Andy Panda

Andy Panda is a cartoon character who starred in his own series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Walter Lantz.[6] These "cartunes" were released by Universal Pictures from 1939 to 1947, and United Artists from 1948 to 1949.[7] The title character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a cute panda.[8] Andy became the second star of the Walter Lantz cartoons after Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He achieved considerable popularity until being eventually supplanted by Woody Woodpecker.

Not to be confused with Andy Pandy.

Andy Panda
Walter Lantz character
First appearanceLife Begins for Andy Panda (1939)
Created byWalter Lantz[1]
Alex Lovy
Adapted byWalter Lantz Productions
Designed byWalter Lantz
Voiced bySara Berner (1939–1941, 1947)[2][3]
Margaret Hill-Talbot (1942)[2]
Dick Nelson (1943)[2]
Harry E. Lang (1944, 1948; whistling)[2]
Walter Tetley (1944–1949)[2]
Dick Beals (1952)[4]
Mel Blanc (1957)[5]
Daws Butler (1964)
Scott Weil (2018)
Duration
  • 1939–1949
Years Active1939–present
In-universe information
Full nameAndy Panda
SpeciesPanda
GenderMale
FamilyPapa Panda (father)

History

When Oswald the Lucky Rabbit retired in 1938, following a nine-year run, Walter Lantz's studio went for months without recurring characters. It wasn't until late 1937, when Lantz had a trip to a zoo. There, the main attraction of the place was a young panda which Lantz drew pictures of. He would then use his drawings to construct a new character.

Andy's first cartoon was the aptly titled Life Begins for Andy Panda in 1939. This was obvious wordplay on the perky titles of the popular Andy Hardy movies of that era.[9] Coincidentally, a later Andy Hardy film was actually titled Life Begins for Andy Hardy.[10]

In the first three cartoons of the series, Andy's companion was a feisty turtle named Mr. Whippletree (voiced by Danny Webb[2]) who was a caricature of Eddie Anderson. Andy's father, the bragging Papa Panda (voiced at various times by Danny Webb, Mel Blanc, and Dick Nelson[2]) was often the fall guy for Andy’s pranks. When Mr. Whippletree disappeared from the series, Papa began to function as both companion and foil.

Andy was at first a mischievous cub, whose blustery Papa is frequently trying to prove himself as a good role model. Later, Andy became a stand-alone star in the vein of Mickey Mouse, and even acquired a Pluto-like dog named Milo (voiced by Bill Shaw[2]) as a pet.

The 1940 Andy Panda short Knock Knock featured the first appearance of Lantz's most famous character, Woody Woodpecker.[8]

By 1942, Andy Panda started wearing clothes and shoes in Nutty Pine Cabin. The character was then given a major overhaul by director Shamus Culhane for the 1944 short The Painter and the Pointer, with a far more malicious personality than he had ever shown previously, but this new version was disliked by both Lantz and audiences, and was not used again. Lantz continued to produce Andy Panda shorts until he closed his studio in 1949. Andy's last short was Scrappy Birthday (1949), which featured his girlfriend, Miranda Panda (voiced by Grace Stafford). When the studio reopened in 1950, the Andy Panda series never returned to production.

Andy led a major part of his career in comic books, in Dell Comics' Crackajack Comics and New Funnies.[11] One early Andy Panda comic book adventure was drawn by Carl Barks (New Funnies #76, 1943). John Stanley also did Andy Panda comic book work.

In two 1943 cartoons, Andy Panda's Victory Garden and Meatless Tuesday, Andy's foil was a nameless rooster. In late 1943, this rooster became Andy's comic book sidekick, Charlie Chicken: "hatched" in NF 79 and rapidly growing into the cartoon model. Stories about Andy's and Charlie's often-bizarre adventures ran for many years. Some were reprinted domestically as recently as the 1990s, and in Sweden as recently as 2001.

Filmography
Main article: Andy Panda filmography

Other appearances

Andy also appeared alongside Woody in shorts such as Banquet Busters and Musical Moments from Chopin. He also had a cameo in The Woody Woodpecker Polka with Miranda Panda, Oswald Rabbit, and Charlie Chicken. In print, Andy Panda appeared in a Whitman Publishing 1943–1944 Better Little Book "Andy Panda and Tiny Tom" which differed from the usual Big Little Book format by having art on every page instead of art on alternate pages. Andy was scheduled to appear as a cameo in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit at the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral", but a gold colored Papa made the cut.[12]

The character appears in the 2018 Woody Woodpecker series, voiced by Scott Weil. Andy also has a more mature voice with a Southern twang in this series.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Walter Lantz, 93, the Creator Of Woody Woodpecker, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  2. Scott, Keith (October 3, 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media.
  3. Amidi, Amid (March 25, 2013). "This is What A Woody Woodpecker Radio Show Would Have Sounded Like". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  4. "Lantz Oswald on DVD |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  5. "Woody Woodpecker on Records |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  6. "The Woodpecker and the Mouse : THE WALTER LANTZ STORY WITH WOODY WOODPECKER AND FRIENDS by Joe Adamson (Putnam's: $19.95; 254 pp., illustrated) and DISNEY'S WORLD by Leonard Mosley (Stein & Day: $18.95; 330 pp., illustrated)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  7. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  8. Stefan Kanfer (2000). Serious business: the art and commerce of animation in America from Betty Boop to Toy story. Da Capo Press. pp. 113. ISBN 978-0-306-80918-7.
  9. Henry T. Sampson (1998). That's enough, folks: Black images in animated cartoons, 1900–1960. Scarecrow Press. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-0-8108-3250-3.
  10. Glenn Collins (March 23, 1994). "Walter Lantz, 93, the Creator Of Woody Woodpecker, Is Dead". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  11. Rovin, Jeff (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals. Prentice Hall Press. p. 7. ISBN 0-13-275561-0. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  12. Hill, Jim (May 8, 2014). "Storyboards reveal what Marvin Acme's funeral in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" would have looked like". jimhillmedia.com. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  13. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Woody Woodpecker is Back! | BRAND NEW Series Live on YouTube | Promo 01 | Kids Movies". YouTube.
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