Walter Lantz Productions

Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio that made theatrical cartoon shorts and was the principal supplier of animation to Universal Pictures. It operated from 1928 to 1949 and again from 1950 to 1972. The studio began as Universal Cartoon Studios, set up on the initiative of Universal head Carl Laemmle, who wanted to stop contracting cartoons out to outside studios. Animator Bill Nolan and Walter Lantz, a veteran of the John R. Bray Studios, were chosen to run the department. In 1935 Lantz bought out the studio and gained the copyrights to his characters. Distribution stayed with Universal until 1947, passed to United Artists until a first closure in 1949, and returned to Universal from 1950 until the second and official closure in 1972. Its best known characters were Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, alongside the music-driven Swing Symphony cartoons.