Hypnotic Hick

. . . walking through Life in a hypnotic trance. Sociologists have wondered how so many Americans wander about like crazed zombies. Just today, I visited a town where horrendous hordes of weirdly-attired whack-jobs were melding together into mesmerized mobs, forking over thousands of bucks each for "concert" tickets and jacking up local parking prices at the normally ten-dollar lots to $900 and more! It turns out that it is exceeding simple to gain total mind control over a typical American. After just a few seconds glancing through a book on Hypnotism, Woody is able to pull all of Buzz's strings, dancing him around like a puppet with absolutely no volition of its own. HYPNOTIC HICK certainly explains what I witnessed in town today.

I saw all 5 of the Hollywood-produced 3D animated shorts in one program at the second 3D Film Festival at the Egyptian in Hollywood and this and the Casper "Boo Moon" stood out (the others are Popeye in "Ace of Space," Bugs Bunny in "Lumber-Jack Rabbit" and Donald Duck/Chip 'n Dale in "Working for Peanuts"). Woody's hi-jinks are especially suited to the third dimension and the cartoon cliché of a high-altitude stumble around the girders of a construction site really works in this short (in 3D). At one point I got vertigo when the camera looked down. I'm surprised Warner Bros. didn't use Tweety in their animated 3D short because a bird has access to 3 directions/dimensions of movement and seems like a natural for 3D.

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 in 'Hypnotic Hick' and never comes over too much of a jerk. While there is a preference for Wally Walrus, Buzz Buzzard is a worthy foil, formidable while taking the laughs well with great reactions to Woody's trickery.

The hypnotism in 'Hypnotic Hick' is very imaginatively done and has some hilarious consequences. The chemistry between Woody and Buzz is a lot of fun to watch.

As ever, the animation is great. The characters are well drawn, but even better are the rich colours, meticulously detailed backgrounds and smooth backgrounds.

Music is another strength here. It's characterful, lushly orchestrated and is not only dynamic with the action it even enhances it. The whole cartoon goes at a snappy pace, especially in the second half, and there are some very well-timed and extremely funny gags.

Overall, terrific. 10/10 Bethany Cox