Who's Your Favorite Lantz Character

[Thad Komorowski]

I think mine would be either Woody or Andy. Both are very funny.

-Thad:D

[Thad Komorowski]

I chose Andy Panda. He's very funny, and it's a shame he doesn't have much of a reputation today. Do you KNOW how popular this character was? He was kind, funny, gentle, and he only got back at others when he needed too. Woody, on the other hand, seems to actually WANT to get in trouble........;)

-Thad:D

[Pietro]

I always liked Oswald the Lucky Rabbit so I picked him.
It was a close shave between Oswald and Woody.

-Pietro

[Joe Tully]

Chilly Willy. I like his quiet nature, and he has the most appealing design. Very cute. Woody can be irritating sometimes. His voice is sometimes just beyond the point of human tolerance.

[Matt Yorston]

You may find this hard to believe but I chose Doc. I admire the character's elegance and poise and almost of the cartoons he starred in have been to my enjoyment, whether he was paired with mice, Hickory and Dickory, bulldog Cecil, or the much friendlier bulldog Champ. Of those that I've seen, I like "Mouse Trapped", "Witty Kitty", "Punchy Pooch", and "Corny Concerto" the best. I haven't seen "Freeloading Feline" in the longest time and I saw both "Space Mouse" and "Doc's Last Stand" in 1995 when YTV showed the Lantz cartoons but they only showed these cartoons once, then never again. Go figure.

[hippety hopper]

Woddy woodpecker,
I like Chilly willy(Strange name)as well BUT Woody would always get into soooooooo much troble and his laugh always cracks me up.

BTW,That new version of Woody and Chilly is a digrace.
Its not funny at all and just ruins Woddys personality.:mad:

[DR. BELCH]

--it's the older Woody design (with the fatter, banded legs; split turquoise tailfeathers, larger bill, and red breast). He had the real Woody laugh; around the late fifties or sixties it just sounded like a pale imitation. For Woody villians, it's Buzz Buzzard (Wally Walrus was a big load of wussy blubber, IMO). The later Andy I always found bland, although as a cub in the early shorts he always managed to drive his old man crazy....I loved that.... ("Count to ten, poppa." "Grrr...1....2....3....") :mad:

[Jack]

I chose Chilly Willy, his shorts were always my favorites, and I'll always have that theme song in my head.

We need some Lantz cartoons on TV!!! The Lantz characters are still well known, and popular, Universal could easily make a profit from sindicating them, or by working out a deal with CN.


Jack:D

[Sveven Dvorking]

but Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is a terrible D*sn*y ripoff. Unlike the infamous WB mice, who only appeared in one cartoon, Oswald the Ripoff kept showing up again and again. Vote for him only if you wanted Lantz to get charged with copyright infringement.

I also voted Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as the worst D*sn*y rip-off.

[Jack]

Wasn't Oswald made up well before Mickey, thus making Mickey a ripoff of Oswald?


Jack:D

[Thad Komorowski]

Jack is absolutely correct. Oswald was Walt Disney's ORIGINAL creation, and the rights to the character were given to Lantz. Disney said he wanted another Oswald, so he made Mickey. So this means OSWALD IS, the original, shorts with button wering, dotted eye character.

-Thad:D

[Nelson]

I voted for the other famous rabbit OSWALD THE RABBIT...
Disney did not create Oswald, nor did Disney never had the rights to the rabbit.Universal (which owned the rabbit) was looking for an animator to animate their cartoon rabbit and picked Disney and his staff to make the Oswald cartoons, Thus giving Disney his first big break to work for a major Hollywood studio.After Disney lost out on the Oswald series, the series was awarded to Walter Lantz.

