The Dippy Diplomat

The Dippy Diplomat is the 15th animated cartoon short subject in the Woody Woodpecker series. Released theatrically on August 27, 1945, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures.[1]

The Dippy Diplomat
Directed byJames Culhane
Produced byWalter Lantz
Story byBen Hardaway
Milt Schaffer
StarringBen Hardaway
Jack Mather
Music byDarrell Calker
Animation byPat Matthews
Grim Natwick
Emery Hawkins
LaVerne Harding
Les Kline
Paul Smith
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
August 27, 1945
Running time
6: 50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

When the Russian ambassador, Ivan Awfulitch, comes to town,[2][3] Wally Walrus decides to host a barbecue in the ambassador's honor. The smell of cooking steaks drifts from Wally's house to the park across the street, where Woody is fast asleep, cradled in a statue called "Motherhood". The smell rouses Woody from his nap (literally dragging him across the street), and he begins to swipe food off the table—first by grabbing ears of corn through a fence knothole, then by blindly making a sandwich that includes Wally's right hand. The woodpecker then takes a big bite, which launches the walrus several feet in the air; he lands upside down on his chef's hat, flattening it.

Unamused by Woody's shenanigans, Wally hammers several planks of wood over the knothole, proclaiming "Now, by golly, you'll get no more free lunch for nuthin'!" Woody then produces a ping pong paddle and a ball, which he knocks into Wally's yard, deftly landing on a plate of boiled eggs. Woody strolls in, looking for the ball, and proceeds to eat all the eggs; he then fires an arrow through the air, snatching a steak out of Wally's hand. When Woody tries to walk off with the meaty prize ("I always play for big steaks!"), Wally grabs Woody and his bow, firing the woodpecker himself into the air and into a newsstand across the street. Reading about the ambassador's visit, Woody decides to impersonate him.

Dressed in a coat, top hat, and false beard to match the ambassador's photo, Woody arrives on an impossibly long red carpet and barges into Wally's yard, singing the old Russian folk song "Dark Eyes". The "ambassador" leaps into Wally's arms, kisses him, then does a Russian "kick" dance, booting Wally in the backside several times, finally dispatching him into a glass greenhouse. With the walrus out of the way, Woody sniffs a cooking steak, only to set his beard on fire when he gets too close to the barbecue. Woody slaps the beard onto Wally's face ("Say! You look really hot with a beard!") and yanks his chef's hat down. Wally panics and starts to chug around the yard like a train locomotive, smoke pouring from his hat, destroying the barbecue oven (the pieces of which fly into the air, then come down in the shape of a brick cottage, complete with a "FOR RENT NO DOGS" sign in front of it). Woody loads all the food into a covered wagon and hitches it to Wally when he passes. Woody gorges himself as Wally blunders his way onto a set of railroad tracks and chugs toward the horizon, as the woodpecker gives out with his trademark laugh.

References
  1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 157–158. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  2. "Ambassador Ivan Awfulitch to Attend Barbecue at Home of Wally Walrus"; The Daily Gab, June 13, 1941; p. 1. Retrieved October 14, 2020
  3. The fact that the newspaper shown is over four years old seems to indicate the cartoon was in production before American entry into World War II.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.