Saturday, January 19, 2013

"Pantry Panic" - Woody Woodpecker (1941)


When all the birds go south for the winter, Daffy Duck decides to stay behind, giving no thought to how he will get through the winter. Ignoring all advice to the contrary, he avails himself of the last mild days of autumn. When winter finally does come, he is at first satisfied to sit it out with his stockpiles of food. But when those stores run low, and the cat comes to town, all bets are off as the two try everything in their power to trick one another into becoming the other ones meal.

The Schlesinger-Warner cartoons are amongst my favorite. They have the same fluidity as the Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons by Max and Dave Fleischer. They may a bit violent by today’s standards; video games and most major motion pictures and television shows excluded; but they do manage to impart some of life’s more important lessons. In this case, Walter Lantz has cleverly redone the old story of the Ant and the Grasshopper, as well as reinforce the Boy Scout motto about always being prepared.

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