Real Gone Woody Backgrounds

A week ago, we featured some of the brushwork from the 1954 Walter Lantz cartoon “Real Gone Woody.” We didn’t mention the backgrounds by Ray Jacobs and Art Landy. Let’s post a couple. I love the building exteriors. Here’s Winnie Woodpecker’s super-modern house and the drive-in.



This is part of the exterior of the school; there’s a quick pan to the right to a window but I can’t get the colours of the frames to match, so I can’t snip them together.



Next, the bedrooms of typical high school boys Woody and Buzz. There isn’t a clear one of Buzz’s in the cartoon (Buzz’s phone is cordless, except in close-up).



The Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio was known for having TV characters go past the same building or tree or light socket over and over. The background loop was generally fairly seamless. But at the Lantz studio, they couldn’t do it right with higher budgets. Below are two consecutive frames. Notice how the background jumps.



Still, that’s minor. This is still one of Paul J. Smith’s finest cartoons, helped by a fine story and some good designs.