Bunco Busters

. . . BUNK COAL BUSTERS to television's DRAGNET or cinema's RACKET SQUAD. In reality, one of the animators told my great, great grandfather that the template for BUNK COAL BUSTERS was the 1948 Bogart classic, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MAD DRAW. One of the dead giveaways that this is the Gospel Truth is when Buzz retorts to Woody: "Badgers? Badgers?! We don't need no stinking badgers!!" Furthermore, the Trench Coat Man who keeps turning up like wooden nickel is a dead ringer for Bogart, who continually pesters prosperous-looking pedestrians, "Buddy, can you spare a dime for a fellow American down on his luck?" Finally, the ending of this TREASURE remake is a virtual shot-for-shot reprise of SIERRA's close.

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, he's not the manic woodpecker of his earlier cartoons but he is hardly dull here either. Buzz Buzzard returns here and is as formidable and entertaining as ever before in his previous pairings with Woody, the character has grown a lot and the two work well together.

Captain Haddock is amusing and mysterious, though the constant "If Woody had gone right to the police, this would never have happened" line started to get annoyingly repetitive. Other than that, the only other flaw for me with 'Bunco Busters' was the limited and rushed-looking animation, pre-1955 the Woody Woodpecker cartoons looked very good to great but from that year onwards the nose-dive in animation quality is noticeable.

'Bunco Busters' has a very energetic, fun and sometimes suspenseful story, and is among the least formulaic Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

Music, on the other hand, 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, and Grace Stafford typically does a fine job voicing.

Overall, very nice Woody Woodpecker cartoon, one of the better ones from Paul J Smith. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Paul smith was a real mixed director when it came to the woody cartoons. Some of his are absolutely Great, while others are serious let downs. However, there are the rare few that are just okay. Bunch busters is one of those. Reminds me a bit of square shooting square, only better. First off, animation is slightly better, with backgrounds that are simple but work in the context of the mystery case. Buzz is, as always, a great antagonist and works well with woody. The premise itself is odd but unique and does sort of bloom. The gags are slightly better timed here than in square shooting square, with some that are pretty solid, and a couple that are great. I'm especially fond of Woody yelling at the detective to shut up. Nothing here is done overly well, but solidly enough to give this a watch from time to time.