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, he's not the manic woodpecker of his earlier cartoons but he is hardly dull here either. Buzz Buzzard returns here and is as formidable and entertaining as ever before in his previous pairings with Woody, the character has grown a lot and the two work well together.
Captain Haddock is amusing and mysterious, though the constant "If Woody had gone right to the police, this would never have happened" line started to get annoyingly repetitive. Other than that, the only other flaw for me with 'Bunco Busters' was the limited and rushed-looking animation, pre-1955 the Woody Woodpecker cartoons looked very good to great but from that year onwards the nose-dive in animation quality is noticeable.
'Bunco Busters' has a very energetic, fun and sometimes suspenseful story, and is among the least formulaic Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
Music, on the other hand, 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 snappy pace, especially in the second half.
Gags are always very amusing and never less than that, and Grace Stafford typically does a fine job voicing.
Overall, very nice Woody Woodpecker cartoon, one of the better ones from Paul J Smith. 8/10 Bethany Cox
