Studio: Walter Lantz Productions
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Produced by: Walter Lantz
Short Synopsis
Andy Panda and his father, Papa Panda, are trying to enjoy a quiet day at home, but a woodpecker has other plans. He hammers away at the roof of their house, drilling holes just for the fun of it, and laughs his crazy laugh every time Papa reacts. Papa Panda grabs his shotgun and goes after the bird, but the woodpecker runs rings round him, popping up where he least expects, pecking at him, and driving him to distraction. Meanwhile Andy has heard that the way to catch a bird is to sprinkle salt on its tail, and he spends the whole film trying it. Papa laughs at him. To everyone's surprise, including the woodpecker's, Andy's method works: he pours on so much salt that the woodpecker can't move his tail and is caught.
Why It Matters
- The woodpecker steals the film from its nominal stars within a minute of appearing. Crude, buck-toothed and frenzied, with Mel Blanc's machine-gun cackle, he is pure aggression with no motive except fun, a style of anarchic cartoon star that was just taking shape in 1940.
- It is the first appearance of Woody Woodpecker, who became Walter Lantz's biggest star and the face of his studio for decades, later with his own television show. Woody's trademark laugh, a gurgling cackle Blanc had been working on since school, starts here.
Notes and Trivia
- Like most early-1940s Lantz cartoons, it has no director credit. Lantz claimed it, but later research points to Alex Lovy.
- This first Woody had red chest feathers, ringed legs and a big chin; the design was softened by 1942 and redesigned by 1944.
- Woody's first words, as he pops through the roof, are his trademark "Guess who?", in a normal-speed voice rather than the sped-up one he later had.
- Universal's representative reportedly thought Woody the ugliest thing he had ever seen; Lantz talked him into keeping the character.
- See also: Confidence (1933), Ham and Eggs (1933).