Three Little Woodpeckers (1965)

One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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. 'Three Little Woodpeckers' is to me easily one of the best Sid Marcus-directed Woody Woodpecker cartoons, didn't care for his 1963 cartoons but 'Skin Folks' and especially this were a step in the right direction. Would even go far to say that it's one of the better late Woody Woodpecker cartoons and a standout of the early 60s efforts. It is yet another take on 'The Three Little Pigs' story, this time with woodpeckers, one of the most used stories in animation along with 'Little Red Riding Hood' but there is more than enough freshness to stop it from getting too repetitive.It's not a perfect cartoon by all means. The animation continues to not be great. 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.Some of it is a touch on the predictable side as well. With all that being said, 'Three Little Woodpeckers' is one of few Sid Marcus-directed Woody Woodpecker cartoons to have little wrong with it, there's a reason (from personal opinion that is) as to why it's one of his highest rated efforts. Woody was generally well past his glory days but this is evidence of that when he had material worthy of him that he had not entirely lost it.As for Woody, he has much more entertainment value and energy than most of his cartoons from this period. A lot of his material at this point was too safe and obvious, here his material is closer to the manic energy and lively wit of prime Woody Woodpecker if not taking as many risks. Knothead and Splinter are adorable without being too cutesy or bratty, while the narrator has some humorous lines that Daws Butler relishes. The best character is the wolf, being the most interesting in personality character and having the funniest moments, even his repeated lines of it not being a good idea don't get tiresome.Further standouts are the music and the voice acting. The music is bouncy, energetic and very lushly orchestrated, not only synchronising and fitting with the action very well but enhancing it. When it comes to the voice acting, as great as Grace Stafford (the best Woody Woodpecker voice to me) and June Foray are, Daws Butler takes top honours.'Three Little Woodpeckers' is by quite some way one of the funniest and cleverest Sid Marcus-directed cartoons. There are some genuinely funny and well-timed gags and the dialogue is suitably humorous from particularly the narrator. Woody, Knothead and Splinter's taunting of the wolf avoids being annoying.Overall, for an early-60s Woody Woodpecker cartoons 'Three Little Woodpeckers' is one of the good ones. 8/10 Bethany Cox