Wednesday, 21 January 2009

The 44th President Barack Obama



Story:

In 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth President of the United States took place on January 20, 2009, under the provisions of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The inauguration marked the commencement of the four-year term of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden as President and Vice President, respectively. The theme of the inauguration was "A New Birth of Freedom", commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
Official inauguration events commenced on January 17 with a train ride beginning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and stopping in Wilmington, Delaware, and Baltimore, Maryland, before continuing on to Washington, D.C. According to a federal security official, the initial estimate for the number of attendees to the swearing in ceremony was around 1.8 million people. Events were scheduled in Washington from January 18 to 21, 2009.

Richard’s Quotes:

I arrived at home, I had to put BBC One on, I was writing in my diary. I really couldn’t wait for Barack Obama’s speech. I had to use my American flag because I was watching in my bedroom with my American flag on my wall. I was so nervous that he will be the president, I cried the American national anthem with Aretha Franklin, it was so lovely. I was happy for this new president of the United States.

By Richard Moody

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Richard & Duane's Canadian Childhood DVD's Part 5


















CHAPTER 5


1. Cinderella (1950): Cinderella is the much-loved only child of a widowed aristocrat. After deciding that his beloved daughter needs a mother's care, Cinderella's father marries a proud and haughty woman named Lady Tremaine. She too has been married before, and has two daughters by her first marriage, Anastasia and Drizella, who are just Cinderella's age. Plain and socially awkward, these "Ugly Stepsisters" are bitterly envious of the beautiful and charming Cinderella.
The family lives in happiness for several years, until the untimely death of Cinderella's father. After that, Lady Tremaine's true nature is revealed, and she and her spiteful daughters take over the estate, and begin to abuse and maltreat Cinderella, envious of her beauty. She is forced into housekeeping responsibilities and made to wait upon her jealous stepsisters like a maid. As Cinderella blossoms into a beautiful young woman who is kind despite her hardships, she befriends the animals living in the barn, including Bruno the Bloodhound, Major the horse, and many of the mice and birds who live in and around the chateau. Cinderella finds a mouse inside a trap, releases him, and names him Octavius, "Gus" for short. She is also friends with a mouse named Jacques ("Jaq" for short), the leader of a mouse-pack.
At the royal palace, the King is angry that his son does not intend to marry. The King is determined to see grandchildren, so he and the Duke organize a ball for the Prince in an effort to cause his son to fall in love and marry, with every eligible maiden in the kingdom ordered to attend.
When the invitation to the ball arrives, Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can attend. Her stepmother tells her she may go to the ball, if she finishes her work and can find a suitable gown. To consume her time, her stepmother sets Cinderella with a mountain of chores. Her mouse friends Jaq and Gus use Cinderella's stepsister's discarded sash and beads to fix an old gown that belonged to Cinderella's mother. When Cinderella wears her dress before the ball, Lady Tremaine points out her daughters' beads and sash, and the jealous sisters physically assault her, tearing the gown to shreds, leaving Cinderella to run to the back of the garden in tears while her stepfamily attends the royal ball without her.
Cinderella's Fairy Godmother appears to her in the garden, and transforms her appearance for the ball. She transforms the mice into horses, Bruno the dog into a footman, Major the horse into a coachman, a pumpkin into the carriage, and transforms her torn dress into a beautiful blue dress with glass slippers. Cinderella departs for the ball after the godmother warns her that the spell will expire at the stroke of midnight.
At the ball, the Prince rejects every girl, until he sees Cinderella, with whom he is immediately smitten. The two dance throughout the castle grounds until the clock starts to chime midnight. Cinderella flees to her coach and away from the castle, accidentally dropping one of her glass slippers. After the Duke tells the King of the disaster, they plan to find Cinderella with the slipper they found during her escape.
The next morning, a royal proclamation is issued, stating the Grand Duke will visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl who fits the glass slipper, so that she can be married to the Prince. When this news reaches Cinderella's household, her stepmother and stepsisters begin hurriedly preparing for the Grand Duke's arrival. Cinderella, overhearing, begins dreamily humming the song from the palace ball the previous night. Realizing Cinderella was the girl who danced with the Prince, her stepmother follows Cinderella up to her attic bedroom and locks her inside.
When the Grand Duke arrives, the mice steal the key to Cinderella's room from Lady Tremaine's pocket and laboriously drag the key up the stairs to her room, only barely managing to free her after a fight with the Stepmother's cat Lucifer, in which Bruno comes to their rescue and scares the evil cat out of the house. Meanwhile, Anastasia tries on the slipper, but her foot is too big. Drizella tries on the slipper, and finds her foot is also too large. As the Duke prepares to leave, Cinderella appears at the top of the stairs, asking to try on the slipper. Knowing that the slipper will fit and that Cinderella will marry the Prince, her stepmother insists she's just a servant girl. The Grand Duke sharply reminds her that every maiden is to try on the slipper. As the footman bring the slipper to Cinderella, her stepmother trips him, causing the slipper to drop and shatter on the floor. Cinderella then reveals she has the other glass slipper. Delighted at this indisputable proof of the maiden's identity, the Duke slides the slipper onto her foot, which fits perfectly.
At the wedding, Cinderella and the Prince descend the church's staircase, surrounded by confetti tossed by the King and the Grand Duke. Cinderella loses a slipper and retrieves it with the aid of the King. As the film ends on a scene of the two newly-weds kissing, the narrator concludes "...and they lived happily ever after".

