Chilly Willy is a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

, a diminutive

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

. He was created by director

Paul Smith Paul Smith or Paul Smith's may refer to: Music * Paul Smith (composer) (1906–1985), American film music composer * Paul Smith (pianist) (1922–2013), Los Angeles jazz pianist * Paul Smith (rock vocalist) (born 1979), vocalist and songwriter of ...

for the Walter Lantz studio in 1953, and developed further by Tex Avery in the two subsequent films following Smith's debut entry. The character soon became the second most popular Lantz/ Universal character, behind Woody Woodpecker. Fifty Chilly Willy cartoons were produced between 1953 and 1972.

Inspiration and Conception

Chilly Willy was inspired by mystery writer

Stuart Palmer Stuart Palmer (June 21, 1905 – February 4, 1968) was a mystery novel writer and screenwriter best known for his character Hildegarde Withers. He also wrote under the names Theodore Orchards

, according to Scott MacGillivray's book '' Castle Films: A Hobbyist's Guide''. Palmer used the Lantz studio as a background for his novel ''Cold Poison'', in which the cartoon star was a penguin character, and Lantz adopted the penguin idea for the screen. The character Pablo the Penguin from the 1945 Disney film '' The Three Caballeros'' was the inspiration for Chilly Willy. Paul J. Smith initially based Chilly's design on a separate penguin character from Lantz' 1945 cartoon ''Sliphorn King of Polaroo'', but would later be redesigned by Tex Avery in his second appearance, '' I'm Cold'' in 1954.

Attributes and common themes

Chilly Willy appeared in 50 theatrical

short subjects A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

produced by Lantz from 1953 to 1972, most of which involve his attempts to stay warm, and often meeting opposition from a dog named Smedley (voiced by Daws Butler in his " Huckleberry Hound" voice). Smedley has a large mouth and sharp-pointed teeth (which he shows off when yawning), but is never shown viciously trying to bite Chilly or anyone else with them. There were times, however, when Chilly and Smedley got along, as they did in ''Vicious Viking'' and ''Fractured Friendship''. However, Chilly never referred to Smedley by name. Most times that Chilly was in opposition with Smedley, it wound up with the two of them being friends at the end. Chilly was more of a nuisance to Smedley than an enemy, often showing up where Smedley is working, usually for some mean employer. Many times, the notion of a plot was extremely weak, appearing to be a random collection of loosely related gags as opposed to a coherent story. Two of Chilly's friends in the later cartoons were Maxie the

Polar Bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

(voiced by Daws Butler) and Gooney the "Gooney Bird"

Albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...

(voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Joe E. Brown). Maxie has appeared with Chilly more than Gooney has. There have been only two cartoons in which all three characters have appeared together: ''Gooney's Goofy Landings'' (where Chilly and Maxie try to perfect Gooney's landings) and ''Airlift a la Carte'' (where Chilly, Maxie, and Gooney go to the store owned by Smedley). In some episodes, Chilly Willy also deals with a

hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

named Colonel Pot Shot (voiced by Daws Butler) whom Smedley has been shown to work for in some episodes. Pot Shot would give orders in a calm controlled voice, and then would explode in rage when he told Smedley what would happen should he fail in his objective. Also, two episodes had Chilly Willy outsmarting Wally Walrus when Chilly Willy comes across his fishing projects. Paul Smith directed the first Chilly Willy cartoon, simply titled ''Chilly Willy'', in 1953. The initial version of Chilly Willy resembled Woody Woodpecker, except with flippers and black feathers, but he was redesigned in to his more familiar form in subsequent cartoons. Tex Avery revived the character for two of his shorts, '' I'm Cold'' (1954) and the Academy Award nominated '' The Legend of Rockabye Point'' (1955). After Avery left the studio,

Alex Lovy Alexander Lovy (September 2, 1913 – February 14, 1992) was an American animator. He spent the majority of his career as an animator and director at Walter Lantz Productions. He was later a producer at Hanna-Barbera, and also supervised the cart ...

assumed as director, starting by directing ''

Hot and Cold Penguin ''Hot and Cold Penguin'' is a 1955 Chilly Willy cartoon directed by Alex Lovy and produced by Walter Lantz. It was the third '' Chilly Willy'' entry in the series and was the first Alex Lovy directed at the Walter Lantz Studio since his depart ...

''. Chilly was mute in most of his 1950s cartoons and early 1960s cartoons, although he was voiced by Sara Berner in the initial entry. The next time he spoke was in ''Half-Baked Alaska'' in 1965, with Daws Butler providing Chilly's voice until the end of the series in a style similar to his

Elroy Jetson The following is a list of major characters in ''The Jetsons'', an American animated comic science fiction sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and first broadcast in prime-time on ABC as part of the 1962–63 United States network telev ...

characterization. The character always speaks in the comic book stories based on the character. Also in the comic book stories, Chilly had two nephews named Ping and Pong, similar to how Woody Woodpecker is uncle to Twins Knothead and Splinter. When the Lantz cartoons were packaged for television in 1957 as '' The Woody Woodpecker Show'', Chilly Willy was a featured attraction on the show, and has remained such in all later versions of the ''Woody Woodpecker Show'' package.

Other appearances

In the 1988 film '' Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', Chilly Willy is mentioned by Eddie's acquaintance Angelo. Chilly Willy is featured in '' The New Woody Woodpecker Show'' where he has no dialogue. Like the shorts, Chilly has gone up against Smedley. Later episodes introduce Sgt. Hogwash (voiced by

Blake Clark Blake Clark (born February 2, 1946) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known as Chet Hunter on ''Boy Meets World'' and Harry "The Hardware Store Guy" on ''Home Improvement''. Clark has voiced Slinky Dog in the ''Toy Story'' f ...

) and Major Bull (voiced by

Kevin Michael Richardson Kevin Michael Richardson (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, he has mostly voiced villainous characters in animation and video games. In film, Richardson voiced Goro in ''Mortal Kombat'' (1995) ...

) who operate in an Antarctic military base that Chilly tends to trespass in. Chilly Willy is a supporting character in the 2018 '' Woody Woodpecker'' webseries voiced by Brad Norman and Dee Bradley Baker.Universal Is Producing New Woody Woodpecker Shorts For Youtube, Cartoon Brew
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Shorts

References

External links