Woody Woodpecker / Pica Pau

About

Woody Woodpecker is an American animated television series produced by the Walter Lantz Studio and storyboarded by artist Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. The show premiered on November 25th, 1940, with many adaptations and live-action movies throughout the decades. The series revolves around the life of an anthropomorphic woodpecker, inspired by the acorn woodpecker and resembling the pileated woodpecker. Though not the first of the screwball characters that became popular in the early 1940s, Woody is one of the most indicative of the type and has amassed a great number of fans in Brazil, with the translated name in Portuguese Pica Pau.

History

The idea for Woody Woodpecker was allegedly coined during producer Walter Lantz's honeymoon in 1940 with his wife in California, as a noisy acorn woodpecker^[1] outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, and when heavy rain started, they learned that the bird had bored holes in their cabin's roof. The moment inspired the creation of the Woody Woodpecker character on November 25th, 1940, which first appeared in the cartoon Knock Knock. The episode was uploaded by YouTube Channel^[2] @popularcartoons2553 on January 18th, 2022, garnering 1,926 views and 34 likes. (seen below)

The character has been revived since then for special productions like a 2017 live-action/CGI hybrid feature film, titled Woody Woodpecker. The trailer for the movie was revealed on December 6th, 2023, and uploaded on YouTube^[3] by @YAWChannel. The video (seen below) garnered 138,000 views and 361 likes in seven years.

Woody Woodpecker Pantry Panic Version (1941)

Pantry Panic is the third animated cartoon short in the Woody Woodpecker series. Released theatrically on November 24th, 1941, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is also on 50 Classic Cartoons Volume 1.

Online Presence

As a result of its popularity and following, the series has spawned an expressive number of fan art illustrations on the internet.

Pica Pau's Brazilian Fans

Similar to the love Brazilian fans have for the television show Everybody Hates Chris show, the Woody Woodpecker daily broadcasts on the Record network and SBT public channels for decades created a legion of Latin American fans of the cartoon. For instance, a Portuguese dubbed episode of the cartoon was uploaded on YouTube^[4] by @lovizio on December 10th, 2006, receiving 31 million views and 171,000 likes in 17 years (seen below).

Vamos Às Cataratas

The episode "Niagara Fools" or "Vamos às Cataratas" in Portuguese is one of the most famous Woody Woodpecker moments known by Brazilians. The episode shows a local officer chasing the bird in Niagara Falls while some tourists cheer every time the characters fall from the waterfall. The Portuguese dubbed version of the episode was uploaded on YouTube^[5] by Canaldesenhostopclassicos8816, garnering 611,000 views and 14,000 likes in six years (seen below).

The moment became an image macro on social media. Some examples can be seen below:

Search interest

External References