Gold Diggin' Woodpecker

While I think woody stayed in his golden age for a little longer than his contemporaries, towards the late 60's he was really long in the tooth. Most of his early 70's are simply horrible, and this one doesn't do anything to change my mind. But, to take a positive spin on it first, the music is great, fitting the western them and being catchy. The backgrounds are well done too, thanks to the lovely Niño Carbe. The paring of woody and sugarfoot is always fun and entertaining. However, that's where the positives just about end. The cowboy here is boring, bland, and above all else not really that amusing. His antics are decent, but he could've been given more of a personality, maybe more like Dirty McNasty. Additionally, the cartoon is almost entirely animated by Volus Jones, whose animation is so stiff almost none of the gags hit or are at all funny. Speaking of which, the gags are horrible. There's one scene where the cowboys lights dynamite and blows up sugarfoot and woody, yet when he goes to check, they're completely fine. What the hell was the point!? Pacing is also pretty mediocre, but not terrible here. The ending is genuinely the only real enjoyable part of the cartoon. Woody being smart and having the cowboy getting shot off by the bank dealer is quite funny. Also, it's the only part of this animated by Al Coe, which is a big plus. The only reason it doesn't get a lower score is because it's not as bad as some of the previous are succeeding woody shorts after it. But, just like with "case of the Maltese chicken", that doesn't exactly help its case. Honestly, just skip over this short, you're really not missing much at all.

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. Not all Smith's efforts are average or less, 'Niagara Fools' is one of the not many very good and more Woody Woodpecker cartoons of his (excellent in that cartoon's case despite the lacking animation).

There are certainly worse Woody Woodpecker cartoons of his, 'What's Peckin' and 'Canned Dog Feud' being notable previous examples, but 'Gold Diggin Woodpecker' is another average at best and easily forgettable cartoon.

'Gold Diggin Woodpecker' does have good things. The music score is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. Woody is fun to watch here and has good comic timing, he tended to be dulled down during this particular period but there is some nice 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. Sugarfoot is a surprisingly decent supporting character and shares good chemistry with Woody. A few amusing moments here and there.

On the other hand, there is nothing really special about the villains, there are similar opponents of Woody that are funnier, more menacing and more interesting. Some of the timing could have been sharper, though there is more energy than most Woody Woodpecker cartoons from the mid-late-60s, and the amusement is not consistent with parts lacking imagination, being too safe and obvious and at times being repetitive. Plus the story is very over-familiar (especially in a setting that has been done to death, having been used frequently in previous Woody Woodpecker cartoons, but to funnier and more inventive effect), very few surprises here, and the cartoon could have done with more variety, some of it is very repetitive.

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, watchable but not much more than that. 5/10 Bethany Cox