The Dippy Diplomat

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, agree completely that neither him or his cartoons should ever be forgotten. As far as the Woody Woodpecker/Wally Walrus cartoons go, there are better, like one of my favourite overall Woody Woodpecker cartoons 'Ski For Two, but it's still great. Woody since being partnered with Wally has been much more appealingly designed from when he was still evolving and feels fully formed in terms of personality as a character.

Perhaps there are characters with more interesting personalities, but Woody is still at his best incredibly funny, never obnoxious, increasingly manic and very lovable self. Agree with the impish child comparison summing up Woody's behaviour here.

Wally is a great foil and works so well with Woody. One also feels sorry for poor Wally, but at the same time one cannot hate on Woody.

As ever, the animation is great. Woody's character design and physicality have changed/evolved for the better. Even more impressive are the rich and vibrant colours, the meticulously detailed backgrounds and the quite smooth drawing.

Can't praise the music enough either, characterful energy, dynamic, action enhancing and lushly orchestrated.

Nor the razor sharp and witty dialogue, the bright and breezy pacing without being rushed and some hilarious gags. Plus some typically good voice acting. All of which more than make up for a story that's on the slight and formulaic side.

Overall, another great Woody Woodpecker effort. 9/10 Bethany Cox

. . . renown Political Science Department Lincoln Rocking Chair scholar, Dr. Bah-Bah Smith, THE DIPPY DIPLOMAT inspired Dr. Henry Kissinger to invent Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971. Dr. Smith, who famously confined his research to the Sunday New York Times, discovered a correlation between the scene in which Woody Woodpecker is able to devour an entire platter of Wally Walrus' hard-boiled eggs with a misdirected ping-pong ball ruse and one of the crossword puzzle clues bought to his attention by a leading student in a Politics 101 Section. To boil down Dr. Smith's 600-page dissertation into a single declarative sentence, Hank thought that Woody would go well with Red China.

...which Wally Walrus learns the hard way in this madcap cartoon. Under Shamus Culhane's direction, DIPPY DIPLOMAT attains the high comedic caliber of Warner Brothers and MGM's contemporary product. Like Bob Clampett and Tex Avery, Culhane understands that in such an action-oriented cartoon (in this case, the action consisting of Woody Woodpecker's pursuit of food), the gags must be administered at a frenetic, zippy pace to achieve the greatest comic impact. The gags are further buoyed by lively animation and Darrell Calker's sprightly score. Culhane builds up the situation to a rousing climax in which the walrus, his face engulfed in smoke, turns into a train!

Culhane utilizes Woody Woodpecker as effectively as he does the gags. At this point, the woodpecker's personality was toned down. He's no longer the hyperactive lunatic he was at the beginning, but he's still gleefully obnoxious as he uses ingenious methods to devour Wally Walrus's barbecue. Yet he is beguilingly innocent. He comes off not as a bully or a delinquent, but merely a impish child. How can one dislike such a character?

DIPPY DIPLOMAT represents the Walter Lantz studio near its artistic apex. It's a pity the cartoons declined in the following decades but this particular one demonstrates that the studio could produce authentic classics. For that reason, neither Walter Lantz nor Woody Woodpecker deserve to be forgotten.

This cartoon begins with a newspaper article saying that the Russian Ambassodor, Ivan Awfulitch, is going to a barbecue at Wally Walrus' house. Next you see Wally preparing a huge spread--and soon Woody Woodpecker comes to mooch. However, Woody isn't content to take a little and soon he ends up stealing everything.

The quality of this cartoon is clearly inferior to the stuff coming from Looney Tunes at the time. While the style is pretty similar (with a smart-alec animal outwitting another), the art style is more rubbery and lower quality. The backgrounds are also cheaper looking. Additionally, the gags are decent but not quite up to the Looney Tune standards of the day. Well worth watching but second-rate.

By the way, the gag where you see Woody sleeping in the arms of a statue is lifted from Chaplin's "City Lights".