The New Woody Woodpecker Movie (2025)

The New Woody Woodpecker Movie (titled The Woody Woodpecker Movie internationally and on-screen) is a 2023 American computer-animated comedy film based on the cartoon character of the same name created by Walter Lantz and Ben Hardaway, produced by Universal Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the third theatrical film to feature the character following Woody Woodpecker (2017) and Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp (2021), as well as the first to be fully animated. The film is directed by Michael Wildshill, and produced by Chris Meledandri and Daniel Ross from a screenplay by Wildshill and Laurie Craig based on a story by Wildshill. It stars the voice of Eric Bauza Eric Bauza as the titular character, with John Mulaney, Hugh Grant, Will Arnett, Martin Short, Gina Rodriguez, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Danny McBride and Nick Kroll.

Plans for a new Woody Woodpecker theatrical film began in May 2018, when Universal announced that they would reboot the Woody Woodpecker film series with a fully animated film. Wildshill began working on the film following his work on Universal’s Esqua (2020), planning it to be "very faithful to the classic 1940's cartoons" and expressing hope it would be better than the 2017 live-action hybrid film. The title and voice cast of the film were announced in April 2022.

The New Woody Woodpecker Movie premiered at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France on June 12, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30 by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, most of whom deemed it as a major improvement over the previous live-action/animated hybrid films, and has grossed $341 million worldwide.

Plot[]

In a forest in the Rocky Mountains, Woody Woodpecker is a mischievous and territorial pileated woodpecker who frequently runs into Wally Walrus, who also resides in the forest and feels irritated by Woody’s presence. Meanwhile, billionaire and real estate developer Craig Waltz intends to turn the forest into luxurious villas and finds Woody to be a menace to his plans. Craig orders and entrusts his most loyal guards, [Buzz Buzzard and Dapper Dooley to capture him.

One night, Buzz and Dapper sneak into the cabin of park ranger Ms. Meany and covers her with honey, framing Woody for their actions. The next morning, Ms. Meany angrily breaks into Woody’s treehouse and berates him. Confused at the sudden outburst, Woody learns of Craig’s plans after overhearing them and claiming it to be an effortless task, decides to repel against Craig himself. Posing as bodyguards for a team of environmental surveyors, Buzz and Dapper scout the area in hopes of finding Woody. However, having secretly observed their movements, Woody outsmarts the two and manages to evade them, but his cover is blown when the surveyors find out about his identity and report him to Craig.

Enraged at Buzz and Dapper’s incompetence, Craig hires animal control officer Inspector Willoughby to capture Woody, who agrees to do so as revenge and sets out to hunt him with his partner Gabby Gator in tow. Realising that he cannot put a stop to Craig’s plans on his own, Woody convinces Wally to put aside their differences and accompany him. While thinking of a plan and wandering about the forest, Woody and Wally encounters the Southern-accented musician Andy Panda, who is on a tour with his stand-up comedian partner Chilly Willy and setting up camp there. Andy agrees to help them under the condition that they headline his line dance concert as a fundraising effort, which the two accept.

At the line dance concert, Woody initially feels hesitant about his performance, but manages to engage the audience, bonding with Wally in the process. While performing, Woody also meets a female counterpart of him, Winnie Woodpecker, and briefly falls in love and hallucinates about her. Woody’s performance turns out to be a success, inadvertently ending up on television and catching the attention of Craig’s followers, including Buzz and Dapper who begin to doubt their boss’ actions. However, just as Woody and Wally celebrate, Willoughby and Gabby manage to intercept them and wreak havoc on the concert, capturing Woody and separating him from Wally. The damage caused by incident ensues a chaotic situation among the performers but Wally, having finally understood and sympathised with Woody, convinces and rallies them to band together and rescue Woody and the whole forest.

Back at the forest, Craig hosts a groundbreaking ceremony with his followers in attendance, where he plans to cut down Woody’s treehouse, which Woody willingly concedes. Much to Woody’s surprise, Andy, Winnie and Chilly arrive to help Woody, while Buzz and Dapper, having had enough of Craig’s selfishness and manipulation, redeem themselves and turn against him. With Woody’s energy and confidence now restored, he easily overwhelms Craig and delivers the final blow by using a log, nearly knocking him unconscious and driving him away.

