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. He's fun and is a pest without being too obnoxious, but, like a lot of his later cartoons, compared to his original manic personality he is too toned down and subdued. This undermines the conflict, and while Martin has his moments he is a crudely drawn and depicted stereotype and is too much of an idiot to be one of Woody's best foils.Paul J. Smith directs here and there are the same strengths and flaws of most of his output (let alone his Woody Woodpecker outings) here in 'Ozark Lark'. Starting with the strengths, the music is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. There is some energy, the cartoon starts off well, the odd part 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. Dal McKennon is every bit as impressive.'Ozark Lark', however, is once again let down like a lot of the 1960s Woody Woodpecker cartoons by the lack of energy, the conflict not being strong enough, Woody being too subdued and also that it is not very funny, with lacklustre timing, not enough laughs and less than witty gags. Plus the story is very over-familiar, very few surprises here. The whole antics with the gun get very repetitive and the addition of the Army, while pepping the pace up marginally, didn't really gel, making the cartoon feel unfocused.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, watchable but average. 5/10 Bethany Cox
