Willie Whopper is ananimated cartoon character created by American animatorUb Iwerks. The Whopper series was the second from theIwerks Studio to be produced byPat Powers and distributed throughMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 14 shorts were produced in 1933 to 1934.^[1]

Willie is a young lad who tells of his many outlandish adventures, which are then depicted on-screen. His fantastic accounts are, in fact, outright lies or "whoppers". His stories are usually preceded by his catchphrase, "Say, did I ever tell ya this one?"

The character's first-produced film wasThe Air Race (1933), in which Willie tells of how he entered and won the 1933National Air Race—even receiving a kiss fromAmelia Earhart in the end. The short reflects Iwerks' own fascination withaviation. One scene even involves a plane crashing into a "Fireworks" stand which, afterwards is reduced in spelling to "I WERKS" (the animator Ub Iwerks' last name).

The Air Race was initially left unreleased because distributor MGM rejected it, asking for a revision to explain more about why Willie entered the race. In the largely reanimated revision —Spite Flight (1933) — the story shows Willie interested in the race's cash prize because it will help him pay off his girlfriend's mom's mortgage. The new footage also turns Willie's racing rival into the girlfriend's landlord.

AnimatorGrim Natwick initially designed Willie forThe Air Race and the subsequentPlay Ball, the character's first theatrical release. He was, at first, tall and lanky, much like a boy version of the earlierFlip the Frog. Iwerks wasn't completely satisfied with this design and decided to make the character more "cartoonlike". By the series' fourth entry,Stratos-Fear, Willie became roly-poly and more endearing to audiences. Critics too especially went for this new change. Before 1933 was over, Willie also appeared in his firstCinecolor endeavor,Davy Jones' Locker.

1934 was the final production year for the Whopper series, but some of Willie's best emerged from this particular year. One interesting 1934 entry isThe Good Scout, an outrageous short in which boy scout Willie manages to help a beautiful girl who has been kidnapped by a big brute in downtown New York City. The bulk of the film's soundtrack is composed of a jazzyJelly Roll Morton 78-rpm record and its backgrounds are breathtaking. The short also features aBosko look-alike, possibly a joke on the parts of Harman-Ising animators Bob Stokes and Norm Blackburn. The final entry in the series wasViva Willie released on September 20. Other Iwerks staffers on the series includedAl Eugster, Norm Blackburn,Berny Wolf andShamus Culhane (who referred to Willie as a "boyBaron von Münchhausen").

After MGM dropped Iwerks, they hiredHugh Harman andRudolf Ising to produce a cartoon series calledHappy Harmonies directly for the studio. Harman and Ising had just leftWarner Brothers, where they had been producingLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies forLeon Schlesinger.

¹ Filmed inCinecolor

¹ Filmed inCinecolor

• Leslie Iwerks and John Kenworthy,The Hand Behind the Mouse (Disney Editions, 2001) and documentary of the same name (DVD, 1999)
• Leonard Maltin,Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (Penguin Books, 1987)
• Jeff Lenburg,The Great Cartoon Directors (Da Capo Press, 1993)

• The Golden Age of American animation

• Willie Whopper atDon Markstein's Toonopedia.Archived from the original on September 13, 2015.
• The Air Race, a Willie Whopper cartoon

• Ub Iwerks Studio series and characters
• MGM cartoon characters
• Film characters introduced in 1933
• Film series introduced in 1933
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated films
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films
• Characters created by Ub Iwerks
• Animated characters introduced in 1933

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from March 2025