Now a fairly obscure character, Buddy was the second Warner Brothers Looney Tunes character, after Bosko and followed by Beans the Cat. Buddy didn't last long, being retired in 1935 after 23 cartoons starting in 1933.
'Buddy's Pony Express' is one of the just above average Buddy cartoons of a mixed bag of a filmography, ranging between mediocre ('Buddy's Show Boat' and 'Buddy's Bearcats') and decent ('Buddy the Gob') with a fair share of average ones and a few are surprisingly very good ('Buddy's Adventures'). Has enough to make it almost decent but unexceptional at the same time.
Starting with the good qualities, the animation is nicely drawn and detailed with the black and white looking crisp, also some of the most imaginative of the Buddy cartoons. Even better is the music score. Music played a big part in the Buddy cartoons and it was essential for it to work, it's catchy and very fitting here.
Of the characters, the most colourful and interesting is the villain. There is a fast zippy pace, which gives the cartoon energy, and stronger and funnier gags to usual. The voice acting is good, particularly Billy Bletcher.
The story however is barely existent and what there is is over-familiar that you are a couple of steps ahead the entire time, for instance the outcome was easily foreseeable even before the cartoon first started. Occasionally in the more predictable moments the energy gets a touch lost.
Although he does have more charm than he tends to, Buddy is still rather bland and there are characters with more generally compelling personalities. Cookie is sweet enough but basically a story device and stuck in such a stock role that she's been in for a lot of her appearances (the girlfriend/damsel).
On the whole, not bad, one of the more watchable Buddy cartoons in fact, but unexceptional. 6/10 Bethany Cox