With a defeated Craig fleeing the forest for good, Woody and his newly accepted friends claim victory and rebuild his treehouse together. Afterwards, Woody settles in to his new house with Winnie, who he starts a relationship with, alongside Splinter and Knothead, revealed to be his biological niece and nephew.

Voice cast[]

• Eric Bauza as [Woody Woodpeckerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker], a mischievous pileated woodpecker who lives a reclusive life in a Rocky Mountains forest.
• John Mulaney as Wally Walrus Wally Walrus, a short-tempered Swedish walrus who lives in the same Rocky Mountains forest as Woody.
• Hugh Grant as Craig Waltz, a ruthless British-accented business magnate who views Woody as a menace to his real estate schemes. His surname is both a reference to the waltz and a contraction of the name of Woody Woodpecker’s creator Walter Lantz.
• Will Arnett as Buzz Buzzard, a vulture who is one of Craig’s henchmen.
• Martin Short as Dapper Dooley, one of Craig’s henchmen.
• Gina Rodriguez Gina Rodriguez as Winnie Woodpecker, Woody’s love interest.
• David Cross as {{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Panda Andy Panda}}, a famed Southern panda musician who befriends Woody.
• Dee Bradley Baker as Chilly Willy Chilly Willy, a penguin who is a stand up comedian and part of Andy’s performing troupe.
• Danny McBride as Inspector Willoughby, an animal control inspector.
• Nick Kroll as Gabby Gator, Inspector Willoughby’s partner and sidekick.

Additionally, Sarah Silverman, who previously voiced Vinna Binz in the Computeropolis franchise, voices Knothead and Splinter, Woody’s nephew and niece respectively. Billy Eichner voices Fatso the Bear and Laraine Newman voices Ms. Meany, a park ranger who despises Woody.

Production[]

Development[]

On May 22, 2018, it was reported that Universal Pictures was developing a fully Woody Woodpecker animated reboot film. On November 23, 2019, Universal confirmed that they were working on a Woody Woodpecker film with Universal Animation CEO Michael Wildshill directing and writing. Wildshill began writing early drafts of the script around February 2020, and said that the Woody Woodpecker film would be his next film after Esqua. Wildshill also said that he planned for the film to be "very faithful to the classic 1940s cartoons" and had high hopes that the film would be better than the live-action hybrid film.

On August 19, 2020, Paradoria writer Laurie Craig was announced as the co-writer of the film while Daniel Ross was set to produce. Wildshill later stated that the film was one of the "priorities" for Universal Animation and that it would most likely come out in 2023. At [1] in April 2022, Universal Animation announced the film’s official title as The New Woody Woodpecker Movie.

Wildshill cited the incorporation of elements and characters from the original [2] shorts as a major challenge for developing the plot of the film. While he attempted to include a majority of the characters with purpose, Wildshill did not want the film to be “too crowded”. Wildshill also intended to retain Woody’s eccentricity and unpredictability by having him pull off a variety of antics throughout the story, calling it a “hallmark” of the cartoons and establishing his character in the film. Furthermore, Wildshill refrained from using popular culture jokes to make the story to feel authentically engaging, carrying on from his earlier works such as Esqua.

Casting[]

In August 2020, it was reported that Eric Bauza would reprise his role as the title character from the 2017 film and the web series. Universal announced at CinemaCon in April 2022 that Bauza would indeed reprise his role, with Will Arnett, John Mulaney, Gina Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Martin Short, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Danny McBride and Nick Kroll joining the voice cast, while Dee Bradley Baker would reprise his role as Chilly Willy from the web series and Billy Eichner and Laraine Newman were cast in undisclosed roles.

Animation and design[]

Much like Universal's previous films [DCL: Desktop Component League] (2021) and Mechagirl (2022), the animation style for the film was based off a stylised 3D/CGI VFX modeling medium through a vintage 2D finish using the studio's in-house Furrow rigging tool, and custom tools such as lighting and rendering, resulting in the film's 3D/CGI animation maintaining the look of traditional 2D animation, in the vein of the original classic shorts in the 1940s and 1950s, to pay even greater homage to what the cartoons have always been. The animation team at Universal also used early Woody Woodpecker cartoons as reference and inspiration for the animation sequences, such as the line dance scene, which was partially inspired by the 1954 cartoon Real Gone Woody.

