Watch the Birdie

. . . invented by some gal named Renee in Paris 207 years ago. This was such an important discovery that Renee won the Nobel Prize for Medicine the following year. Woody does his best to demonstrate how valuable stethoscopes are to Mankind. WATCH THE BIRDIE alludes to the fact that the first two National Spelling bees were decided on the same word: You guessed it--"Stethoscope!" From the third year onward, Chief Beekeeper Howard rewrote his script, never again presenting the same words in the same order from one year to the next. Howard discovered that kids use their Artificial Intelligence to learn quick methods of jack-hammering through all the weakest links of the Adult World. In its next episode, the Wonderful World of Woody explores scrimshaw.

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. While it is a little toned down, there are shades of his original personality as a manic pest. The bird-watcher is amusing enough, if not much different from most of his non-Wally Walrus or Buzz Buzzard opponents and not the most interesting or funniest.

Sure, the story when it comes to the Woody Woodpecker action has its typical moments and the main premise with the insurance is executed a little repetitiously occasionally.

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.

Music however 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 lively 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, especially with the missile. The voice work is solid.

In summary, decent but there are better Woody Woodpecker cartoons including from this weaker (prime Woody Woodpecker was long gone by this point), hit-and-miss period. 6/10 Bethany Cox