Bill Kopp announced as director of the new Woody Woodpecker movie.

For the new Illumination made Woody Woodpecker revival film, animator Bill Kopp, who some may know as the creator of the shows Eek The Cat and The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show, has just signed on as director for the film. And obviously, he promised it will be just as crazy and cartoony as the original theatrical shorts (and on his facebook that it will not go in the direction of the 2000's TV revival series). I'm also hoping this movie will end up getting the rest of the theatrical cartoons (along with other Walter Lantz shorts) released on DVD, or better yet, a Blu-Ray rerelease of the shorts.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/animationscoop/bill-kopp-signed-for-universals-woody-woodpecker

edited 12th Oct '13 5:33:31 PM by TheBeanerItWas

My nostalgia calls for me, again.

I've always been a fan of Woody (I even think the nineties' series isn't all THAT bad), so I'll keep my fingers crossed. He's my favorite Screwball Squirrel character, with the Trope Namer as a second and Classic Daffy in the third place.

Bill Kopp also said on his facebook page that he's writing on the movie as well—and that it's going to start with a 4 minute cartoon! Will it be a hand-drawn throwback to the original Walter Lantz classics? I don't know, but I know it's gonna be fun!

I'm looking forward to this. I've always been really curious as to how a character like this would work in a full length movie when directed/written by someone actually knew what they were doing.

... wow, nerco-threaded!

I honestly didn't remember this was still in development! Woody Woodpecker has not aged well with time, so this is just what he needs.

Really, eh?

I dare you to watch his take on The Barber of Seville and tell me it's aged badly. It's equally as good as what Bugs Bunny did with the opera (though Bugs used the Overture and Woody uses "Largo al factotum").

Same goes for "The Beach Nut," "Wet Blanket Policy," "The Woody Woodpecker Polka" and other shorts from his best years.

On the movie side, though, from what little I've seen of Eek The Cat I enjoyed it... So I wonder how Mr. Kopp will do with the job. We'll see.

edited 22nd May '14 12:21:56 PM by Aldo930

The later shorts, however, have aged very badly, but a good case can be made for them never being really good to start with.

^The post 1955 shorts haven't aged badly so much as they were just terrible cartoons to begin with. I seriously want to know what happened to Walter Lantz's studio around that time. I'm even more shocked that Paul Smiths horrible Woody shorts lasted all the way to 1972.

The 40s shorts are very fun cartoons though, especially from the mid to late 40s, although they never quite caught up with Looney Tunes or Tex Avery.

This is probably a stupid question these days, but is it going to be CG?

It will be if it hopes to make any money in America.

The main film is definetely going to be cgi, but I get the impression that the opening 4 minute cartoon Bill Kopp talked about including in the film might be hand drawn, but don't quote me on that.

God, I hope it isn't the same thing that happened with the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie.

Which Rocky and Bullwinkle movie? The 2000 one?

I actually enjoyed that. It made an attempt to duplicate the show's brand of humor and did it decently enough. It isn't as terrible as some other cartoon adaptations.

edited 23rd May '14 11:44:10 AM by Aldo930

Don't worry, Bill said it will have NO live action in it at all. It's entirely a cartoon feature!

edited 23rd May '14 11:48:59 AM by TheBeanerItWas

Funny, I feel the opposite. Call it Values Dissonance or something, but sometimes Woody is too adult for a cartoon in his early years. It's the 40s? Also, the animation itself aged badly compared to later shorts.

Your first point is too YMMV to debate it, but the animation? Really? The post Golden Age cartoons are very badly animated.

I kinda appreciate what they were trying to do when they made Woody itsy bitsy tiny like a real woodpecker, by the way, but the execution failed for the most part (no wonder they seemed to go back on that later).

Bump

so..is still happening?

I like Woody. Particularly the mid 40s cartoons. They're not as good as the cartoons WB (i.e. Clampett) were making, but nonetheless fun and cartoony. Too bad it got boring and bland by the 50s :/

edited 4th Jan '15 12:05:47 AM by Teddy

Calling it now. There's going to be a dramatic, dark trailer. It'll tease a superhero, then we'll hear Woody's "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!" laugh, then it'll switch to a comedy. Also, it'll be in the real world.

Nope. All cartoon world. hopefully.

Sounds promising.

And I hope Woody will look good in CGI, similar to The Peanuts Movie (like how he looked in the cartoons with a little shiny blue texture for his feathers)

edited 4th Jan '15 9:18:55 AM by HellKillUsAll

Isn't that just the trailer to the new Spongebob movie?

Yes.

I'm also a fan of Woody, especially like the 40s shorts and even some episodes of the 90s revival.

I really want to see a Screwball/Trickster character done in contemporary times, and given nobody's actually really done so (the closest competitor, WB, I feel actually neutered those aspects away from Bugs and Daffy in The Looney Tunes Show) I think reviving Woody would be a golden opportunity to do so.

The only downside I personally have about this is that I think Universal tends to be awful when it comes to adaptations-their Seuss adaptations (the live-action Grinch / Cat in the Hat and Illumination's Lorax), their retooling of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, and butchering of The Wolfman I feel are obvious examples of this (Scott Pilgrim and maybe the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie I think are the only exceptions to the rule).