The only Lantz short I've seen is King Klunk, which is a very direct parody of King Kong (1933), with a bunch of racist gags.
But as far as I know, Lantz's most famous character is Woody Woodpecker.
Lantz's well known characters are Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Beary Family, and Andy Panda.
Also notably where Tex Avery got his start in animation.
Heck, the studio also took over production of the Oswald cartoons from 1929-43, so how did that run fare, especially compared to the Disney era shorts?
Edited by SpongeGuy11 on Feb 6th 2023 at 6:00:59 AM
I've enjoyed the made-for-tv shorts, but they do lack the comic edge that a lot of the earlier shorts have. You could same the same thing (in my opinion) about the made-for-tv Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry stuff in the 70's, too.
Pretty much any classic cartoon series that started out in film took a bit of a hit when it got translated to TV, as the budgets were much lower and TV standards and practices were stricter.
Edited by Robbery on Feb 7th 2023 at 3:49:00 AM
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Aside from Spook o Nanny, Lantz didn't do fully original animated TV cartoons, all his shorts were made for theaters including the 1960s-early 70s output.
Usually, Paul J Smith does get a mixed reputation because of how his directorial run on the Lantz shorts got worse as time went on especially in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
The woodpecker shorts weren't the only good stuff the studio produced. I actually enjoyed the cartoons with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit that Lantz made, in particular the ones that were directed by Bill Nolan. I also enjoyed Andy Panda, Chilly Willy and the Swing Symphony series, like Jungle Jive
.
Too bad there hasn't been any good animation done with the Lantz characters since the studio closed for good. (And the shorts made before then don't look very interesting either.) The comics and games made since then look good sure, but not any good animation, like with the Disney and Warner characters. What animation there has been with Woody just isn't up to snuff with me. Maybe in a few years a good enough show will be shown, and maybe we'll get more goodies like games and comics.

Gonna create a thread dedicated to the Walter Lantz cartoons (similar to the threads for Disney shorts and Looney Tunes shorts).
So, how do you all like the Walter Lantz shorts?