Buccaneer Woodpecker

. . . of America's Communist Capitalist "Conservative" Corrupt Cabal, Universal film studio subtly excoriates such infamous "business" villains as Walt Dizzy, Hank Ford and Old Tom Edison. It's no accident that Universal selects the exact name of the latter's first-in-the-world filming stage for the moniker of illegitimate looter Buzz Buzzard's pirate ship. Foolish Old Tom, who believed that movies would only be for home consumption and that all Americans would be happy to live in his concrete houses illuminated by highly dangerous direct current supplied by an Edison power plant on every block, serves as the primary inspiration for Buzz Buzzard, the sort of plunderer who grows fat gorging on road kill and swoops down like a vulture to steal the credit--and cash value--of everyone else's hard work and good ideas. BUCCANEER WOODPECKER dictates that malingering miscreant money misers such as Edison must be blown up and fed to the sharks. Anyone supporting these bilious billionaires deserve to be chumming around with them among the Great Whites.

Was very fond of Woody Woodpecker and his cartoons as a child. Still get much enjoyment out of them now as a young adult, even if there are more interesting in personality cartoon characters and better overall cartoons.

That is in no way knocking Woody, because many of his cartoons are a lot of fun to watch and more and also still like him a lot as a character. He is a lot of fun here and never comes over too much of a jerk, one identifies with his quest in a way. Wally Walrus has always been a great supporting character and the chemistry with Woody is inspired, though he is underused and reduced to the role of the town magistrate, my one slight fault with 'Buccaneer Woodpecker' because Wally deserves better than that.

'Buccaneer Woodpecker' sees his opponent being actually Buzz Buzzard and he proves to be a formidable and entertaining one, his personality is getting stronger all the time and his chemistry with Woody (the premise helps) sparkles more than seen before.

As ever, the animation is great. The characters are well drawn, but even better are the rich colours, meticulously detailed backgrounds and smooth backgrounds.

Music is another strength here. It's characterful, lushly orchestrated and is not only dynamic with the action it even enhances it. The whole cartoon goes at a snappy pace, especially in the second half, and there are some very well-timed and extremely funny gags.

Overall, rollicking pirate fun. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I've always enjoyed Woody Woodpecker since my childhood, from watching his old cartoons on various compilations. One that I've always had fond memories of is "Buccaneer Woodpecker". This is easily one of Woody's many great highlights. To start off, the backgrounds are gorgeous, & the animation itself is well structured & smoothly animated. The plot lends itself well to Woody & his personality, & while he isn't as insane as he is in "Barber of Seville" for example, his trickster side always works extremely well. Also, his actions are justified here unlike in other cartoons where he acts like a jerk just for the sake of it. This makes it much easier to route for Woody, & the chemistry between him & Buzz is great here, possibly even better than in most other shorts from this era. I really don't have anything horrible to say about this short, it's simply great!