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. This is going to be a reiteration of a lot of my reviews for the later Woody Woodpecker cartoons, but mainly because the later Paul J. Smith-directed cartoons have pretty much the same strengths and faults. 'Tragic Magic' is hardly a tragedy but it does lack magic and is an average cartoon mostly.
Regarding Woody, he is sometimes fun and never obnoxious here in 'Tragic Magic', but, like a lot of his later cartoons, compared to his original manic personality he is too toned down and subdued. The magician is a decent enough foil but doesn't stand out as one of Woody's best adversaries, the chemistry between them is good particularly with the magic tricks (which are cool) but there is not much that leaps out as inspired or memorable.
Not without its strengths, the music is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. There is the occasional energy and amusing moment.
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.
As with most later Woody Woodpecker cartoons, 'Tragic Magic' generally lacks energy and apart from the odd amusing moment it's never a hilarious or particularly funny cartoon, with lacklustre timing, not enough laughs and less than witty gags. Plus the story is very over-familiar, very few surprises here, and the cartoon could have done with more variety.
Just as problematic is the animation quality. Time and budget constraints shows in a lot of the animation, which is very 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.
Overall, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox
