Classic Cartoons #4 - Snow Place Like Home

Although there's no Bitesized Biography to accompany this week's Classic Cartoon (they take an awful long time to research and write, but it seemed foolish to only post Classic Cartoons with them, as there's so many great shorts to chose from for each animation legend), this one does directly correlate with our last Bitesized Biography, of Walter Lantz.

Last time I shared with you one of the finer outings for Walter Lantz's best known creation, Woody Woodpecker, in the short, The Screwball. However, as I mentioned, perhaps even above Woody in my heart is one of Walter Lantz's other creations, Chilly Willy. The lovable and mischievous penguin was a staple of my childhood and this short film from 1966 entitled, aptly, Snow Place Like Home, and directed by Paul J. Smith emanates from Walter Lantz Productions with an ironic warmth and remains one of Chilly's best outings.

Classic Cartoons #3 - The Screwball

To marry with this week's Bitesized Biography, of Walter Lantz, today's Classic Cartoon is one of Lantz's most famous creation in action. The Screwball is one of Woody Woodpecker's first outings, showcasing the zany humour and hyperactive energy that made generation after generation fall in love with the charismatic little bird. Premiering on 15th February, 1943, The Screwball remains one of Woody's finer adventures.

Bitesized Biographies #3 - Walter Lantz

I never tried to make a cartoon for a certain age bracket. I just tried to make entertaining pictures. That's why they still play and why they play so well in foreign countries."
—Walter Lantz

After looking at perhaps two of the most famous and prolific figures in all of animation, Chuck Jones and Matt Groening, with our first two Bitesized Biographies; it seemed very apt and fitting - given A113Animation's new year's resolution to spotlight classic cartoons and pay homage to the geniuses behind them - that this latest Bitesized Biography is dedicated to one of the less famed animation pioneers, Walter Lantz.

Bitesized Biographies #1 - Chuck Jones

"If Walt Disney was the first animator who taught me how to fly in my dreams, Chuck Jones was the first animator who made me laugh at them."

—Steven Spielberg on Chuck Jones, in Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist

To kick off the new A113Animation focus on cartoons and on the lasting legacy and influence of old, classic short films; there seemed no better way and no more fitting figure to base the first 'Bitesized Biography' on, than the legendary Looney Tunes director, Chuck Jones.