Woody Woodpecker: Difference between revisions

 

== 1940 ==

 

== 1941 ==

* [[Annoying Laugh]]: His trademark happens to be one, actually. Although it's not the ''only'' laugh he's ever used.

* [[Anthropomorphic Shift]]: Woody started off looking like a [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Woodywoodpecker-pantrypanic1941.jpg deranged bird] to looking like a [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Barber-of-seville-2.jpg standard issue funny animal.]

** Woody is rarely the true villain, especally in the later episodes which is the bulk of them. In spite of what Jerry Seinfeld thinks, he was rarely the instigator. He is like Bugs Bunny in that he always got the best of his enemies, but they almost always started the confrontation somehow. Where Woody differed from Bugs a bit was tht Woody went WAY more overboard with his revenge.

* [[Art Evolution]]: Woody himself went through several redesigns as the series ran its course. For example, Woody's original design became a little softer starting with Ace in the Hole. His buck teeth began to disappear, as Lantz realized this feature was extraneous. In addition, the beak and feet colors became slightly brighter and more vibrant. He also does not have a big chin anymore. Another full redesign came around in the short "[[The Barber of Seville (Animation)|The Barber Of Seville]]" This design was much more streamlined (just look at the ''The Coo Coo Bird'' title card!) and cuter looking than the previous one, and Woody even got [[White Gloves|gloves!]] A third redesign came around later, this time streamlining Woody's design down to it's bare essence, and making him incredibly tiny as well.

* [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever]]: The short ''Woody the Giant Killer''.

* [[Baseball Episode]]: ''The Screwball''.

{{quote| "The following story is a big fat lie. No names have been changed to protect anybody!" }}

* [[Berserk Button]]: Woody doesn't like cheesecake. The Loan Shark from ''The Loan Stranger'' learned this the hard way.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: In ''The Dizzy Acrobat'', a lion eats Woody's hot dog when Woody is looking away. Without a second thought, Woody gets back at him by putting the lion's tail into the hot dog buns, and tricks the lion to thinking that it's another hot dog—prompting the lion to ''bite his own tail off''.

{{quote| '''Lion''': ''[[Breaking the Fourth Wall|What do you know? Just call me stubby!]]''}}

* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: The general from "Ace in the Hole".

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: An elderly Woody attempts this in the climax of "Born to Peck" only for [[No Fourth Wall|the animator]] to step in and save the day.

* [[Forgot I Could Fly]]: There's one Woody Woodpecker cartoon where [[Die or Fly|Woody falls from a great height, starts flying]], and admits, [[Forgot I Could Fly|"Hey, I forgot I was a bird!"]]

* [[Fountain of Youth]]: In the short ''Born to Peck'' {{spoiler|this is added in at the last minute [[No Fourth Wall|by the animator]] to save the life of an elderly, suicidal Woody Woodpecker}}.

* [[Gag Dub]]: A poster on [[YouTube]], who has also done several Looney Tunes gag dubs (no longer on Youtube, however) was apparently making a gag dub series using footage of the older Woody Woodpecker cartoons. For unknown reasons, he has ceased production of them for a long time now. Here is the trailer for it: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=290w4Ec08O8\]

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: "The Screwdriver" has Woody openly mocking and harassing a police officer, as well as getting away with it in the end by having the cop thrown in the nuthouse. This is odd, considering the [[Hays Code]] rules explicitly forbid [[Karma Houdinis]], particularly when it came to mocking the law.

* [[Halloween Special]]: The original Woody Woodpecker TV show had one-in fact, it was the ONLY episode of that series that was original material-everything else was just re-airings of Woody's earlier theatrical cartoons. If you're looking to find it, it's included as an extra on Vol. 1 of the Woody Woodpecker collection mentioned earlier.

* [[History Marches On]]: The aforementioned phony story told by Walter Lantz of how he got the idea for Woody Woodpecker.

