Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp is the latest addition to the Woody Woodpecker cartoon franchise series, with the new film combining live-action and animation techniques. The plot has the titular protagonist, Woody the Woodpecker, having to step out of his forest home in order to learn the valuable lesson of being part of a team. He finds temporary shelter at a children’s camp and soon makes friends with the various kids, even getting involved in their current problems. While Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp is strictly a children’s film, it still lacks the charm that is necessary for such presentations and is best avoided by adults, no matter how big a fan you are of the cartoons.
Spoiler Alert
What is the film about?
Although the new Woody Woodpecker film technically serves as the sequel to the first live-action/animated film made in 2017, it is not really related to the plot. Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp begins with the anthropomorphic bird, Woody, about to enjoy a hot pizza delivered fresh to his home on a tree in the woods. However, the food goes to waste as he is startled by a loud noise and disturbance coming from somewhere nearby, and as he checks on the matter, he sees a group of humans. A social media celebrity named Kyler has come to the forest with his entire group of producers and followers to shoot some content, and is naturally creating a lot of ruckus, disturbing everyone at the place. Woody immediately decides to teach the irresponsible humans a lesson, and he single-handedly rips apart the influencer’s camp, both with his impressive wood-chipping skills and his sharp intelligence. Although the humans are forced to leave the forest, the park ranger, Walters, is not impressed by the bird’s stunts at all.
Ranger Walters informs Woody that every other animal residing in the forest is tired of the woodpecker’s antics, which often lead to a great deal of destruction at their home. While everyone wants to get rid of disturbing elements like the celebrity, they have a proper procedure for working together and deciding upon things. Woody, on the other hand, never consults anyone else and acts alone. Therefore, the forest animals have all voted Woody out of the jungle, and Walters spells out the meaning of this decision—Woody the Woodpecker has to leave his home and cannot return to the place until he has learned the valuable lesson of teamwork. Disgruntled and frustrated that he has to leave his own home, Woody leaves the area, only to find himself in front of a children’s camp, named Camp Woo Hoo, with a note that mentions its specialty as teaching teamwork. Excited that he can learn about the skill at the place and earn a much-needed medal as proof of his teamwork, Woody enters the camp and befriends one of the children, Maggie.
Who are Camp Woo Hoo’s rivals?
Upon entering Camp Woo Hoo and seeing the enormous amounts of good food at the place, Woody becomes friends with the main group of kids, who are basically also friends of Maggie, and then learns more about the camp itself. The owner and leader of the camp is Maggie’s mother, Angie, who is currently very worried about the park inspector coming to the place within the next few hours. The parks inspector, Wally the Walrus, is extremely strict about the rules and regulations of children’s camps operating inside the forest, as they all have to abide by certain safety and security measures. Angie has already been fined numerous times by Wally because her camp is not very successful and does not make enough money to have proper yearly maintenance, and she fears that more such fines will come her way. At this rate, Angie states, she will not be able to run the summer camp any longer and will have to give up the whole project, which would be heartbreaking for the children. Incidentally, the presence of Woody creates much more trouble for Camp Woo Hoo as the unmindful bird wrecks the place further, all of which Wally notices and mentions in his report, leading to heavy fines.
Along with the external pressure from the anthropomorphic walrus who serves as the inspector, Angie also has to worry about the rival camp right beside her property, Camp Hoo Rah. The rival camp is actually run by Angie’s own cousin, Zane, who is clearly not on very good terms with the woman, despite being her family member. The two sides of the family have been in a tense relationship ever since the days of their forefathers. It all began with Grandpappy Obadiah Mallard, who had started the family many years ago after having moved to the area as a gold prospector. According to legend, Obadiah made a lot of wealth with the gold he found and then bought a piece of land, naming it Camp Obadiah. His intention was to have his entire family live at the place in peace and prosperity, but by the time his two sons moved to the camp, the man had passed away. Surprisingly, the rest of the gold he had collected in his lifetime was not found, and the peace did not last for long, either.
The two sons of Obadiah had an ugly falling out, and the family was divided into two at that very time. Since they were supposed to share the same piece of land, a great white mark was laid down right through the center of the land, marking a division. These two sides were used and lived in by the two brothers’ families, and even a few generations later, the family is still separated at present. As is obvious, Angie and Zane are the successors of the two Mallard brothers, and so they still share the same divided piece of land that Obadiah had left behind. While Angie is better with the creative side of life, Zane is all about military fitness, and so the two camps are naturally very different. Angie focuses more on the development and enjoyment of children through creative measures, and Zane’s camp, Hoo Rah, is focused on fitness and toughness. Every year, the two camps have a competition between themselves called the Wilderness Games, which is held to determine who is the stronger unit.
