Hi-Rise Wise Guys


Hi-Rise Wise Guys is the 178th animated cartoon short subject in the Woody Woodpecker series. Released theatrically on August 1, 1970, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal International.

Plot

Hi-Rise Wise Guys begin with the title character, Woody Woodpecker, sleeping on a treetop until he is disturbed by the sound of a jackhammer. Unable to fall back asleep, Woody Woodpecker leaves his tree-home, discovering outside a high-rise skyscraper is being built upon where he lives, by a construction worker named Jack Hammer.
Woody resists the attempts of Jack Hammer to remove him from the site, and then asks what kind of accidents can happen on the building site; Jack then responds by attacking Woody with his Jackhammer. Woody falls down in the sand and Hammer quickly goes to see if he has injured Woody.
Jack Hammer's boss asks him via Telephone to quickly build the skyscraper. As Hammer tries to pull a cement-filled wheelbarrow vertically with a rope, Woody cuts the rope with a knife, and Jack Hammer falls into the cement. As he chases Woody, the cement hardens with him inside. Woody frees the foreman, but Hammer insists that he fell in the cement on purpose. The telephone rings again, and the boss advises Hammer to continue with work. Once again, Woody stalls Jack's progress by entering the elevator before him, declaring that the elevator only has the capacity for one passenger. Hammer then orders the elevator to go down, only to be crushed by it. Woody changes the accidents-on-the-job sign to say Hammer was crushed, but Hammer comes back and says he was "clobbering around".
In the final scene, Woody is seen at the top of the building. Hammer grabs Woody by the neck as the woodpecker attempts to change the accident sign. He accuses Woody of doing this deliberately; Jack grabs a piece of concrete to throw at Woody, but his throw misses and hits a steel girder of the skyscraper, causing it to become unbalanced. The structure collapses, and Hammer begins to burst into tears. Woody can't stand to see this and makes a deal with the Hammer; while Jack rebuilds the skyscraper, Woody sleeps peacefully in his tree, enclosed in a giant plastic bubble muffling the noise.