[Pietro]

Actually, in a way Nelson and Thad are both right.
Ya see the story about Oswald is this way:
Around 1927, the film distributor Charles Mintz signed a deal with Universal Studios to produce a new cartoon series. Mintz and his wife, Margaret J. Winkler distributed Disney's "Alice in Cartoonland" series. However, the "Alice" series started failing in the late 1920s. Both Disney and Mintz recognized the need to create a new a better cartoon star. Mintz offered Disney a contract to produce the new series, and Disney agreed. Disney showed Mintz a group of test drawings for the new character.
Finally the new character was chosen, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Disney produced a pilot cartoon called "Poor Papa." However, the film was criticized by Universal executives and Mintz because the Oswald character was not cute or likeable enough. Disney's head animator, Ub Iwerks, refined the character's appearance, thus making Iwerks the original creator of Oswald. The second cartoon, "Trolley Troubles," was passed by the Universal executives and Mintz, and premiered on the July 4, 1927. The series was very successful. However, in February of 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a new contract for future Oswald cartoons. Mintz informed Disney that his advance for each cartoon would be substantially cut, and that if he didn't agree to this, Mintz would move production of the cartoons over to his own new company. Disney refused, and, after completing all the cartoons agreed to in the original contract, saw control of the Oswald character went to Mintz. Mintz's studio failed when Universal decided to produce the series in-house, with their new studio runned by Walter Lantz. This would be the beginning of The Walter Lantz studio.

So, Sveven Dvorking, if there was no Oswald there wouldn't be any Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, or Andy Panda.

-Pietro

[Nelson]

Amen on that Pietro.....

[J Lee]

And don't forget that some of the animators who worked on "Trolley Troubles" included Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Friz Freleng, the latter who was brought out to California from K.C. at about the time the Oswald series was starting. Harman, Ising and Freleng later broke with Disney to work for Mintz, who then had the rug pulled out from under him when Universal gave the series to Lantz. Freleng went his own way for a while (spending a brief time at Mintz' Krazy Kat studio in New York) before reuniting with Hugh and Rudy in 1930 at Warner Bros.

So in a way, if there wasn't Oswald, there may not have been the Warner Bros. cartoons as we know them (not to mention the fact that a certain Fred Avery got his start on the Oswald cartoons with Lantz in the early 1930s).

[Nelson]

My second favorite Walter Lantz cartoon star is ANDY PANDA, I think Andy was of one of most underated Lantz characters in the history of that studio.Andy Panda(in my opinion) was much funnier than Chilly Willy, The Beary Family, Doc, Space Mouse and many others with the exceptions of Oswald and Woody.

But what I can't understand is this...Back in the early 50s, why where the Andy Panda cartoons discontinued??? It wasn't like Andy lost his popularity with the moviegoers.

[Matt Yorston]

Leonard Maltin states in "Of Mice and Magic" that "Lantz never revived [Andy] in the 1950's, a tacit admission that, with [director Dick] Lundy gone, nobody was capable of drawing the necessary personality out of this character to make him workable again".

Lundy was responsible for a great deal of personality being put into the Lantz characters, Andy included (particularly in 1948's "Playful Pelican"). While Woody most certainly would have had to be continued in the 1950's, due to his popularity, Lantz had no choice but to let Andy go as he probably did not think anybody would be as good at directing him as Lundy had earlier.

[lislebartman]

I have to go with Woody Woodpecker (the nice refined-looking bird from the 1940's). Those cartoons directed by Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy were great! Some of the gags were really out there (check out "The Dippy Diplomat" and "Well Oiled" and you'll see what I mean). The later Woody films in the 1950's and 1960's were amusing, but I prefer the 1940's Woody better.

The Woody films of the 1960's directed by Jack Hannah & Sid Marcus are very fast-paced and well done, but the 1940's films have more spirit and pep, plus Darrell Calker's music scores were very good, pretty much on a par with the great Carl W. Stalling.

Now if only Universal would release more of these great films on video/DVD, the world would be a much better place!!:cool:

[Matt Yorston]

I certainly agree with what you said about Lantz's musician Darrell Calker being pretty much on a par with Stalling. I've always loved Calker's music be it from the 1940's or from his return in the 1960's. Many of the 1960's Lantz cartoons scored by him had the best music. His music from the Swing Symphonies make those cartoons that much more enjoyable to watch.

