The New York Times has taken a look at modern art experimentations in 1940′s Woody Woodpecker cartoons, courtesy of veteran animator Shamus Culhane (then credited as James Culhane). The work is documented in an article in the March issue of Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal by Professor Tom Klein (available in full via the journal’s website), who began searching for modern art influences after his correspondence with Culhane and his archival research into Woody Woodpecker cartoons for Universal. The article notes that Culhane noted influences from the writings of Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevelod Pudovkin, as well as his encounters with the films of Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir.