2. Alice in Wonderland (1951): On the bank of a tranquil river, Alice grows bored listening to her sister read aloud from a history book. Alice sees a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a large pocket watch. She follows him and tumbles down a rabbit hole and her skirt around her dress billows out like a parachute . At the bottom, she follows the Rabbit into a large chamber but he escapes through a tiny door. The Doorknob suggests Alice drink from a bottle marked "Drink me." The contents shrink her to a tiny fraction of her original size. The Doorknob is now locked, but the key has appeared back on the table which she can no longer reach. The Doorknob directs her to a cookie marked "Eat me." The cookie makes her grow so large that her head hits the ceiling. She begins to cry; her massive tears flood the room. The Doorknob points out that the "Drink me" bottle still has some fluid left inside, so she finishes the last drop. She becomes so small that she drops inside the bottle. Both she and the bottle drift through the doorknob's keyhole mouth and out to a sea made from Alice's tears.
On shore, a Dodo leads a group of animals in a futile caucus-race to get dry. Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, two fat brothers who recite "The Walrus and the Carpenter". Alice sneaks away to the White Rabbit's house. The Rabbit orders Alice to fetch his gloves. Inside the house, Alice eats a cookie. She becomes so large that she gets stuck inside the house. The Dodo tries to help by sending Bill the Lizard down the chimney and then setting the house on fire. Alice eats a carrot from the garden and shrinks down to three inches high.
Alice chases after the Rabbit again, this time into a garden of tall flowers who consider her a weed and throw her out. She engages a hookah-smoking caterpillar who turns into a butterfly, though not before giving her cryptic advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off two pieces and nibbles them alternately until finally restoring herself to her normal size.
Alice receives mysterious directions from the Cheshire Cat, an eerily grinning feline that can disappear and reappear at will, which lead her to the garden of the March Hare, who is celebrating his "unbirthday" with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse. Alice grows tired of their rudeness and decides to go home, abandoning her pursuit of the White Rabbit. She is lost and despondent among the strange creatures of the Tulgey Wood until the Cheshire Cat reappears and shows her a short-cut out of the forest.
In the hedge maze garden, Alice meets some playing cards painting white roses red. The White Rabbit heralds the arrival of the bellicose Queen of Hearts, the diminutive King, and a card army. She invites Alice to a strange game of croquet using flamingos as mallets, hedgehogs as balls, and card soldiers as wickets. The Cheshire Cat plays a prank on the Queen, who blames Alice and orders her execution. The King suggests that Alice be put on trial instead. At the trial, Alice's nonsensical acquaintances are of no help to her. The Cheshire Cat appears and causes enough distraction to allow Alice to eat the remaining portions of mushroom, causing her to grow to gigantic proportions. At this size, Alice scolds the terrified Queen for her rash behavior, but then starts shrinking back to her normal size all too soon. At the Queen's command of "Off with her head!" all the crazy inhabitants of Wonderland give chase.
Coming back to the Doorknob, Alice is told by him that he is still locked, but that she is already on the other side. Looking through the keyhole, Alice sees herself asleep in the park. As the mob draws nearer, she calls, "Alice, wake up!" to her sleeping self until she gradually awakens from the dream to the sound of her sister's voice. The two of them return home for teatime while Alice muses on her adventures in Wonderland, realizing that perhaps logic and reason exist for a purpose.

