Astronut Woody

Astronut Woody is a Woody Woodpecker cartoon that was released in theaters on April 1, 1966.[1] The cartoon takes place during the space race of the time.

Astrount Woody
Directed by	Paul J. Smith
Produced by	Walter Lantz
Story by	Cal Howard
Starring	Grace Stafford Dal McKennon
Music by	Walter Greene
Animation by	Al Coe Les Kline
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Walter Lantz Productions
Distributed by	Universal International
Release date	May 16, 1966 (1966-05-16)
Running time	6 minutes
Language	English

The cartoon was directed by Paul J. Smith and was one of eight Woody Woodpecker cartoons released to theaters in 1966. Grace Stafford provided Woody's voice while Dallas McKennon guessed starred as a military colonel.

Summary

The cartoon begins in Woody's tree, which he has "just about all pecked to pieces". Woody decides that it is time to move out, and comes across a launchpad with a rocket on it destined for the Moon. Mistaking it for a high-rise apartment building, Woody enters the rocket and starts to make himself at home. One of the things he discovers is the astronaut's food, which is concealed in tubes.

Meanwhile, in the rocket's control room, the colonel in charge of the launch discovers Woody in the rocket and heads up to the top to try to eject him. Mistaking him for the landlord Woody offers him some ice water, but the colonel orders him to leave. Woody does, but not before hitting the colonel in the face with a pie and being forcefully thrown out of the rocket. The colonel then heads back into the control room to prepare for blast off, while Woody immediately sneaks back into the rocket. Suddenly realizing where he is once the colonel starts counting down, Woody tears apart some of the rocket's electronics to stop the blast off, once again bringing the colonel outside to try and stop him. Woody first throws a motor at the colonel, then cuts the elevator so it drops on him. As the colonel climbs up to the top of the rocket (his only means of getting up there now), Woody climbs down, then goes into the control room and launches the rocket. Only the top of the rocket, where Woody had been making home, blasts off and crashes down to the ground with the colonel in it. Looking at the wreck, the colonel shrugs and says "well, back to the drawing board".

The colonel tries a second time to launch the rocket after a while, but Woody again interrupts. This time, he is disguised as the rocket's head electrician, needing to make adjustments. The adjustments cause the colonel's chair to launch into the air instead of the rocket, and since the chair is not intended for flight he does not get very far before crashing back to earth. He lands on the floor of the control room and again decides it is time to go "back to the drawing board". The second time, Woody interrupts dressed as an astronaut and dispatches the colonel to the rocket, claiming someone wants to talk to him in there. Woody then launches the rocket again, but this time it only gets a few feet off the ground before crashing through the launchpad.

The colonel makes one more attempt to launch, but Woody again interrupts dressed as the head electrician to make adjustments. This time, the entire building housing the control room lifts off the ground as the colonel protests in frustration. Woody then decides it is time for lunch and finds a food tube marked "instant banquet", which when squeezed creates a banquet table. He then squeezes a tube labeled "table companion" and a woman comes out. The cartoon ends with Woody's laugh.

References

1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 157–158. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.

• The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia - 1966.