friends are also icons at the Universal Studios Theme Parks worldwide, as well as the PortAventura Park in Spain, in which Universal formerly had a financial stake.
Origin The character was co-created in 1940 by producer Walter Lantz and animator Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, the latter of whom previously laid the groundwork for Woody's fellow screwball characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio in the late 1930s. The inspiration for Woody's character allegedly came during Lantz's honeymoon with his wife, Grace, in June Lake, California in 1940, a dubious story given the fact that Woody's first appearance predated the Lantz couple's honeymoon. A noisy acorn woodpecker outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, and when heavy rain started, they learned that the bird had bored holes in their cabin's roof. Walter and Gracie told Dallas attorney Rod Phelps during a visit that Walter wanted to shoot the bird, but Gracie suggested that her husband make a cartoon about the bird, and thus Woody was born. According to Lantz's biographer Joe Adamson, however, Ben Hardaway and L.E. Elliott had written a story where Andy Panda and his father, Papa Panda, experienced roof troubles caused by a rainstorm. Lantz took one look at the storyboard and found it "too expensive". He needed a roofing problem that was easier to animate, and suggested a pesky bird like a woodpecker (a couple of Lantz's 1930s cartoons, including the 1936 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon Night Life of the Bugs, had featured incidental woodpeckers). Woody shares many characteristics in common with the pileated woodpecker in terms of both physical appearance as well as his characteristic laugh, which resembles the call of the pileated woodpecker. These similarities are the result of the artistic license of the creators and have caused much confusion within the birding community among those who have attempted to classify Woody's species. In the short Dumb Like a Fox (1964), a museum offers a 25-dollar reward to anyone who captures a campephilus principalis (ivory-billed woodpecker), which is Woody Woodpecker himself.
History
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