I like his scores from "Under the Spreading Blacksmith's Shop", "The Hams That Couldn't Be Cured", "Jungle Jive", "Woody Dines Out", "Bathing Buddies", "Smoked Hams", "The Mad Hatter", and "Drooler's Delight" the best. I wish I could see some of the Columbia/Screen Gems cartoons he scored (i.e "Leave Us Chase It", "Topsy Turkey", "Grape Nutty") so that I could hear how he handled scoring for that studio.

[lislebartman]

Wow!! Someone else who remembers what great scores Darrell Calker did!

I'm also amazed that you are familiar with the cartoon "Jungle Jive"!! I used to see this cartoon quite a lot when the local station here in the Chicago area broadcast it. I'm sure many would find it very un-PC today!

And all I have to say to that is -- LIGHTEN UP, PEOPLE!! THEY'RE CARTOONS!!

I am now going to finish drinking my beer.

[Thad Komorowski]

I didn't really know Oswald's history that well. I just typed what I heard from an interview with Disney, which wasn't very informative.

-Thad:D

[Larry T]

Although I really like the endearing Dick Lundy Andy Panda and kooky Alex Lovy Chilly Willy cartoons, I have to vote without a doubt for Woody. Where else can you enjoy a cartoon character who was criminally insane for part of his career (who else would tear a whole house apart just to get back a dime?). One of my favourite Woody designs was the Lantz/Patterson refinement in 1950-51. There are certain scenes in "Wicket Wacky", "Born To Peck", and "Redwood Sap" where his design was as superior as it could have ever become.

One thing I also like is how in the Woody cartoons, he won some, and he lost some, but they were still funny because he really had a personality. Some of my favourite Woody quotes:

(Wally) "Aren't you being a little impulsive?"
(Woody) "I'm not impulsive.... I'm re-pulsive"

(Wally to Woody after hearing him sing "I've been working on the railroad" at the top of his voice) "Could you possibly make any more noise?"
(Woody) "Sure, that's a cinch." (and begins clanging on a newly-produced cacphonic one-man-band)

(After reading that Ambassador Ivan Awfulitch is attending a barbecue at the home of Wally Walrus) "Guess who I'm going to have dinner with tonight....."

Woody rules!

[shadejford]

The original Oswald was Lantz's first interesting character. I've only seen a few of these but, like the early Mickey Mouse, he had a peppy, bold, adventurous personality. And his films were the WestCoast version of Max Fleishcer's cartoons. Oswald had better taste in music than did Mickey--the rabbit liked jazz!// It's easy to see why Woody became Lantz's most popular character--he was Lantz's most raucous, resourceful and irreverent character. This is especially true of his films directed by Shamus Culhane, Dick Lundy, Don Patterson and the early films directed by Paul Smith.// Every time Smedly opened his mouth,he got a laugh. His character was helped immmeasurably by Daws Butler's Southern drawl vocal characterization. His low-key yet frustrated reactions to Chilly Willy's antics are hilarious.

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Shadejford, this is the 2nd time you've revived an old thread. (Very old, Doc. TWO YEARS OLD!!) Please, stop doing that. Reviving old threads is confusing and annoying. If you want to rediscuss the topic, start a new thread. Hey Mods, do your stuff!

-Emmanuel:droopy:

[nakak]

Dude. You forgot the last "Walter Lantz" theatrical series "The Beary Family". Cartoon Network Japan used to air them (unfortunatly, CN Japan aired Lantz shorts sloppy. Sometimes, they showed it in Spanish! And plus after the title of the cartoon was shown, they skipped the credits and somwtimes, they showed the cartoons without the opening titles and credits to save room for commercials.

But besides "The Beary Family", I also like Woody Woodpecker, and Inspector Willoughby.

[Jon Cooke]

Another revived thread... being closed. If you want to talk about a subject that was discussed long, long, long, long, long ago PLEASE START A *NEW* THREAD!!


This is annoying.


-Jon