Most of Marcus's early Lantz shorts had some issues. He hadn't found his place yet, and his early shorts reflect this, with pacing being pretty slow and deliberate. That doesn't make his early shorts bad though, more so just simply a little underwhelming. As always, let's start of with the good: Art Davis and Ray Abrams do a great job animating everything, with great movement from Davis and very appealing character designs from Abrams. Duffy, as a character, is great, with a fantastic personality that makes you feel for him, yet also understanding of his demonic side, as well. Woody is used to great comic effect here, with several solid-good gags, most of which feel very heavily inspired from earlier Woody shorts from the 50's and from Marcus's time at Screen Gems. Mrs. Meany, while not quite living up to her name here, is still a great foil and has some good moments here. The part where she wants to 'kiss the bride' is really funny, and here design has always stuck with me from this short. However, this is where things get slow... real slow. The pacing in this short is pretty consistent... as in consistently slow. The gags never really feel that punch due to how they'd be better utilized in a rapid fire sequence, like with what Marcus would do later on in his mid-60's shorts. The slower paced gags and building of tension in some of them, like the room and tea pot gags for example, do help to elevate this one to just about watchable, with the seeds of funny/hilarious ideas trying really hard to bloom, but honestly never doing so completely. Still, I'd recommended it to see if someone like you might actually favor the pacing of it, but personally, it was a big downer. Still a completely watchable short in almost all regulars, but DEFINITELY could've been better. Some real missed potential here, unfortunately/sadly.
