Walter Lantz, who was Laemmle's part-time chauffeur and a veteran of the John R. Bray Studios with considerable experience in all elements of animation production, was selected to run the department.

By the mid-1920s, Lantz was directing (and acting in) the studio's top cartoon, Dinky Doodle, also becoming a producer as Bray attempted to compete with Hal Roach and Mack Sennett by making live-action comedies.

Bray Productions closed shop in 1928, and Lantz moved to Hollywood, trying to start a studio while trying to make a living in a succession of odd jobs, including driving Universal owner Carl Laemmle's limousine.

In early 1929, Universal was distributing the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons by Charles Mintz and George Winkler (but created by Walt Disney).

The first animators for the studio included Winkler veterans Rollin Hamilton, Tom Palmer and "rubber-hose" pioneer Bill Nolan.

The earliest Lantz cartoons from 1928 were built around set plots and stories, in the tradition of the earlier Disney and Winkler Productions shorts.

Lantz and Nolan worked in a character called "Fanny the Mule" for a 13-cartoon series announced by Laemmle in early 1930; these cartoons were never produced.

In 1931, Lantz faced economic difficulties and was forced to make cutbacks, shortening the lengths of his films and post-synchronizing a handful of the early Disney Oswald's cartoons.

Universal once again was facing severe financial difficulties and possible bankruptcy and decided to cut their weekly advance to the now-independent Lantz studio.

Woody quickly became extremely popular, being given his own series in early 1941, and became one of the most famous examples of the "brash bird" cartoon characters of the late 1930s/early 1940s such as Donald Duck (also created by Disney).

The success of Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat and Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy (the former becoming subject to controversy and even protest soon after its release over racial stereotypes and the latter earning an Academy Award)[2] also led to the introduction of the Swing Symphony series that fall, often featuring popular musicians of the time.

After the studio's 1930s cartoons were scored by a succession of composers, including James Dietrich, Victor Records producer Nat Shilkret and Harman-Ising veterans Frank Marsales and Darrell Calker took over in late 1940.

[4] Culhane quickly developed a distinct direction and art style characterized for its use of Russian avant-garde influences, minimalistic backgrounds and fast cutting.

Under the deal with United Artists, Lantz was supposed to receive percentages of box-office receipts to pay for the production costs of his cartoons.

At the recommendation of BAC president Joe Rosenberg, Lantz decided to shut down his studio temporarily at the end of 1949 until the loan was reduced.

However, the postwar economic situation of these countries as well as the presence of stronger unions than in Hollywood led him to back out and keep making films in America.

Two of these new films — Puny Express and Sleep Happy — were previously storyboarded by Ben Hardaway and Heck Allen during the United Artists period.

Some of the men he was able to hire include writer Michael Maltese, animators Herman Cohen, Gil Turner and Robert Bentley, and Avery himself, who replaced Patterson from his role of director.

Walter Lantz and his distributor, Universal-International Pictures, knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television.

Norman Gluck, from U-I's short-subjects department, made a deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television.

His shorts were regarded for having a level of sophistication comparable to Dick Lundy, and created characters such as Fatso the Bear and The Beary Family before he left too in 1962.

By 1969, other film studios had discontinued their animation departments, leaving Walter Lantz as one of the only two producers still making cartoons for theaters.

Lantz finally closed up the studio in 1972; he later explained that by then, it was economically impossible to continue producing them and stay in business, as rising inflation had strained his profits, and Universal serviced the remaining demand with reissues of his older cartoons.

Upon discovering that it would take a decade for his shorts to show a profit, Lantz himself decided to shut down company operations, and threw a farewell luncheon with his staff at the announcement on March 10 the same year, with him handing Woody watches to them.

[17][18] In July 2007, Universal Pictures released The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection, a three-disc DVD box-set compilation of Lantz Cartunes.

Animation historian Jerry Beck, partly involved in the production of the DVD releases, has stated that plans for further volumes are currently on hold.

Free-to-air linear channel MeTV officially brought back the Walter Lantz cartoons output on American television starting from 2 September 2023, airing every Saturday as part of the Saturday Morning Cartoons 3-hour block (one hour of which, dedicated to Lantz, being The Woody Woodpecker Show) plus on weekdays as part of Toon In with Me.