Woody Woodpecker's Secret

Whether I liked him or not, I remember Woody Woodpecker as a staple in my Saturday morning cartoon lineup. But what I didn't realize is that I was getting a lesson in Modern Art.

Loyola Marymount University's Animation professor, Tom Klein made this discovery 16 years ago while staring at the episode, "The Loose Nut". Watching Woody crash a steam roller through a door, the images of this explosion flashing before his eyes, left an impression. This cartoon was much more artistic than any other. Klein documents this knowledge in Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He shares that animation director, Shamus Culhane is responsible for inserting his own paintings into the cartoon sequence, creating the abstract configurations. Klein writes, “Culhane essentially ‘hid' his artful excursions in plain sight, letting them rush past too rapidly for the notice of most of his audience.” 

Inserting hidden messages, images, art, etc has been common in the animation world for years. A favorite among artists has been to insert real life caricatures into animations. What is one of your favorite subliminal message in a film or series? Keep it clean. :)