After the Ball

. . . falls flat in AFTER THE BALL. Prior to this film, most sports equipment--from baseball bats to hockey sticks to bowling balls--was made from wood. AFTER THE BALL persuaded the bleeding hearts in states such as Alaska, Idaho and Montana to outlaw wooden bats, bowling balls and other such sporting equipment, because they feared cutting trees might inconvenience a few birds. Soon Big Aluminum won the baseball bat business, while Big Oil prevailed in bowling. Canada held firm in dedicating their forests to hockey sticks--dodo birds or no dodo birds. However, there are far fewer skaters than ball players or bowlers, so during the past 70 years or so Canadian forests have fallen into disrepair, becoming wildly overgrown. Now most of these excess trees are burning out-of-control, since their are so many more trees than Canadians. With America's big cities reduced to Third World air quality status, you can blame this on AFTER THE BALL.

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 is never obnoxious or a jerk. His personality is closer to the trademark manic pest persona than the heroic and toned down ones that tended to be adopted in the mid 50s onward. Pierre is no Wally Walrus or Buzz Buzzard but he has amusing moments and works well with Woody.

'After the Ball's' music is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. The whole cartoon goes at a snappy pace, especially in the second half.

Its gags are also well timed and amusing, there are some bright and lush colours and Grace Stafford and Daws Butler do reliably great jobs.

On the other hand, the animation tends to lack finesse, some of it looking crude and like it was made in haste with little money. Story-wise, even with a new opponent, 'After the Ball' is entertaining enough but is structurally and in terms of gag outcomes very typical Woody Woodpecker, figuring out who will get the upper hand here is obvious from the get go.

The cartoon is entertaining and energetic enough but nothing wows at the same time and little is hilarious.

All in all, decent fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox