Woodstock is a fictional character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.
History Snoopy began befriending birds in the
early 1960s, when they started using his doghouse for various purposes: a rest
stop during migrations, a nesting site, or a place to play cards. None of these
birds were ever given names, or even used speech balloons; they simply looked
at Snoopy and he understood them. What set Woodstock apart from all these
earlier birds was the fact that he attached himself to Snoopy and assumed
the role of Snoopy's sidekick and assistant. There had been no recurring
relationships between Snoopy and the earlier birds who visited the yard of
the Brown family, and Snoopy was as often as not more hostile than friendly
toward those birds. But, in the April 4, 1967, Peanuts daily comic strip, a
single bird flew in after a long flight while Snoopy was lying on top of his dog
house. He chose Snoopy's nose as a good place to rest, and Snoopy
uncharacteristically accepted this intrusion. Over the next two days,
Charles Schulz began to establish character traits for Snoopy's new friend
by revealing that he could talk, that, unlike normal birds, he didn't like to
fly south every winter, and that his flying skills were not quite up to
snuff. By the end of this four-strip sequence, Snoopy, in character as the
World War I Flying Ace, learns that the bird is his new mechanic — Woodstock's
first supporting role. After this introduction, the unnamed Woodstock is
seen with Snoopy on occasion, and other birds continue to appear as they had for
years. But Woodstock is singled out as the bird who befriended Snoopy, in part
by continuing references to him as the Flying Ace's mechanic. Finally, on June
14, 1968, fourteen months after his first landing on Snoopy and after a
second appearance as a supporting character for Snoopy, the most important
aspect of Woodstock's relationship with Snoopy is made clear—Snoopy first refers
to this bird as his buddy. That identification was more than enough for
readers to know, if they hadn't already figured it out, that this little bird,
name or no name, had assumed the role of a regular character in the Peanuts cast.
Schulz did not give him a name until June 22, 1970. Schulz acknowledged in
several print and TV interviews in the mid-1970s that he took Woodstock’s name
from the rock festival. Character
Woodstock is a bird who quickly became Snoopy’s best friend. The only non-avian
character who can understand Woodstock’s speech is Snoopy. When depicted in the
comic strip, his speech is rendered almost entirely in "chicken scratch"
marks, with Snoopy either directly translating or allowing the reader to
deduce Woodstock's meaning in the context of Snoopy's replies. Woodstock
does make nonverbal noises such as yawns, laughter, sighs and "Z"s or
snores to indicate sleep. He also uses punctuation marks like "!" or "??" to
indicate emotions. In the movies and television specials, the chicken
scratches are rendered audibly as a staccato series of high-pitched honks
and squawks by Snoopy's voice actor, Bill Melendez. Woodstock often works as
Snoopy's secretary, and caddies for him when he plays golf. Woodstock also plays
American football with Snoopy, usually attempting to catch the ball but, due to
his size, he is simply hit by it; sometimes getting embedded into the
ground a short distance. Woodstock also claims to have contact lenses.
Woodstock is a small but scrappy yellow bird. He resourcefully wins the river
rafting race in Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown after all other
contestants have been eliminated. He routinely takes Snoopy's gentle verbal
digs and practical jokes in stride, though he does not hesitate to stand up
to Snoopy if his friend goes too far. Once, he and Snoopy stopped speaking to
each other because of Snoopy's practice of reading War and Peace one word per
day. When told that Woodstock was being attacked by the cat next door, Snoopy
immediately rushed to his aid, getting clobbered in the process. He also hates
being mistaken for the wrong species of bird, and he is reluctant to eat thrown
bread crumbs because he doesn't want anyone to think he's on welfare, and
when asked about his net income by Snoopy in his 'census-taker' persona, he
replied "four worms a day". He's a whiz at playing "trivia" too, and almost
always manages to stump Snoopy. Woodstock is also a skilled whistler. In
the TV special, She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, when Peppermint Patty's
music for a skating competition fails to play due to a malfunction that cannot be
repaired expediently, Woodstock steps up to the microphone and whistles a
flawless O Mio Babbino Caro, to which Peppermint Patty performs her routine.
He also whistles his part in the song "Me And You" in the feature film Snoopy
Come Home. For all of Woodstock's acumen and
talent, he is physically a very poor flyer, which has been a character trait
since he first appeared. He flutters around in erratic fashion, often upside
down, and frequently crashes into things. He usually manages to get where
he wants to go as long as he doesn't have to fly too high. He is prone to
beak-bleeds if he goes over ten feet in the air. Despite his difficulty in
flying as a bird, he is skilled in piloting Snoopy as a canine helicopter,
or "whirlydog." When asked where he learned to pilot, Woodstock replied,
"Nam." This gag appeared in the strip several times, as well as in It's Your
First Kiss, Charlie Brown. During the winter he relaxes by either
skating or playing ice hockey on top of the birdbath, complete with his own
Zamboni machine to keep the surface clean. His one goal throughout the comic
is to track down his mother so he can send her a Mother's Day card.
In the TV special It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, Snoopy buys
Woodstock a birdhouse to replace his nest after a cold early spring rain. At
first Woodstock refused to use it, so Snoopy forced the issue. Checking up
later on Woodstock, Snoopy peers into the birdhouse to find Woodstock has
converted it into a 70s-style leisure room that appears much larger on the
inside than from outside. Unfortunately, Snoopy gets his nose stuck in the door
and demolishes the house, so he buys Woodstock a second birdhouse, which
Woodstock accepts. Woodstock and his fellow yellow birds
often join Snoopy for group activities, with Snoopy as the de facto leader. Most
frequently they embark on Beagle Scout expeditions with Snoopy as Scoutmaster -
or as a patrol of the French Foreign Legion on their march for Fort
Zinderneuf, led by Snoopy as their sergeant. They have also formed football
and ice hockey teams. The birds and Snoopy are also occasionally shown
playing bridge. Although all but Raymond look alike, Snoopy seems to be able to
tell them apart. Both Snoopy and Woodstock were voiced by
Bill Melendez from 1963 to 2008. Gender
Schulz originally considered the bird to be a female—but after the naming on June
22, 1970, it incidentally changed to be a male. As he explained in an interview
in 1987: "I had been reading the Life magazine
article about the Woodstock Festival and I had the little bird in the strip. It
was a she and she was Snoopy's secretary and I was doing secretary jokes quite
often so then I thought Woodstock would be a good name for this bird and also,
it will get the attention of these people that liked that kind of thing.
Suddenly she was not a secretary; she became Woodstock, the boy. It just
happened. But that's what's good about a comic strip—you can just do it."
In the Norwegian translation of Peanuts, the bird is named “Fredrikke”—a female
name—and is always referred to as female. Finnish translation uses the
name “Kaustinen“, without a specified gender and Spain translations uses the
name "Emilio"- a male name. Species
Snoopy has often wondered what type of yellow bird Woodstock is. At one point
Snoopy attempts to identify him with the aid of a field guide, asking Woodstock
to attempt to imitate various birds: crow, American bittern, Carolina wren,
rufous-sided towhee, yellow-billed cuckoo, Canada goose, warbler and
mourning warbler. Snoopy finally gives up trying to figure it out, and hurts
Woodstock's feelings by saying, "For all I know, you're a duck". Snoopy takes it
back with a quick hug, at which point it becomes clear that it does not matter
what type of bird Woodstock is; the only important fact is that he is Snoopy's
best friend. Schulz never definitively answered the
question of what type of bird Woodstock was supposed to be.
References Notes