Home Media Magazine - July 29-August 4, 2007 - (Page 22)

NEWS www.homemediamagazine.com Panel: ‘Woody Woodpecker’ a Classic Overdue on DVD By Chris Tribbey P R O D U C T Film critic Leonard Maltin needed no prompting to wear his Woody Woodpecker T-shirt to the Mann Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood at a special event recently. “This is my childhood,” he said. “I grew up watching Woody Woodpecker every week and seeing (creator) Walter Lantz every week. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Woody and Walt.” Apparently so did the other 200 people who showed up to the July 11 event celebrating the July 24 DVD release of Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection, the first time Woody is making it to DVD. The set includes more than nine hours and 75 episodes of the legendary cartoon, including eight Academy Award-nominated short features, behind-the-scenes footage, a documen- (L-R): Leonard Maltin, Billy West and June Foray speak to a crowd during a celebration of the release of “Woody Woodpecker” for the first time on DVD from Universal. tary and a full episode of “The Woody Wood- DVD cartoons, preceded by a panel discussion pecker Show.” about Woody and Lantz by voice actors, cartoon The event featured a screening of some of the producers and Maltin. Voice actors Maurice LaMarche, June Foray and Billy West, along with director and producer Phil Roman, Maltin, and panel moderator Gordon Meyer of StoryMakers, which hosted the event, engaged in an hour-long conversation about the character, and the characters behind the character. “He didn’t wait for any rules,” West said of CO M P U T E R S O F T WA R E Woody and the differences between cartoons then and now. “I loved it that he would peck a CLASSIFIED SHOWCASE BUSINESS SERVICES few holes in your head. … The restrictions of today, which I can’t understand, is that he can’t peck anybody in the head. “Cartoons were supposed to remove you from reality, not make it real.” Maltin agreed: “We all grew up watching them, and we didn’t become ax murderers. That’s the advantage of home video over broadcast: You can choose to watch it; you can choose to show it to your kids.” Woody remains an important cartoon to a lot of people because of the character’s attitude. “There was something about those early Woodies that had that energy, that was fun … that infectious laughter,” Roman said. Of the laugh (Heh-heh-heh-HEH-heh), which was pieced together and then sped up, West said that when slowed down it sounded like “a woman who had a few mai tais.” “It was the first cartoon I ever fell in love with,” LaMarche said. Maltin said that now that Woody Woodpecker has finally made it to DVD, it’s time for other classic cartoons, such as Betty Boop, to get their due. “If you can tell me a good reason why there isn’t a Mighty Mouse DVD, I’d like to hear it,” Maltin said. “I think it’s wrong to censor these and lock them up in the vault.” Incorporate Today Don't star in a horror movie, protect your personal assets today! Incorporate or form an LLC in just minutes and at the fraction of the cost of using an attorney. We are fast, easy, and affordable. Call us today at 1-877-261-9621 or visit www.corporate.com to learn more. Retail, Rental, and Game Trading Software for Video / Game Stores. ® It’s Back to ‘Futurama’ for Fox With New DTV Release By Thomas K. Arnold P R O D U C T “Futurama” is coming back. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment at San Diego Comic-Con International is expected to announce more details about the first original “Futurama” production since the animated show went off the air in 2003. Futurama: Bender’s Big Score will be released Nov. 27 directly to DVD. It’s the first fulllength “Futurama” feature based on the TV series; three more films will be released individually through 2008, all with the original creative team and voice cast on board. The plot finds the “Futurama” crew fighting to save Earth in an epic battle against nudist alien Internet scammers. Bender the robot soon comes under the alien’s spell and is sent back in time to loot the Earth of its greatest treasures. At one point he runs into Al Gore, who guest stars as himself, during the 2000 presidential recount. Other guest stars include Coolio and Sarah Silverman. “Futurama” is the second Fox TV series to spawn a made-for-DVD program. Two years ago Fox’s home entertainment unit released a direct-to-video feature based on the “Family Guy” series, Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin CO M P U T E R S O F T WA R E TAKE 1 WORKS! • Rentrak • Free Demo • (800)454-4434 E-Mail: sales@selbysoft.com DI STR I B UTOR FREE CATALOG AMERICA’S LARGEST DISTRIBUTOR OF: $5.00–SPANISH VIDEOS–$5.00 VICENTE FERNANDEZ, INDIA MARIA, CANTIFLAS ETC. HUNTER VIDEO DISTRIBUTORS 718-326-5400 SELECTION OF SPANISH XXX CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING MAKES DOLLARS AND SENSE! BLACK ACTION • KARATE • DVDs • CDs U S E D TA P E S & D V D S FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT: Kurt Wohlman (714) 338-6749 kwohlman@questex.com www.homemediamagazine.com — The Untold Story. In fact, DVD sales of “Family Guy” helped bring the show back to network TV. For her part, Claudia Katz, a partner at Rough Draft Studios, which produced the animation for “Futurama,” hopes history repeats. “I think for business models, anytime you can look at a successful example or formula it helps,” she said. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to go back and work on this again.” While the DTV movies will be featurelength, they likely will show up as episodes on Comedy Central, which is slated to air reruns on the show starting next year, or on some other outlet, she said. “I think they can — and probably will — be divided into episodes,” Katz said. She said the DVD sales potential helped boost the budget for the project. “It’s really well written and from an animation standpoint very well produced,” she said. As for future prospects for the show, she said DVD could help there, too. “I think if [the DTV titles] sell really well, that’s a huge vote of confidence in the property,” she said. Additional reporting by Stephanie Prange. 22 Home Media Magazine July 29–August 4, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.corporate.com http://www.rapidrental.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - July 29-August 4, 2007

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