Heh heh heh ha ha!! The mischievous, maniacal laugh of Woody Woodpecker may be coming to a theater near you, courtesy of Universal and Illumination Entertainment, the studios behind Despicable Me and Hop. So you already have a pretty good idea how this will look, which is pretty friggin' awesome. But what the heck kind of story can you make about a talking woodpecker who delights in causing trouble for his adversaries? Well it doesn't seem to be a problem for Bugs Bunny, does it?
It'll be up to writers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky (Blades of Glory)to figure that out. Woody Woodpecker debuted way back in 1940 as the antagonist for a pair of pandas, but quickly became a hit of his own, earning a television series which has run in various forms for more than fifty years. But by comparison to other classic cartoon characters, Woody has been under the radar for the most part, perhaps because of his relatively weak supporting cast. His archenemy, Ben (or Buzz) Buzzard will have to play a role. Maybe Woody's love interest, Winnie Woodpecker will show up. Otherwise the only popular character to emerge from the cartoon would be Chilly Willy, the pancake eating penguin.
The plan is to update and modernize Woody for a new generation, which implies to me that a bunch of new characters will be introduced to support a possible franchise. Universal's been holding on to the rights since 1985, so if they've decided now is the time to use him, they must have pretty big plans. [THR]
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