Studio: Walter Lantz Productions
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Produced by: Walter Lantz
Short Synopsis
The other birds of the forest fly south for the winter, but Woody Woodpecker stays behind to keep swimming. The moment they leave, winter hits so hard that his swimming hole freezes solid as he dives in ("Must be hard water"). Woody isn't worried: he has a pantry full of food. Then a snowstorm blows through his house and carries off everything he owns, food included. Two weeks later Woody is delirious with hunger, and Starvation itself, a ghostly figure like the Grim Reaper, stares in through the window. A month later a starving cat finds Woody's cabin and decides to eat the woodpecker. Woody, just as hungry, decides to eat the cat. They go at each other, each seeing the other as a roast dinner. A moose wanders up to the open door, and cat and woodpecker team up to catch it and eat it. But one moose isn't enough. As soon as the meal is over, Woody and the cat look at each other again, and the whole fight starts over.
Why It Matters
- The hunger hallucinations are the comic highlight: both starving characters start seeing each other as food, a gag the animators push to grotesque extremes, and the arrival of Starvation as a spectral figure gives this early Woody cartoon a strikingly dark edge for a wartime family short.
- It was the first cartoon in Woody's own series, after his debut in an Andy Panda short, Knock Knock (1940). Walter Lantz built his studio around the woodpecker for decades, and this film's mix of manic aggression and survival comedy set the tone for Woody's early years.
Notes and Trivia
- Woody's voice changes noticeably in the final scene; the film credits several voice performers, Mel Blanc and Danny Webb among them.
- See also: Knock Knock (1940).