Editing Walter Lantz Productions (section)

== Legacy ==
Unlike other American major animation studios, the Lantz studio never continued full-time during the classic period of American animation, closing down in 1949 and reopening its doors the following year. It was finally shut down permanently in 1972, after the end of the [[Golden Age of American animation]]. Since then, the studio's characters have continued to be used in [[television syndication|syndicated]] television series, and in licensed merchandise. Lantz re-issued six of the 1931–32 Disney ''Oswald'' cartoons, including ''[[Trolley Troubles]]'', ''[[Great Guns!]]'' and ''[[The Ocean Hop]]''.

Throughout the studio's history, it maintained a reputation as an animation house of medium quality. Lantz's animated shorts (dubbed "Cartunes") were considered superior to [[Terrytoons]], [[Screen Gems]] and [[Famous Studios]], but they never gained the artistic acclaim of [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]], [[Warner Bros. Cartoons]], [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|MGM Cartoons]], [[Fleischer Studios]] or [[UPA (animation studio)|UPA]]. However, the studio benefited from gaining talent from the other studios who were tired of the management there and usually found the Lantz studio a more enjoyable working environment. [[Tex Avery]] was just one of the many talents Walter Lantz Productions benefited from on the rebound.

In February 2006, [[NBCUniversal]] (who still owns the Lantz library) sold the trademark rights to [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]] along with the copyright to the original 26 cartoons produced by [[Walt Disney]] to [[The Walt Disney Company]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/walt-disneys-1927-animated-star-oswald-the-lucky-rabbit-returns-to-disney/|title=Walt Disney's 1927 Animated Star Oswald The Lucky Rabbit Returns To Disney|date=February 9, 2006|website=The Walt Disney Company}}</ref> The sale was part of a deal that centered around both the rights to Oswald and [[NBC]]'s acquisition of the rights to [[NBC Sunday Night Football|the NFL's weekly Sunday night game]]; in exchange for NBCUniversal selling the rights to Oswald to Disney, [[Al Michaels]] was freed from his contractual obligations with [[ESPN]] and ABC so he could join NBC and become the ''Sunday Night Football'' play-by-play man.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.espn.co.uk/nfl/story/_/id/12750497/how-espn-traded-al-michaels-oswald-rabbit|title=An excerpt from former ESPN president George Bodenheimer's book|date=February 19, 2015|website=ESPN.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/sports/football/michaels-traded-says-thththats-all-espn.html|title=Michaels, Traded, Says, Th-Th-That's All, ESPN|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 10, 2006}}</ref>

In July 2007, [[Universal Pictures Home Entertainment|Universal Pictures]] released ''[[The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection]]'', a three-disc [[DVD]] box-set compilation of Lantz Cartunes. A [[The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2|second volume]] was released in April 2008, followed by a vanilla release in 2009, ''Woody Woodpecker Favorites'', which contained no new-to-DVD material. Animation historian [[Jerry Beck]], partly involved in the production of the DVD releases, has stated that plans for further volumes are currently on hold.

In 2008, [[Illumination (company)|Illumination]], an animation production company founded by [[Chris Meledandri]], made a deal with Universal Pictures which positioned Illumination as NBCUniversal's family entertainment arm that would produce one to two films per year starting in 2010. Like Walter Lantz Productions, Illumination retains creative control, and Universal exclusively distributes the films.

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]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cordcuttersnews.com/the-classic-1934-woody-woodpecker-is-coming-to-ota-metv-next-month/ | title=The Classic 1934 'Woody Woodpecker' is Coming to OTA MeTV Next Month | date=August 28, 2023}}</ref> The Lantz cartoons are also shown daily on the [[MeTV Toons]] channel.<ref>https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/here-comes-metv-toons/</ref>