3. Peter Pan (1953): In Edwardian London in the neighborhood of Bloomsbury, George and Mary Darling's preparations to attend a party are disrupted by the antics of the boys John and Michael, acting out a story about Peter Pan and the pirates, told to them by their older sister Wendy. The father angrily declares that Wendy has gotten too old to continue staying in the nursery with them, and it's time for her to grow up. That night they are visited in the nursery by a pixie named Tinker Bell and cocky Peter Pan, who teaches them to fly and takes them with him to the island of Never Land.
A ship of pirates is anchored off Never Land, commanded by Captain Hook with his sidekick Mr Smee. Hook boldly plots to take revenge upon Peter Pan for cutting off his hand, but he trembles when the crocodile that ate it arrives; it now stalks him hoping to taste more. The crew's restlessness is interrupted by the arrival of Peter and the Darlings. The children easily evade them, and despite a trick by jealous Tinker Bell to have Wendy killed, they meet up with the Lost Boys, six lads in animal-costume pajamas who look to Peter as their leader. John and Michael set off with the Lost Boys to find the island's Indians, who instead capture them, believing them responsible for taking the chief's daughter Tiger Lily.
Meanwhile, Peter takes Wendy to see the mermaids, where they see that Hook and Smee have captured Tiger Lily, to coerce her into revealing Peter's hideout. Peter and Wendy free her, and Peter is honored by the tribe. Hook then plots to take advantage of Tink's jealousy of Wendy, tricking her into revealing the location of Peter's lair. The pirates lie in wait and capture the Lost Boys and the Darlings as they exit, leaving behind a time bomb to kill Peter. Tinker Bell learns of the plot just in time to snatch the bomb from Peter as it explodes.
Peter rescues Tink from the rubble and together they confront the pirates, releasing the children before they can be forced to walk the plank. Peter engages Hook in single combat as the children fight off the crew, and finally succeeds in humiliating the captain. Hook and his crew flee, with the crocodile in hot pursuit. Peter gallantly commandeers the deserted ship, and with the aid of Tinker Bell's pixie dust, flies it to London with the children aboard.
Mr and Mrs Darling return home from the party to find Wendy not in her bed, but sleeping at the open window; John and Michael are asleep in their beds. Wendy wakes and excitedly tells about their adventures. The parents look out the window and see what appears to be a pirate ship in the clouds. Mr Darling, who has softened his position about Wendy staying in the nursery, recognizes it from his own childhood, as it breaks up into clouds itself.

