Born to Peck is the 39th animated cartoon

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 short subject

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 in the Woody Woodpecker

Woody Woodpecker

Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures...

series. Released theatrically on February 25, 1952, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal International

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

.

Plot

Woody is an elderly

Old age

Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...

 woodpecker who tries in vain to peck away at a tree. Unfortunately, his best years are behind him, and his beak is weak. Depressed, he begins to reminisce about his younger days when he was a little bird in the care of his father. It becomes apparent that from Day 1, Woody was a mischievous, rascally bird who made his hapless father's life a living nightmare

Nightmare

A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...

.
After spending several minutes recalling his youth, a despondent Woody jumps over the side of a cliff in an effort to commit suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. At the last minute, an offscreen cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

 breaks the fourth wall

Fourth wall

The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...

, erases the grave

Grave (burial)

A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....

 Woody was bound for, and replaces it with a Fountain of Youth

Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years, appearing in writings by Herodotus, the Alexander romance, and the stories of Prester John...

. Rejuvenated, Woody returns to the forest, ready to peck away at his first tree in years. Unfortunately, he chooses a petrified tree

Petrified wood

Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of permineralization...

, which knocks him cold

Unconsciousness

Unconsciousness is the condition of being not conscious—in a mental state that involves complete or near-complete lack of responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli. Being in a comatose state or coma is a type of unconsciousness. Fainting due to a drop in blood pressure and a...

upon impact.