Music[]

Following the release of the first trailer in December 2022, it was announced that Christopher Lennertz signed on to compose the film's score. On April 4, 2023, with the release of the official trailer, it was revealed that a remix of “The Woody Woodpecker Song”, performed by Jon Batiste, was being written for the film. The original soundtrack album was released on June 23, 2023, by [3].

Marketing[]

Following the announcement of the new title, cast, and release date in April 2022, Wildshill showed the first 15 minutes of the film (albeit with unfinished animation) at Universal's CinemaCon panel. A short film that serves as the prologue and promoted the feature film, titled The Early Bird, premiered at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 13, 2022 and was released in front of theatrical screenings of Jupiter’s {{https://funvasion.miraheze.org/wiki/Sean_Santos:_Most_Wanted Sean Santos: Most Wanted}} on September 23, 2022, and was also attached to Latin American screenings of DreamWorks Animation’s [4] that December.

The first official trailer for the film was released on December 21, 2022, and was shown during "[5]. Writing for [6], Ryan Gajewski felt that the quirky and fast-paced tone of the trailer contrasted with the deadpan humor used in marketing for {{https://funvasion.miraheze.org/wiki/Sean_Santos:_Most_Wanted Sean Santos: Most Wanted}}, and called it "evocative of the familiar antics of Golden Age characters". The second and final trailer was released on May 9, 2023, attaching to theatrical screenings of [7] three days later on May 12.

In April 2023, it was announced that Woody Woodpecker would be revived as a character meet-and-greet since the character’s retirement during the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Winnie Woodpecker, albeit for a limited run from June at [8] theme parks, as a promotional tie-in for the film.

Release[]

The New Woody Woodpecker Movie held its world premiere at Annecy in France on June 12, 2023. The film was theatrically released by Universal Pictures in Brazil the following week on June 23, and in the United States on June 30. It was previously scheduled to be released on July 28, 2023, but was shifted to June 30, 2023 with Dreamworks Animation’s [9] taking over its original July 28th slot. Special screenings of the film took place at select theaters on July 19, 2023, coinciding with Woody Woodpecker’s 83rd birthday, where it was accompanied by the Illumination short film Minion Burger and a featurette commemorating Universal Animation’s 30th animated feature.

Home media and streaming[]

The New Woody Woodpecker Movie was released on digital download on August 8, 204, and on 4K Ultra Blu-ray, Blu—ray and DVD on August 29 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. It includes two short films, The Early Bird and Gator Gate. As part of Universal's 18-month deal with [10], the film streamed on [11] on September 29, 2023 for the first four months of the pay-TV window, before moving to Netflix for the next ten in January 2024, and returning to Peacock for the remaining four in October 2024.

Reception[]

Box office[]

As of October 6, 2023, The New Woody Woodpecker Movie has grossed $152 million in the United States and Canada and $189 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $341 million.

In the United States and Canada, The New Woody Woodpecker Movie was projected to gross around $35-45 million from 4,076 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $10.9 million on its first day, including $2 million from Thursday night previews, lowering projections to $30-35 million. It went on to debut to $29.7 million, topping the box office but falling below projections and marking Universal Animation’s lowest-grossing opening weekend since Magina in 2003. [12] attributed the disappointing opening gross to competition with [13] (which was also distributed by Universal) and other films slated for release during the summer season, as well as a lack of consumer interest. In its second weekend, the film made $24.8 million (a mere 16.5% drop from its debut weekend), finishing second behind [Upside Mystrey Legacy] and beating [14]. The film grossed $12.7 million in its third weekend as audience interest waned with the release of new blockbusters for the summer season, dropping by 49% and falling into fourth place.

The film opened in Brazil two weeks prior to its U.S. debut at $2.8 million, surpassing the 2017 film ($1.5 million) and finishing third in the box office. It was also released in several international markets across Latin America that same weekend, for a total worldwide opening of $23 million.

Critical response[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 87% based on 148 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “The New Woody Woodpecker Movie may be overstuffed with characters, but it at least serves as a respectful and zany homage to the Golden Age cartoons and should please longtime fans.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews, while audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A“ on an A+ to F scale.

Transcripts[]

Main[]

To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers[]

To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.