4. Lady and the Tramp (1955): One Christmas, Jim Dear gives his wife Darling a cocker spaniel puppy that they name Lady. Though initially determined that Lady would sleep in a basket in the kitchen like a proper "dog," she ends up sleeping on the bed with the couple. When she is six months old, she receives a collar and license. Lady goes to show off her badge of "faith and respectability" to her canine friends Jock, a Scottish terrier and Trusty, a Bloodhound. Across town, a stray mutt, referred to as the Tramp by other characters, visits an Italian restaurant where he gets a large bone from the owner for his breakfast. He also spots his fellow strays Peg (a former Dog and Pony Showdog) Pekingese and Bull a Bulldog, locked up in a dog catcher's van and sets them free, leading the dogcatcher away in a decoy chase.
Later, Lady is saddened after Jim Dear refers to her as "THAT Dog", and another occasion when Darling gently swats her for pulling on the yarn she was sewing with. When she tells Jock and Trusty about these events, and how Jim Dear is always asking about Darling's "condition" they explain to her that Darling is pregnant and going to have a baby. While her friends try to explain, the Tramp wanders into the yard. He tells her that they are nothing but trouble and warn her that when the baby comes she'll lose her comfortable place in their home. Jock and Trusty take a dislike to the stray and order him out of the yard, then try to reassure her that her humans would never be so cruel.
The baby boy arrives amidst much confusion. Curious, Lady creeps towards the nursery. Jim Dear spots her, but rather than ordering her away as she expected, he lets her in. Lady loves the baby as soon as she sees it, and assigns herself as its protector. Soon after the baby is born, Jim Dear and Darling decide to go on a trip together, leaving their Aunt Sarah to look after the baby and the house. She brings her two Siamese cats, Si and Am. While Aunt Sarah is looking at the baby, the two cats begin causing mischief. When they try to go upstairs to steal the baby's milk, Lady barks at them and chases them, and the cats wreck the room in the process of being chased. Aunt Sarah comes down at all the noise and the two cats pretend to be hurt.
Blaming Lady for the trouble, Aunt Sarah takes her to a pet shop and has her muzzled. Terrified, Lady escapes from her arms and runs out into the streets. A pack of vicious street dogs chase her, but Tramp hears the barking and rescues her. Seeing the muzzle, he takes her to the zoo where they convince a beaver to remove the muzzle. With Lady free from the muzzle, the two dogs go around town and Tramp tells her about his life, and all the "homes" and names he has.
At dinnertime he takes her to his favorite Italian place, Tony's, where Tony and Joe prepare the couple a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and serenade the couple. As they eat, the dogs inadvertently share a kiss. After dinner, they go for a walk through the park, lending up on a hill overlooking the town. In the morning, Tramps asks Lady to stay with him, but she feels she must watch over the baby so he agrees to take her home. On the way, he convinces her to stop to chase some chickens, but while they are escaping, the dogcatcher catches Lady. At the pound, Lady is teased a bit by the rougher strays for being high bred, but Peg (who has been caught again), has them lay off. The other dogs admire Lady's license, as it is a "ticket to freedom" from the pound and later talk about Tramp's many girlfriends, and how he is unwilling to ever settle down. They also predict that if he ever does, he'll grow careless and likely be caught and put to sleep. The talk upsets Lady, but she is soon taken home. Aunt Sarah chains her to a doghouse in the back yard, much to her shame. Jock and Trusty visit to try to comfort her, and even propose marriage so she could move to one of their homes. Lady appreciates their gesture but gently turns them down.
Tramp tries to apologize for her being caught. When he calls her a "cute little trick" thunder starts to rumble as Lady furiously turns on him and questions him about all of his other girls. Refusing to see him, Tramp sadly leaves. Moments later, Lady sees a rat sneaking into the house. She barks frantically, but Aunt Sarah yells at her to be quiet. Tramp hears her and runs back to help. Following Lady's directions, he gets into the house and finds the rat in the baby's room and kills it. Lady, having broken her chain to follow him into the house, thanks him for his help. Aunt Sarah runs in, and seeing the overturned crib thinks Tramp attacked the baby. She pushes him into a closet and Lady into the basement then calls the pound to take Tramp away.
As the dogcatcher is taking him away, Jim Dear and Darling return home and Lady shows them the dead rat. Jock and Trusty, having overheard everything, chase after the dogcatcher van. Jock is convinced Trusty has long since lost his sense of smell, but the old bloodhound is able to find the wagon. They bark at the horses to make it stop, causing the wagon to fall. Jim Dear and Lady are not far behind and Lady is happily reunited with Tramp before they discover that the wagon fell on Trusty.
Christmas arrives and Tramp now has his own collar and license and has been adopted by Jim Dear and Darling. She and Tramp have a litter of four puppies: three girls who look like Lady and a boy who looks like Tramp. Jock and Trusty come to see the family and Tramp's new collar, with Trusty carefully walking on his injured leg.


By Richard Moody And Duane Ross

Saturday, 17 January 2009

Australia (Best Ever Movie)




The film is narrated by the young mixed-race Aboriginal boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters).

From England to Australia

In 1939, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from England to northern Australia to force her philandering husband to sell his faltering Australian cattle station, Faraway Downs. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover (Hugh Jackman), called simply "Drover", to Darwin to transport her to Faraway Downs.
Lady Sarah's husband is murdered shortly before she arrives. Meanwhile, cattle station manager Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) is trying to gain control of Faraway Downs, so that Lesley 'King' Carney (Bryan Brown) can have a complete cattle monopoly in the Northern Territory, which will give him negotiating leverage with the Australian army. Fletcher also claims to Lady Sarah that the murderer of her husband is an Aboriginal elder with magical powers, "King George" (David Gulpilil).
The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the young boy Nullah, who was born to an Aboriginal mother and an unknown white father. Nullah tells her that he has seen her cattle being driven onto Carney's land — in other words, stolen from her. Because of this, Fletcher mistreats Nullah and threatens him and his mother, after which Lady Sarah fires Fletcher and decides to try and run the cattle station herself. When Nullah and his mother hide from the white authorities by entering a water tower, his mother drowns. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song "Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz. Nullah tells her that "King George" is his grandfather, and that like "King George" he too is a "magic man".

