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. Woody is fun and never obnoxious and not as toned down or as subdued as he is in a lot of his late-period cartoons. He's had better conflicts before but he pits off against everybody else well.
'Calling Dr Woodpecker's' music is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. There is more energy here than in most Paul J. Smith-directed Woody Woodpecker cartoons. The cartoon is amusing and there are a few nice colours.
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.
However, 'Calling Dr Woodpecker' contains few surprises with it being very predictable and lacking in variety. Some of the gags are hurt by the lack of variety and not being as well-timed as others.
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.
In conclusion, fun and above average for a late Paul J. Smith-directed cartoon but Woody Woodpecker was well past his glory days by now and one does get that sense here. 6/10 Bethany Cox
