Woody Woodpecker in DESTINATION MOON (1950)

A new Woody Woodpecker short was created for, and appears in, the 1950 movie Destination Moon.

Destination Moon

Destination Moon is a 1950 American science fiction feature film produced by George Pal, who later produced When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine. Pal commissioned the script by James O'Hanlon and Rip Van Ronkel. The film was directed by Irving Pichel, was shot in Technicolor and was distributed in the USA by Eagle-Lion Classics. It was the first major science-fiction film produced in the United States dealing seriously with the prospect, problems and technology of space travel. This movie was not the first such to hit the screens, however; Rocketship X-M stole its thunder. The eminent science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein contributed significantly to the script and served as a technical adviser. Heinlein also published a novella of the same name based on the screenplay about the same time as the release of the film.

Notes

• This film is currently owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under United Artists.
• Walter Lantz is an uncredited producer on Destination Moon, because of the Woody Woodpecker short.
• The Woody Woodpecker cartoon used in the movie was updated and then used by NASA to explain space travel to the public.
• This marked the first time that Grace Stafford (cartoon producer Walter Lantz's wife) did the voice of Woody Woodpecker. However, Stage Hoax was the first occasion where Grace Stafford provides dialogue for Woody Woodpecker.
• George Pal and Walter Lantz were friends so Woody Woodpecker appears, in one form or another, in many George Pal films.
• Mel Blanc's version of Woody's laugh is heard during the segment.

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