Thought of another example of a child character being voiced by a child actor; Daveigh Chase did the voice of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch when she was twelve. Chase also did the English dub for Chihiro/Sen in Spirited Away when she was eleven.
The funny thing is that Mintz uses his natural voice for the role.
Rankin & Bass’ Rudolph was voiced by a woman.
If that’s so, it’s very strange, since Woody’s laugh is based on the call of the Acorn Woodpecker.
Tara Strong had done the voice of Timmy Turner, Ben Tennyson and Rocket J Squirrel in the recent remake.
Interesting trivia note; Foray was on Nixon’s enemies list.
My understanding is that the character of Woody Woodpecker was based on the acorn woodpecker, but the laugh was not related to any call of the bird. In Elmer’s Candid Camera you can hear Happy Rabbit’s laugh (at 2:45 in this video), which to me does sound a lot like Woody’s laugh.
I can personally attest to having heard Acorn Woodpeckers give calls quite similar to that of Woody Woodpecker. Here’s an example.
With all due respect to your birding knowledge, Colibri
Yes, I know. The article also says:
The article itself says that Woody’s laugh is based on the call of a woodpecker, so it’s strange if it was first used for a rabbit. As the article states, Lantz originally saw an Acorn Woodpecker (which sometimes bores holes in roofs to store acorns), and I seem to recall seeing an interview with him in which he said the call he heard at that time inspired Woody’s laugh. I believe the article is wrong in stating the call is based on that of a Pileated Woodpecker, since to my ear Acorn’s is much closer. Woody’s red head and crest are those of a Pileated, but the Pileated’s body is black rather than blue and white. I think that fact has caused the confusion over which species call the laugh is based on.
I noticed the similarity of the proto-Bugs laugh to Woody’s the first time I heard it (probably 35-40 years ago). I also saw a video of Grace Stafford doing the Woody laugh; it was weird seeing it come from a grandmotherly woman. The same video had the story of Ms. Stafford sneaking her audition in with the others.
The article also says
Blanc also stated in his autobiography That’s Not All, Folks that he started doing funny voices while in high school and came up with the laugh long before he became a professional voice-over artist.
Of course it’s artistic license. Real Roadrunners aren’t purple and go beep-beep, so there’s no reason Woody needs to depict a real species. But given that Lantz himself said Woody was based on an Acorn Woodpecker, and remarked on its loud call, it’s a pretty bizarre coincidence that Blanc’s laugh that he developed years early is so similar to that species.
NPR article
But see this:
Brian
So this is an interesting puzzle. Lantz says he based Woody on a real acorn woodpecker that he observed. But did he just use the appearance of the bird as the basis of Woody’s appearance, or did he also base Woody’s laugh on the bird’s call? Woody’s laugh does somewhat resemble the acorn’s call that Colibri linked to. But his laugh even more strongly resembles the laugh of Happy Rabbit, who predates Woody. Another question is, did Mel Blanc ever hear an acorn woodpecker’s call? In those days I don’t think it would have been easy to obtain a recording of the call. Perhaps Lantz simply told Blanc to use the Happy Rabbit laugh for Woody because it resembled the call that he had heard.
Or, just as likely, since Ben “Bugs” Hardaway created Happy Rabbit and developed Woody’s character under Lantz, he told Blanc, “Hey, why not use your Happy Rabbit laugh for Woody?”
As I said, Woody looks somewhat like a Pileated Woodpecker, and not at all like an Acorn Woodpecker. Lantz specifically mentions having heard the woodpecker’s call. So it’s an interesting hypothesis that Lantz might have recognized that Happy Rabbit’s laugh sounded like the woodpecker’s call, and suggested that Blanc use it for Woody too.
Or more likely, as I suggested, Ben Hardaway and Mel Blanc worked together on both cartoons and Hardaway suggested that Blanc use the same laugh he used for Happy Rabbit. No coincidence there.
I don’t understand why you say that wouldn’t be a coincidence. Hardaway wouldn’t have known the woodpecker’s call, so if he told Blanc to use it that would be a coincidence. If Lantz told him, knowing the woodpecker’s call, that wouldn’t be a coincidence.
How about this: Blanc, over the course of his life, came up with a large number of humorous vocal noises. When he heard a real woodpecker and decided to make a woodpecker character, he adapted one of the humorous vocal noises he had that was similar to it.