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Product Description ------------------- It's time for more crazy tricks and treats with your favorite feathered friend in The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2! 75 hilarious theatrical cartoons from creator Walter Lantz are presented completely uncut and digitally remastered including 3 Academy Award® nominees. Enjoy the side-splitting fun and wacky adventures of Woody along with Chilly Willy, Andy Panda, Wally Walrus, Buzz Buzzard and Woody's nephew and niece - Knothead and Splinter. Featuring rare Musical Miniature and Swing Symphony cartoons plus appearances by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Windy the Bear, Maggie and Sam and Inspector Willoughby, this outrageous collection is non-stop fun for fans of all ages! Bonus Content: * Behind-the-Scenes with Walter Lantz: Creating Woody Woodpecker (Episode #2), Timing a Cartoon (Episode #11), Character Movement (Episode #12), Photographing Animation Cels (Episode #13), The Animator's Job (Episode #14), Using Backgrounds (Episode #15)) * Behind-the-Scenes with Walter Lantz (The Inking Department (Episode #17), The Painting Department (Episode #18), Drawing with Walter Lantz (Episode #20), Sound Effects in Cartoons (Episode #22), Storyboarding Woody Woodpecker (Episode #24)) * Rare TV Pilot Episodes (The Secret Weapon (TV Pilot Episode), Jungle Medics (TV Pilot Episode)) * The Woody Woodpecker Show Episode #47 ]]> .com ---- The second installment in "The Walter Lantz Archive" includes 45 Woody Woodpecker cartoons from 1952 to 1958, and an assortment of films made between the early '30s and the mid-'60s. During the '50s, when the Warner Bros. directors were crafting some of the funniest cartoons ever made and MGM's "Tom and Jerry" series was winning Os, the Lantz shorts ranked as second-rate at best. Although some talented artists worked on them, the Woody films from this era feel stale and formulaic: the gags lack punch and the character never develops as a personality. Five Oswald the Lucky Rabbit films qualify as genuine rarities. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created the character; Universal's Carl Laemmle took Oswald from Disney and ultimately gave him to Lantz. "Carnival Capers" (1932), "Five and Dime" (1933), and "Wax Works" (1934) reveal just how strongly the early Oswald resembled Mickey, down to the two-button shorts and chunky shoes. But the animation remains crude, rubbery and weightless. The most interesting of these cartoons is "Puppet Show" (1936), which juxtaposes live action footage of marionettes with drawn animation of the same characters. At this point, Oswald, who pulls the puppets' strings, had been re-designed to look like a white Easter Bunny. "A Haunting We Will Go" (1939), starring Li'l Eight Ball, a forgotten stereotypical African American boy, exemplifies the dubious ethnic humor that was popular at the time in America. The extras include a dozen of Lantz's short explanations of the animation process from "The Woody Woodpecker Show." (Unrated, suitable for ages 10 and older: cartoon violence, alcohol and use, ethnic and racial stereotypes) --Charles Solomon