This short is a rather manic re-telling of the fable, "The Ant and the Grasshopper", with Woody Woodpecker as the grasshopper. It's actually very well done, if slightly predictable. I want to discuss details, so this is a spoiler warning:
Woody Woodpecker more or less has two modes of operation in this one-sleeping and eating. Early on, he's scolded by a busy little squirrel for not industriously getting things stored up for winter. But work is a four-letter word to Woody. We see alternating scenes of various creatures gathering and storing food or otherwise working (beavers building lodges, etc.) while Woody mostly occupies himself by eating their food and snoozing.
One day, a little bird tries to get Woody to join the rest of the birds in flying south for the winter, but Woody comes up with excuses not to and slams the door in the little bird's face. While he's snoozing, the first snows hit and everyone else ducks in and settles down for a long winter. You see scenes of warm, cozy and well-stocked living quarters.
Woody wakes up and decides it's time to eat again, only to be buried by the snow. He realizes that it's winter and runs to the cupboard, only to find it emptier than a politician's promise. He literally sees Starvation staring him in the face.
He gets outside and makes the rounds of his neighbors, begging for food, only to find absolutely no sympathy. Each stop brings false hope which is shattered by an action appropriate to his earlier abuse of their efforts at working towards storing up for the cold. The beavers fix him a cake made of ice and he turns blue after eating it and freezes into a block of ice.
Winter passes and with the coming of spring, the animals venture out to find Woody, frozen solid. They thaw him out and he immediately starts the same things over again-stealing food and acting crazy and there the cartoon ends.
This short is on one of the Columbia House DVD releases and is well worth watching. Recommended.
Woody Woodpecker more or less has two modes of operation in this one-sleeping and eating. Early on, he's scolded by a busy little squirrel for not industriously getting things stored up for winter. But work is a four-letter word to Woody. We see alternating scenes of various creatures gathering and storing food or otherwise working (beavers building lodges, etc.) while Woody mostly occupies himself by eating their food and snoozing.
One day, a little bird tries to get Woody to join the rest of the birds in flying south for the winter, but Woody comes up with excuses not to and slams the door in the little bird's face. While he's snoozing, the first snows hit and everyone else ducks in and settles down for a long winter. You see scenes of warm, cozy and well-stocked living quarters.
Woody wakes up and decides it's time to eat again, only to be buried by the snow. He realizes that it's winter and runs to the cupboard, only to find it emptier than a politician's promise. He literally sees Starvation staring him in the face.
He gets outside and makes the rounds of his neighbors, begging for food, only to find absolutely no sympathy. Each stop brings false hope which is shattered by an action appropriate to his earlier abuse of their efforts at working towards storing up for the cold. The beavers fix him a cake made of ice and he turns blue after eating it and freezes into a block of ice.
Winter passes and with the coming of spring, the animals venture out to find Woody, frozen solid. They thaw him out and he immediately starts the same things over again-stealing food and acting crazy and there the cartoon ends.
This short is on one of the Columbia House DVD releases and is well worth watching. Recommended.