As the plot progresses, we also learn of a personal rivalry between Angie and Zane, which stemmed from some very menial differences during their childhood days. Since Angie was very creative and imaginative from a very young age, she would make up games with her friends and play them at the camp. Zane had seen these games and had a childish interest in them, wanting to be a part of them, too. However, Angie had refused to let her cousin be a part of the games for whatever childish reason, and this angered Zane terribly. He decided to create his own games, and based on gender stereotypes, he came up with activities that involved physical strength and agility. As a rivalry was born between the two cousins, they maintained this animosity even as adults, which is expressed in the Wilderness Games. However, the competition is extremely one-sided, as it clearly involves much more physical abilities, meaning that Camp Hoo Rah wins it by a big margin every single year.
Why does Buzz want to sabotage the Wilderness Games?
In the world of Woody Woodpecker, in which anthropomorphic animals abound, the main antagonist is Buzz Buzzard, an evil bird of prey who is always making plots to rob and steal. The film presents Buzz as having only recently fled from prison, where he was kept for some of his many unlawful activities, following which he has come to Camp Hoo Rah with a very specific intention. While he was in prison, one of the convicts told Buzz about a certain treasure hidden somewhere underneath the land that used to be Camp Obadiah. The treasure hinted at was obviously the stash of gold that Obadiah Mallard had hidden somewhere on his property, and Buzz wanted to get hold of the wealth for himself. The bird had been making the plan with his partner, who remains unseen for most of the film as they communicate over phone calls, and it is only at the end that the partner is revealed to be a human named Darren. Buzz and Darren had met while in prison, and they had escaped the place together, only to find the gold that would make them rich forever.
At present, Buzz Buzzard’s plan is to somehow cause a downfall for both the camps operating on the land, and after his initial survey, it is evident that Camp Woo Hoo is at a vulnerable stage. Therefore, Buzz decides to sabotage the Wilderness Games and ensure that Camp Woo Hoo loses the competition. After some serious safety issues at Woo Hoo, Inspector Willy told Angie that her camp needed to be shut down by the law. Woody had negotiated in favor of the woman and had been able to convince Willy that if Camp Woo Hoo somehow won the Wilderness Games, then they would be allowed to continue operations. Hearing of this wager, Buzz wanted to ensure that the Woo Hoo team would lose the games and go out of business. The bird would then create trouble for Zane and force him out of the land, ensuring that he would have the whole area to himself. He would then search for the treasure without any intervention and steal it once it was located.
Can Woody help his friends find the treasure?
Woody Woodpecker helps young Maggie realize the great talents that each of her camp members have, and the girl leads her team towards wins in two stages of the competition. During the last and crucial event, Maggie makes another brilliant master plan, which is sure to give her team the victory. However, before the game can be completed, she spots a flare that has been fired and realizes that her dear friend Woody is in trouble. This makes the children halt the games and rush to the building, even accompanied by the rival Hoo Rah members, to see that Willy is indeed in trouble. With the help of the children, Willy holds Buzz captive while revealing the bird’s evil plans to everyone else. Among Buzz’s belongings, a piece of map is also found, and it is believed that it is part of a series of maps required to find the Obadiah treasure. While Camp Woo Hoo and Camp Hoo Rah each had two separate maps, this third map is believed to be the key to finding the treasure.
However, one of the kids soon reveals that the third map is actually an overlay, meaning that it has to be placed over the two maps to find the location of the treasure, which is right at the bottom of Obadiah Mallard’s statue. Buzz overhears all this discussion and is able to free himself from the binds to quickly reach the spot of the treasure and start digging. He eventually finds a heavy box buried at the place and quickly escapes with it on a helicopter brought by Darren. Although Woody has the chance to go after the treasure, he instead focuses on saving Maggie, as the girl is in a moment of trouble. Feeling dejected that they had lost the valuable treasure to the thieves, Woody starts to chip away at the wooden statue of Obadiah Mallard, only to reveal that it was completely made up of gold with a wooden plaster over it.
During Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp‘s ending, the precious treasure is actually found by the camp members, while it is revealed that the box that Buzz had stolen only contained useless stones. Obadiah had hidden the treasure under a layer of wood to teach his family the valuable lesson of discovering the skills within them with the help of his bird friend, Woodthalemew Woodpeckerton. This bird friend is definitely Woody’s ancestor, as understood by the similarities in their names. The treasure finally reunites the family, with Angie and Zane deciding to do away with their silly rivalry. The two camps are merged under the name Camp Woo Hoo Rah, and Woody also earns his medal, proving his ability to work in a team. Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp ends with Woody returning to the forest that is his home and reporting his achievement to Ranger Walters, while Buzz and his friend Darren are arrested by the police once again.