The cattle drove

Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover, a white man, is friendly with the Aborigines, and therefore shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. It is revealed that he had married an Aboriginal woman, but she had died after being refused medical treatment in a local hospital because of her race.
Drover leads a team of six other riders, including Lady Sarah, Drover's Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri (David Ngoombujarra), Nullah, and the station's accountant Kipling Flynn (Jack Thompson), to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. Carney's men set large fires to make the cattle stampede, and Flynn is killed. However, at the last minute, Nullah stops the cattle from stampeding over a cliff, by using magic learned from his grandfather.
Lady Sarah and Drover develop a romance, and she gains a new appreciation for the Australian territory. But Carney's men poison all the water sources along the cattle-drive route, so the group risks driving the cattle through the dangerous Never Never desert, which they accomplish with the help of "King George". Then, when at last delivering the cattle in Darwin, the group has to race them onto the ship before Carney's cattle are loaded.

After the cattle drove

Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily at Faraway Downs for two years. However, Fletcher kills Carney and frames it as a tragic accident, marries his daughter Cath Carney, takes over Carney's cattle empire, and then continues to menace Lady Sarah. It is determined that Fletcher was the actual murderer of Lady Sarah's husband, and that Fletcher is also almost certainly the father of Nullah.
Nullah is drawn to perform a ceremonial coming-of-age walkabout with his grandfather "King George", but is instead captured by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island with the rest of the half-Aboriginal children (dubbed the "Stolen Generations"). Lady Sarah vows to find him again somehow, but first works as a radio operator in Darwin during the escalation of World War II. When the Japanese attack the island and Darwin in 1942, Lady Sarah fears that Nullah was killed.
Drover, who had quarrelled with Lady Sarah and had gone droving apparently never to return, hears (mistakenly) that she has been killed in the bombing of Darwin. (It is later revealed that the dead woman thought to be Sarah is in fact Catherine Fletcher, who had volunteered to take Sarah's shift at army radio headquarters so Sarah could go to Nullah earlier.) Drover finds out about Nullah's abduction to Mission Island, and sets out with Magarri and Ivan (the hotelier) to rescue Nullah and the other children from the island using a sailboat. Magarri sacrifices himself to buy the others more time during the escape, and is shot by the Japanese. The others all make it safely back to Darwin. (In actual fact, Japanese soldiers never set foot on Australian soil during the bombing of Darwin, the film's one major historical inaccuracy.) Meanwhile, Lady Sarah has sold Faraway Downs to Fletcher, and is leaving the Northern Territory that morning, since she believes there is nothing more to hold her there. But when Drover and the children sail back into port at Darwin, Nullah plays his harmonica with the tune of "Over the Rainbow". Lady Sarah hears the music, abandons her trip, and the three are reunited.
Fletcher, who knows Nullah is the one link to his disreputable past that can ruin him, and rails that the boy must have cursed him, attempts to shoot Nullah, but is speared by King George and falls dead. Lady Sarah, Drover, and Nullah return to the safety of remote Faraway Downs. On the way back to Faraway Downs, King George calls for Nullah, his grandson, to go walkabout. Lady Sarah embraces Nullah and then lets him go to his grandfather, who explains now they will return to his land, and then looking at Lady Sarah, says "our land".

By Richard Moody 17.01.09

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Richard Moody's American Childhood Cartoon Show






The Beginning

According to Walter Lantz's press agent, the idea for Woody came during the producer's honeymoon with his wife, Gracie, in Sherwood Lake, California. A noisy woodpecker outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, and when a heavy rain started, they learned that the bird had bored holes in their cabin's roof. As both Walter and Gracie told Dallas attorney Rod Phelps during a visit, Walter wanted to shoot the thing, but Gracie suggested that her husband make a cartoon about the bird, and thus Woody was born. The story is questionable, however, since the Lantzes were not married until after Woody made his screen debut. Also, their story that the bird's cry inspired Woody's trademark "Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!" is also questionable, as Mel Blanc had already used a similar laugh in earlier Warner Bros. cartoons such as Elmer's Candid Camera.
Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the film Knock Knock on November 25, 1940. The cartoon ostensibly stars Andy Panda and his father, Papa Panda, but it is Woody who steals the show. The woodpecker constantly pesters the two pandas, apparently just for the fun of it. Andy, meanwhile, tries to sprinkle salt on Woody's tail in the belief that this will somehow capture the bird. To Woody's surprise, Andy's attempts prevail, and Woody is taken away to the funny farm — but not before his captors prove to be crazier than he is.
The Woody of Knock Knock, designed by animator Alex Lovy, is a truly deranged-looking animal. His buggy eyes look in different directions, and his head is all angles and sharp points. However, the familiar color scheme of red head and blue body is already in place, as is the infamous laugh: "Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!". Woody is perhaps the best example of the new type of cartoon character that was becoming popular in the early 1940s — a brash, violent aggressor who pesters innocents not out of self defense, but simply for the fun of it. Woody's original voice actor, Mel Blanc, would stop performing the character after the first four cartoons to work exclusively for Leon Schlesinger Productions, producer of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. At Schlesinger's, Blanc had already established the voices of two other famous "screwball" characters who preceded Woody, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Ironically, Blanc's characterization of the Woody Woodpecker laugh had originally been applied to Bugs Bunny's predecessor, "Happy Rabbit", in shorts such as the aforementioned Elmer's Candid Camera, and was later transferred to Woody. Blanc's regular speaking voice for Woody was much like the early Daffy Duck, minus the lisp. Once Warner Bros. signed Blanc up to an exclusive contract, Woody's voice-over work was taken over by Ben Hardaway, who would voice the woodpecker for the rest of the decade.
Audiences reacted well to Knock Knock, and Lantz realized he had finally hit upon a star to replace the waning Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Woody would go on to star in a number of films. With his innate chutzpah and brash demeanor, the character was a natural hit during World War II. His image appeared on US aircraft and mess halls, and audiences on the homefront watched Woody cope with familiar problems such as food shortages. The 1943 Woody cartoon The Dizzy Acrobat was nominated for the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), which it lost to the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse.


