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, and is closer to his manic personality here than the heroic or toned down ones adopted around this period. Davy Crewcut pits off against him very entertainingly. The bear character was not a particularly memorable character and more a story device if anything else.
Alex Lovy is sort of hit and miss for me. Really enjoyed most of his Chilly Willy cartoons, most of which decent to great, but he was also responsible for three of the worst Speedy Gonzales/Daffy Duck cartoons and also created Merlin the Magic Mouse (who went on to star in five of the worst Looney Tunes cartoons of the late 50s). He fares quite well however with 'Woody Meets Davy Crewcut'.
Sure, the story when it comes to the Woody Woodpecker action is typical and not much of one. 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.
Not all the animation is applicable to that. It's brightly coloured with some nice if simple backgrounds. There are far worse-looking Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
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.
Gags are always very amusing and never less than that, some of it is actually very funny and timed very well, and Grace Stafford and Daws Butler typically do a fine job voicing.
In conclusion, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox
