Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Thou Shalt Not Mr. Woodp#%ker

Excerpts from an article in the pages of Night and Day magazine (Volume 1 #1, November 1948) referring to what ridiculous lengths the movie industry went to when imposing censorship on popular cartoon characters of the era, in this case, Mr. Woody Woodpecker. Being mean to animals or old people, telling lies, and heaven forbid-- kissing another character (gasp!) is right up there with murder, firearms, and (gasp! #2) --milking cows! Children should absolutely NEVER see where unwholesome milk comes from! Ever! I'm sure while reading this that many of you can quote a zillion animated examples of all these things appearing in countless classic cartoons since, so actual subsequent enforcement by the industry code now feels somewhat lazy, even suspect. Maybe 'ol Walter Lantz'd 'em in the bud. "Ha-ha-ha-haaaaa-HA!" --Woody




5 comments:

  1. The funny thing about the kissing one is while it shows Woody kissing a girl bird, the caption notes that he's not allowed to kiss a human being. Apparently Tex Avery bumped up against that rule a few times with his Red Riding Hood cartoons (and Swing Shift Cinderella).

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  2. Meanwhile, Bugs Bunny continued to kiss everybody right on the lips whether they wanted it or not, male or female, haha

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  3. Woody Woodpecker was intended to be a role model? Whoa. I can see some of these rules being a preventative measure against the merrily filthy shenanigans of the usual animator. Don't slow the image down during that milking scene, junior.

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  4. Some of these images -- Woody holding the guns, for instance -- are Calvin "peeing" level memes for car windshield stickers!

    And Andy Panda deserves it, lets be honest!

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  5. Riotous! Woody never gets to have any fun!

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