List Price: $39.98You Pay Only: $34.99 You Save: $4.99 (12%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0025195000802
Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 24, 2007
Running Time: 535 minutes
Sales Rank: 9402
Studio: Universal Studios
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Relive all of the hilarious, crazy adventures of Woody Woodpecker, everyone's favorite wacky red-headed bird, in The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection! Created by renowned cartoonist Walter Lantz, these 75 original theatrical cartoons - all digitally remastered and completely uncut - showcase some of the wildest antics in animation history. Join Woody and his friends Chilly Willy, Andy Panda, Wally Walrus and Buzz Buzzard in hours of outrageous adventures. Featuring rare treasures from the Walter Lantz archive, including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Cartune Classic and Swing Symphony cartoons, this side-splitting collection will keep fans laughing out loud time and time again!
Amazon.com:
Walter Lantz produced cartoons for Universal for more than 40 years, from 1929 until 1972, but his studio's output remained the animated equivalent of 'B' pictures. His cartoons broke no new ground in animation, story telling, or humor. This generous set includes the first 45 Woody Woodpecker cartoons, 10 'Cartune Classics,' five 'Swing Symphonies,' and five shorts with Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, and Oswald Rabbit (a character originally created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks). Woody Woodpecker made his debut in 'Knock Knock' (1940) as a loony-bin zany, similar to the very early Bugs Bunny. But Woody never developed the kind of nuanced personality Bugs displays in later cartoons, despite the impressive array of animators and directors who passed through the studio. Tex Avery directed 'The Legend of Rockabye Point' (1955), probably the funniest cartoon Lantz ever released, but he failed to make any lasting changes in the house style. Some cartoons are more interesting as historical documents than entertainment. In 'Confidence' (1933), Oswald cures the effects of a spectre labeled 'Depression' with a hypodermic needle full of confidence that he gets from Franklin Roosevelt. The 'Swing Symphonies' and 'Cartune Classics' feature performances by noteworthy jazz musicians, including Jack Teagarden in 'The Pied Piper of Basin Street' (1945). But they lack the lavish beauty of Disney's 'Silly Symphonies' and the rambunctious energy of the Fleischer jazz cartoons, their obvious models. 'The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B'' (1941) earned Lantz his first Oscar nomination, but decades later, it's little more than a collection of spot gags featuring unflattering African-American stereotypes. (Unrated, suitable for ages 10 and older: violence, tobacco use, ethnic and racial stereotypes) --Charles Solomon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Just like what I remembered!
This dvd is terrific. I remember most of the cartoons on this dvd. I am satisfied and happy with it. Truly a classic addition to my collection. :D
Rating:  - Rare Classics finally on DVD
This DVD is a great representation of the Walter Lantz Studio: in addition to Woody Woodpecker's best cartoons are the rarely seen surreal, black and white Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts from the 30's, the jazzy Swing Symphonies of the 40's, and four classic Tex Avery directed cartoons from the 50's. They are presented under their own theme heading in chronological order, uncensored, making it easier to see the progression of the characters and the studio as a whole.
In my opinion, the period between 1943 to 1948 represents the high point of quality at the Lantz Studio, and most of those cartoons are contained on this DVD. The Lantz cartoons vacillated between Disney cuteness (Andy Panda) and Warner Bros. rowdyism (Woody Woodpecker), but was neither as slick as Disney, nor as truly funny as the Looney Tunes. However, they are still quite good, even if they don't measure up to the best of those other two studios. If you love classic animated cartoons, then this set is a great bargain. Woody is at his anarchistic apex in the 40's cartoons, and it's a revelation if one has only seen the tamer, poorly animated Woody from the 50's. (Like The Simpsons today, a lot of cartoons from the 40's were not meant for small children. Some of the cartoons on this set contain ethnic humor, good ol' fun slapstick violence, "cheesecake" sexy girls, drinking and other sublime pleasures.)
While the selection of the cartoons is topnotch, the set is not perfect. Nearly half of the cartoons are ... Read More
Rating: - woody woodpecker
excellent...recommend this for everyone. if you want to laugh then let this set do it for you. classic humor.
Rating: - Collectors REJOICE!!!! / Parents BEWARE...
Let me start with my opinion and then move on to details; this is an ungodly great collection of animated shorts spanning the breadth of Walter Lantz's heyday. This collection contains 75 animated short in all their pristine, somewhat un-restored, original glory. Collectors can buy this without reservation based on the price, quality of the product and the sheer amount of unedited material.
As great as this collection is, I cannot caution parents more strongly about buying this for your kids, let alone letting them watch it without supervision. As stated in the amazon synopsis and on the box of the DVD set; much of this is entertainment originally intended for adults during the WWII era. Unless you have no qualms about your kids watching cartoons with racial and sexual bigotry, sexual suggestion, violence and vice, I highly suggest you pre-view this material prior to letting your kids watch.
With that said, lets move on to the details; first details for collectors/grownups and then more info to help parents out.
COLLECTORS
I'm going to try and not repeat much of what's been said in many of the good reviews here. My efforts will be more focused on the DVD quality and what you may or may not remember about "Woody Woodpecker and Friends" when compared to its contemporaries and why I think this is such a great collection.
-A WORD ABOUT "RESTORATION"
A few reviews here voice disappointment over shorts in this collection not being "restored" ... Read More
Rating: - Years upon years of waiting was worth it
In a home video market where theatrical cartoons are experiencing the red carpet treatment, this was bound to happen. Unfortunately, the only previous release of Woody Woodpecker on DVD was through Columbia House, and a fair amount of the cartoons were cut for television. Fortunately, this set's 75 cartoons are presented unedited, although it's worth noting that Toyland Premiere and Banquet Busters have the reissue opening titles instead of the original. This shouldn't detract from your enjoyment, though.
Since Woody cartoons (let alone the Lantz studio's output in general) have been all but neglected on home video up until now, this set also contains 30 non-Woody Lantz cartoons, five of which are from Universal's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit output (a character created by Walt Disney, whose company now owns the rights to the character). A fair amount of these cartoons are new to home video, including the aforementioned Oswald toons.
The video and audio quality is good, but not as spectacular as the Looney Tunes DVDs. One problem with a fair amount of the cartoons on the set is the soundtracks are very, very hissy. There are times when they literally sound like they were ripped from cassette tapes. The video can also sometimes vary in quality, from clear and colourful to reasonably scratchy. But there are never scenes where dialogue is inaudible, or the visuals look like overused stock footage. These video/audio issues shouldn't detract from your enjoyment if you just want the cartoons. ... Read More
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