Line #54 WesternAnimation/WillieWhopper


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/williewhopper.png]]
2
3	->''"Say, did I ever tell ya this one?"''
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5	''Willie Whopper'' was a short lived series of cartoons produced and directed by Creator/UbIwerks, running for 13 shorts from [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1933 to 1934.]] The series was made as a replacement for Iwerks' previous series ''WesternAnimation/FlipTheFrog'', alongside his ''WesternAnimation/ComiColorCartoons'' shorts.
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7	The shorts all follow a [[StrictlyFormula simple formula]]--Willie, a young, eager boy, tells his friends (or sometimes, [[NoFourthWall the audience]]) about some outlandish adventure he went on recently, which serves as the story in question for the short--naturally, the stories turn out to be nothing but exaggerated lies (or, "whoppers", [[MeaningfulName hence his name]]). Like other Iwerks cartoons, the shorts are rife with cartoony animation, as well as a stylized rubberhose art style, courtesy of designers such as Creator/GrimNatwick and Berny Wolf. Carl Stalling would also provide pleasant, if pedestrian scores for the shorts. The series was usually produced in black and white, although there were three entries which were filmed in color, and Iwerks still had his cels colored in spite of the black & white footage, to see if he could get different shades of gray in the photographing.
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9	While the series was fairly well received when it was released, it came to an abrupt end when Creator/{{MGM}} dropped distribution of Ub's cartoons, instead choosing to distribute Creator/HarmanAndIsing's ''WesternAnimation/HappyHarmonies'' shorts. As such, Ub abandoned the character and shifted focus towards his ill-fated Comi Color Cartoons, with Willie becoming yet another one of many forgotten stars of the Golden Age of Animation.
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11	Fortunately, some of his cartoons have fallen into the PublicDomain, and as such are easy to find, giving his films a chance to see the light of day again. In late 2015, Thunderbean animation released a restored Blu-ray & DVD set of all of his cartoons.
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14	!!Filmography
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16	!1933
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18	* The Air Race: The pilot for the series, but the original version was unreleased due to MGM demanding more exposition as to why Willie joined the air race.
19	* Play Ball
20	* Spite Flight: Semi-remake of "The Air Race". While it reuses footage from the original film, there are considerable differences in the plot and a lot of new footage has been added.
21	* Stratos-Fear: The first film in the series to use Willie's fat redesign.
22	* Davy Jones Locker: Filmed in color.
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24	!1934
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26	* Hell's Fire (AKA Masquerade Holiday and Vulcan Entertains): Originally, a complete color print of the film was thought to be lost, but one was found and restored for the 2015 Willie Whopper blu-ray set.
27	* Robin Hood, Jr.
28	* Insultin' the Sultan
29	* Reducing Creme
30	* Rasslin' Round
31	* Cave Man
32	* WesternAnimation/JungleJitters
33	* The Good Scout
34	* Viva Willie
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37	!!Tropes:
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39	* AllJustADream: The ending of "Stratos-Fear", where Willie awakens from his laughing gas induced nightmare by having his tooth yanked out.
40	* ArtEvolution: Willie initially looked like a boy version of WesternAnimation/BettyBoop, but Ub didn't feel he was funny enough, and quickly altered his design to be fatter and lankier than before.
41	* {{Bandito}}: "Viva Willie" features Willie taking on Pancho Villa.
42	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Willie demonstrates this in "Stratos-Fear" when he gets inflated with laughing gas and floats off into space.
43	* BehindAStick: The fat-cat villain of "The Air Race"/"Spite Fight" eavesdrops while leaning out from behind a very narrow tree that somehow conceals the rest of him.
44	* CatchPhrase: The quote that introduces this page popped up in many of the shorts.
45	%%* DastardlyWhiplash: Simon Ligree makes an appearance in "Hell's Fire".%%And?
46	%%* DerangedAnimation: "Stratos Fear".
47	* DrinkingOnDuty: In "Viva Willie", Willie's horse drinks almost all of an unattended barrel of beer while Willie is visiting the cantina. As a result, he is staggeringly drunk by the time Willie needs him to chase after Pancho.
48	* EasterEgg: In "Air Race", one of the shops Willie crashes into has the name Iwerks.
49	* FallingChandelierOfDoom: In "Viva Willie", Willie corrals Pancho and his gang by dropping a wagon wheel chandelier on them: trapping them between the spokes of the wheel.
50	* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Which is convieniently located under a volcano in "Hell's Fire".
51	* FlippingTheBird: In a decidedly anti-clerical joke, "The Air Race" gives us an angry St. Peter, who is waiting on the cloud trying to hitch a ride with a plane rider, gets passed up, and angrily flips the bird at him--with four fingered hands.
52	* FluffyCloudHeaven: In "The Air Race", we get a glimpse of St. Peter at the gates of Heaven, trying to hitch a ride with the plane racers.
53	* FourFingeredHands: And they can still flip the bird with them, going by St. Peter's brief appearance.
54	* InflatingBodyGag: In "Stratos-Fear", Willie gets filled with too much gas at the dentist, causing him to inflate and fly off into space.
55	* ISophagus: In "Viva Willie", Willie accidentally swallows his harmonica while riding his horse. For the rest of the cartoon, he speaks only in a string of strangled harmonica notes. At the end, his girlfriend gives him a passionate kiss and ends up with the harmonica stuck in her throat.
56	* MeaningfulName: Whopper was a classic phrase for a lie.
57	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Amelia Earhart makes an appearance in "The Air Race".
58	* RogerRabbitEffect: Theclimax of "The Air Race" has a brief segment of Willie's plane crashing into a real life smokestack. In fact, a scene similar to this was originally meant to be done in the original WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon WesternAnimation/PlaneCrazy, but was scrapped.
59	** "Spite Flight" also ends with a new live action/animation mixing ending, with Willie and co. riding in a parade.
60	* {{Satan}}: A cartoony version of him appears in "Hell's Fire".
61	%%* SentientVehicle: The plane of the villain from "The Air Race".

Context WesternAnimation / WillieWhopper