Woody Woodpecker and his captive client in The Barber of Seville (1944), directed by Shamus Culhane.
Animator Emery Hawkins and layout artist Art Heinemann streamlined Woody's appearance for the 1944 film The Barber of Seville, directed by Shamus Culhane. The bird became rounder, cuter, and less demented. He also sported a simplified color scheme and a brighter smile, making him much more like his counterparts at Warner Bros. and MGM. Nevertheless, Culhane continued to use Woody as an aggressive lunatic, not a domesticated straight man or defensive homebody as many other studios' characters had become. The follow-up to The Barber of Seville, The Beach Nut, introduced Woody's chief nemesis Wally Walrus.

The post-war woodpecker

Woody's wild days were numbered, however. In 1946, Lantz hired Disney veteran Dick Lundy to take over the direction chores for Woody's cartoons. Lundy rejected Culhane's take on the series and made Woody more defensive; no longer did the bird go insane without a legitimate reason. Lundy also paid more attention to the animation, making Woody's new films more Disney-esque in their colors and timing. One thing worth noticing is that Lundy's last film for Disney was the Donald Duck short Flying Jalopy. This cartoon is played much like a Woody Woodpecker short, right down to the laugh in the end. It also features a bad guy named "Ben Buzzard" who bears a strong resemblance to Buzz Buzzard, a Lantz character introduced in the 1948 short Wet Blanket Policy who would eventually succeed Wally Walrus as Woody's primary antagonist.
In 1947, contract renewal negotiations between Lantz and Universal (now Universal-International) fell through, and Lantz began distributing his cartoons through United Artists.[1] The UA-distributed Lantz cartoons featured higher-quality animation, the influence of Dick Lundy (the films' budgets remained the same).[2] Former Disney animators such as Fred Moore and Ed Love began working at Lantz, and assisted Lundy in adding touches of the Disney style to Woody's cartoons.


Wet Blanket Policy, directed by Dick Lundy, introduced Woody's new adversary Buzz Buzzard and featured Woody's Academy Award-nominated theme song, "The Woody Woodpecker Song."

"The Woody Woodpecker Song"

In 1947, Woody got his own theme song when musicians George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss wrote "The Woody Woodpecker Song," making ample use of the character's famous laugh. Kay Kyser's 1948 recording of the song, with Harry Babbitt's laugh interrupting vocalist Gloria Wood, became one of the biggest hit singles of 1948. Other artists did covers, including Woody's original voice actor, Mel Blanc. Lantz first used "The Woody Woodpecker Song" in the 1948 short Wet Blanket Policy, and became the first and only song from an animated short subject to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song.[3] Lantz soon adopted the song as Woody's theme music, and due to the song's popularity, Woody Woodpecker fan clubs sprang up, theaters held "Woody" matinées, and boys got the "Woody Woodpecker" haircut.[citation needed]
"The Woody Woodpecker Song" and the Woody Woodpecker cartoons made extensive use of Woody's famous laugh, upsetting the man who created it, Mel Blanc. Although Blanc had only recorded four shorts as the voice of Woody, his laugh had been recorded as a stock sound effect, and used in every subsequent Woody Woodpecker short up until this point. Blanc sued Lantz and lost, but Lantz settled out of court when Blanc filed an appeal. While Lantz would stop using Blanc's Woody Woodpecker laugh as a stock effect in the early 1950s, Blanc's voice would be heard saying "Guess who?" at the beginning of every cartoon for the duration of the Woody Woodpecker series.

