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. Luckily he's not too toned down or subdued here and brings out the manic trouble-maker well, being fun and never too obnoxious. Terrence O'Hoolihan is a decent foil and has good comic timing. Alex Lovy is a hit and miss director but does a better job than Paul J. Smith has done in a long time.
'Billion Dollar Boner' is amusing and well timed a good deal of the time. Also good is the music. It is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. There is some energy.
Voice acting is solid. Grace Stafford continues to prove why she was the best voice actor for the character and the one that understood him the most.
On the other hand, some of the pacing could have been livelier. The story is formulaic and very thin on the ground.
It is the animation that is the weak point. Time and budget constraints shows in some of the animation, which is a little rushed looking in the drawing and detail wise it's on the simplistic and careless side like many of Woody's cartoons from this period continuing through to the 60s.
All in all, not bad but not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox
