TheLittleSongbird
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. Not all Smith's efforts are average or less, 'Niagara Fools' is one of the not many very good and more Woody Woodpecker cartoons of his (excellent in that cartoon's case despite the lacking animation).'Woody and the Beanstalk' is yet another animated adaptation of the classic, but frequently adapted in animation, 'Jack and the Beanstalk' story and is one of the most uninspired takes on it. It's not quite one of Smith's worst but it is yet another indicator of Woody being well past prime.If there was a best asset, it would have to be the music score. It is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it.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. There are a couple of decent amusing moments though they are too few.However, Woody compared to his original manic personality is just too subdued and his material is too obvious and safe, one misses the manic energy and the risk taking. The giant, on top of being poorly drawn, isn't funny or menacing at all, instead being characterised as somewhat of an idiot.Other than a couple of decent gags, most of 'Woody and the Beanstalk' is not funny, being sloppy in timing and most of the gags being too obvious. The pace is dull and the cartoon does nothing fresh whatsoever with a classic story that is one of cartoons' most frequently adapted stories when stories are parodied, this is a very repetitive and by-the-numbers effort.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. The ending is a rather strange one and didn't gel with the rest of the cartoon.To conclude, weak and with not much to recommend. 3/10 Bethany Cox