Later films

The lower revenues Lantz received from United Artists, in contrast to Universal, caused financial problems within the studio, and by the end of 1948 Lantz had to shut his studio down.[2] The Lantz studio did not re-open again until 1950, by which time the staff was severely downsized.
Beginning with the 1950 feature film Destination Moon, which featured a brief segment of Woody explaining rocket propulsion, Woody's voice was taken over for this and following films by Lantz's wife, Grace Stafford. According to the Lantzes, Stafford slipped a recording of herself into a stack of audition tapes, and her husband chose her without knowing her identity.[2] Lantz also began having Stafford supply Woody's laugh, possibly due to the court case with Mel Blanc. Nevertheless, Stafford was not credited for her work at her own request until 1958 with the film Misguided Missile, as she felt audiences might reject a woman doing Woody's voice. Stafford also did her best to tone down the character through her voice work, to appease Universal's complaints about Woody's raucousness.
Lantz signed again with Universal (now Universal-International) in 1950, and began production on two Woody Woodpecker cartoons that director Dick Lundy and storymen Ben Hardaway and Heck Allen had begun before the 1948 layoff. These shorts have no director's credit, as Lantz claims to have directed them himself. Puny Express, released by Universal-International in 1951, was the first to be released, followed by Sleep Happy. These shorts marked a departure from the dialogue-driven shorts of the past. Though Stafford now voiced Woody, her job was limited, as Woody (as well as the rest of the characters) rarely spoke in the first dozen or so shorts. It was because of these shorts that Woody became very popular overseas, thanks to the lack of a language barrier (The Pink Panther shorts of the 1960s and 1970s would also enjoy worldwide popularity due to this pantomime luxury).
Nine more Lantz-directed Woody cartoons followed, before Don Patterson became Woody's new director in 1953. The bird was redesigned once again for these new cartoons, this time by animator LaVerne Harding. Harding made Woody smaller, cuter, and moved his top-knot forward from its original backwards position. By 1955, Woody also received one more minor makeover, making his domestication complete: the hazel pigmentation in his eye was eliminated starting with 1955's The Tree Medic, making Woody's eye a simple black dot. This version of the character is still used today as Woody's official look.
By 1955, Paul J. Smith had taken over as primary director of Woody's shorts, with periodic fill-in shorts directed by Alex Lovy and Jack Hannah, among others. With Smith on board, the shorts maintained a healthy dose of frenetic energy, while the animation itself was simplified, due to budget constraints. In addition to Lantz's wife Grace Stafford providing Woody's voice, which returned the cartoon to being more dialogue-driven again, voice talents during this period were generally split between Dal McKennon and Daws Butler. This era would also introduce several of Woody's recurring costars, most notably Gabby Gator, who first appeared in Everglade Raid (then known as "Al I. Gator"). Other films paired Woody with a girlfriend, Winnie Woodpecker, and a niece and nephew, Splinter and Knothead, both voiced by June Foray. The domestication of Woody Woodpecker was complete.


Woody in 1961's The Bird Who Came to Dinner, directed by Paul J. Smith.

Woody in the television era

As Lantz was struggling financially, Woody's longevity was secured when he made the jump to television in The Woody Woodpecker Show on ABC. The half-hour program consisted of three theatrical Woody shorts followed by a brief look at cartoon creation hosted by Lantz. It ran from 1957 to 1958 then entered syndication until 1966, only to be revived by NBC in 1970. NBC forced Lantz to edit out much of the violence of the older cartoons, which Lantz did reluctantly. In addition, the woodpecker was no longer dishing out abuse to his foils, but was instead on the receiving end. The first notable short to feature Woody as the straight man was 1961's Franken-Stymied. Woody's popularity had been based on his manic craziness, and by 1961, this had all but been eliminated in favor of a more serious Woody, one that was trying to do good. This was due in part to Woody's large presence on television, which meant Lantz had to meet the stringent rules against violence for children's television.
Woody continued to appear in new theatrical shorts until 1972, when Lantz closed his studio's doors due to rising production costs. His cartoons returned to syndication in the late 1970s. Lantz sold his library of Woody shorts to MCA/Universal in 1985. Universal repackaged the cartoons for another syndicated Woody Woodpecker Show in 1988. In that same year, Woody made a brief cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, voiced by Cherry Davis, near the end of the film. In 1995, Woody appeared in a Pepsi commercial with NBA star Shaquille O'Neal.
Woody Woodpecker reappeared in the Fox Kids/FoxBox series The New Woody Woodpecker Show, which ran on Saturday mornings from 1999 to 2003. The series featured the first new Woody cartoons to be produced in over 20 years, and returned the character's design to the Dick Lundy/Emery Hawkins version of the late 1940s, as well as redesigning characters with later appearances, such as Dapper Denver Dooley (who debuted in 1955's Square Shootin' Square) and Miss Meany (who debuted in 1963's Calling Dr. Woodpecker). Woody's voice is now provided by voice actor Billy West. The original Woody Woodpecker Show also continues to run in syndication, and Woody and Winnie both appear as costumed characters at Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Legacy