* [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]: "Termites from Mars". They can eat through anything... {{spoiler|Except adhesive tape.}}

* [[Humanlike Foot Anatomy]]

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: In "Ace in the Hole", when the Drill Sergeant gets angry at Woody:

{{quote| ''"Take it easy, sarge... I want to fly like a bird!"'' (cue Woody's laugh)}}

* [[I See London]]: In the featurette, "Janie Get Your Gun" (with Ms. Meany appearing here as Calamity Jane), near the end of it, when Woody is carrying a train attached to Calamity Jane's hat at the wedding reception, he falls into a hole and somehow even though the train isn't attached to her dress, the dress still gets pulled off. She's left in her pink bloomers/pantalets and is mortified.

** In "Witch Crafty", when the witch flies on her magical broom (which is not actually her own, but one she picked up by mistake from the factory) into a tree at one point, the broom is stuck there and she falls out of her purple mini dress (which also gets stuck and is left high on the tree). As she notices the audience getting a view at her pink corset/bustier and white bloomers or pantalets, she coyly attempts to cover up by grabbing some bushes and leaves the scene.

** By the late 1960s this trope became more and more averted. His last cartoon ever, ''Bye Bye Blackboard'', ended with Woody being spanked.

* [[Knife Throwing Act]]: Happens at one point in ''The Dizzy Acrobat'', while Woody is spending the day at a circus. Per [[Rule of Funny]], he walks by the target unaware, and goes unscathed.

** Also, Woody himself made a speaking cameo along with many other Golden Age cartoon characters in the ending of the film [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]].

** Woody would also make a cameo in the film ''[[Son of the Mask]]''.

* [[Meat O Vision]]: The shorts "Pantry Panic", "Who's Cookin' Who?", "Fair Weather Fiends" and "Everglade Raid".

* [[Mobile Shrubbery]]: Attempted by the witch in "Witch Crafty" to enter the building Woody is guarding, by hiding herself in a package. Woody [[Genre Savvy|dosen't buy it for a second.]]

* [[Negative Continuity]]

* [[Necessarily Evil]]: In the beginning of ''Ration Bored'', Woody flat out ''admits'' that he is a necessary evil.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: As mentioned at the top of this page. In that same short, as if to drive the point home, he also did it again when he {{spoiler|literally joins the audience that was watching the short}}.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: In ''International Woodpecker'', when Woody is telling Knothead and Splinter about the roles woodpeckers played in history. He suddenly lets slip something about France, and decides to leave that part aside. However, this is ultimately averted when the kids get curious and insist that he tells, and Woody does so.

* [[Once an Episode]]: Here's a little challenge for you--try to find an episode of Woody Woodpecker where he (or someone else in his place) does ''not'' use his trademark laugh. And no, laughing in the opening titles does not count.

* [[Pain Powered Leap]]: Happens to Wally Walrus in ''The Dippy Diplomat''.

* [[Please Wake Up]]: Done by the loan shark at the end of ''The Loan Stranger'' when he thinks that he killed Woody with a single punch.

* [[Police Are Useless]]: [http://bp2.blogger.com/_iugexeWqLbs/R9_73uBP93I/AAAAAAAAEbA/ZsKVqkocm50/s1600-h/4C169_40.jpg Played stupidly straight in this comic.]

* [[Verbal Tic]]: This one unnamed cop character who appears in the third Woody Woodpecker short ''The Screwdriver.''. Said cop suffers from one particularly funny one in which he emphasizes greatly ''every single word'' he speaks at the end of each '''SENTENCE'''. (i.e. I'm lookin' for '''spee-ders.''')

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Woody goes through this in "Knock Knock" when Andy traps him in place by pouring salt on his tail.

* [[Vocal Dissonance]]: Occasionally, Woody's voice would inexplicably revert back to a non-sped up version of his voice.

** Knock Knock: His ''very first line'', in fact, is [[Mel Blanc]]'s normal speaking voice!