Walter Lantz and movie pioneer George Pál were good friends. Woody Woodpecker makes a cameo in nearly every film that Pál either produced or directed.
Woody was number 46 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All-Time in 2002 and 2003. He came in at number 25 on Animal Planet's list of The 50 Greatest Movie Animals in 2004. The character has been referenced and spoofed on many later television programs, among them The Simpsons, American Dad!, South Park, The Fairly OddParents, Family Guy and Seinfeld.
The Beach Boys' 1967 album Smiley Smile featured a song entitled "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (Woody Woodpecker Symphony)." Also, the first song on the 2007 Dan Deacon album Spiderman of the Rings is entitled "Wooody Wooodpecker" and makes extensive use of the characters trademark laugh.
Woody Woodpecker is the mascot for the Universal Studios Theme Parks. In 1998, Woody appeared on the nose of the Williams Formula One Team, and in 2000, he became the official team mascot of the Honda Motorcycle Racing Team. A balloon featuring the character has long been a staple of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Richard Moody’s Favorite Woody Woodpecker Episodes from (1951 – 1958)

1. Puny Express
2. Sleep Happy
3. Wicket Wacky
4. Slingshot 6 7/8
5. The Redwood Sap
6. The Woody Woodpecker Polka
7. Destination Meatball
8. Born to Peck
9. Stage Hoax
10. Woodpecker in the Rough
11. Scalp Treatment
12. The Great Who-Dood-It
13. Termites from Mars
14. What’s Sweepin’
15. Buccaneer Woodpecker
16. Operation Sawdust
17. Wrestling Wrecks
18. Belle Boys
19. Hypnotic Hick
20. Hot Noon
21. Socko in Morocco
22. Alley to Bali
23. Under the Counter Spy
24. Hot Rod Huckster
25. Real Gone Woody
26. A Fine Feathered Frenzy
27. Convict Concerto
28. Helter Shelter
29. Witch Crafty
30. Private Eye Pooch
31. Bedtime Bedlam
32. Square Shootin’ Square
33. Bunco Busters
34. The Tree Medic
35. After the Ball
36. Get Lost
37. Chief Charlie Horse
38. Woodpecker from Mars
39. Calling All Cuckoos
40. Niagara Fools
41. Arts and Flowers
42. Woody Meets Davy Crewcut
43. Red Riding Hoodlum
44. Box Car Bandit
45. The Unbearable Salesman
46. International Woodpecker
47. To Catch a Woodpecker
48. Round Trip to Mars
49. Dopey Dick the Pink Whale
50. Fodder and Son
51. Misguided Missile
52. Watch the Birdie
53. Half Empty Saddles
54. His Better Elf
55. Everglade Raid
56. Tree’s a Crowd
57. Jittery Jester

Richard Moody’s Favorite Chilly Willy Episodes From (1953 – 1965)

1. Chilly Willy
2. I'm Cold
3. The Legend of Rockabye Point
4. Hot and Cold Penguin
5. Room and Wrath
6. Hold That Rock
7. Operation Cold Feet
8. Clash and Carry
9. Deep Freeze Squeeze
10. Half Baked Alaska


Richard Moody’s Favorite Cartune Co-Stars Episodes From (1953 – 1958)

1. Maw and Paw
2. A Horse’s Tale
3. Dig That Dog
4. The Ostrich Egg and I
5. Salmon Yeggs
6. Crazy Mixed Up Pup
7. Sh-h-h-h-h-h


By Richard Moody & Shway Ross

This Post is for
JSmith
cartoonzforu.blogspot.com