The Barber of Seville (1944)

Overrated

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

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. 'The Barber of Seville' is a perfect example of why. Others have said that 'The Barber of Seville' is among Woody's best, could not agree more and also one of the funniest, cleverest and most colourful. Plus, while the previous Woody Woodpecker cartoons had a different design for Woody and were still evolving his personality, here he is closer to the Woody Woodpecker we're familiar with and his personality seems more fully formed.While there may be cartoon characters with slightly more interesting personalities, Woody is still at his best incredibly funny, never obnoxious and very lovable self, summing him up in one word it would be wonderfully nuts. His increasingly manic energy is a delight to see and his singing of the arrangements of the wonderful music from one of Rossini's best operas is musical and comic genius.As ever, the animation is great and actually 'The Barber of Seville' is one of the best-looking Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Woody's character design and physicality have changed/evolved for the better. Even more impressive are the rich and vibrant colours, the meticulously detailed backgrounds and the quite smooth drawing.Can't praise the music enough. 'Il Barbiere Di Siviglia' has been used a lot in animation and often to fantastic effect, personally think that 'The Barber of Seville' is one of the best uses of it which is high praise. The writing is suitably witty and raises a number of chuckles, especially when we're about three minutes in and the mania increases to explosive effect. The gags are razor sharp in timing and often hilarious.Voice acting is as usual solid.All in all, a Woody Woodpecker treat and one of his absolute best. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker is unflappable. He steps into places and dominates. In this case, the barber, Figaro, has gone to get his army physical. It's well into the U.S. participation in World War II, so able bodied men would be leaving for war. Anyway, Woody decides to take over for the barber. There is the racist treatment of a stereotypical movie Indian. Then he cuts the hair of a construction worker. He literally terrorizes those he treats. Woody's manic being is so crazy, that I, as a viewer, see him as a true danger. This is borne out. We do get to hear Woody sing the frantic aria in that awful reedy voice. Still, Walter Lantz deserves a bit of animation credit.

I've watched every single damn cartoon to feature that nutball buzzard Woody Woodpecker, and I can honestly say that out of all of them, this was the only one that I personally would say is actually a great one. I think all of the character's best efforts were the earliest where the animation was at its richest and the bird's design was the most garish and unhinged-looking. This is just wild and epic, plain and simple. I mean what isn't there to love about this short? The animation is great and beautifully coloured, the timing and choreography of the music and the action is excellent, there's a couple of really good sight gags, and oh yeah, opera! Woody's very own special brand of delightfully insane scary opera of course! After hijacking a barber shop and a comical if possibly not entirely politically-correct run-in with an old Indian chief, he gives a very unfortunate man the close shave of a lifetime! Go to Woody for a shave and a haircut and prepare to meet a demon bird to give Sweeney Todd a run for his money! He just goes completely wacko on the poor man while singing in a fine falsetto like some kind of demented tenor! I'm not even entirely sure what the man does to upset him so much, but I think it might have been when he calls him a dope! Woody is one psychotic little pecker as he really gets into the spirit of things, wildly swinging a straight razor at the terrified customer/victim who only wants to get away, not seeming to particularly care if he slices the guy's head off while he's doing so! Seriously, what merely starts out as a regular violent cartoon haircut degenerates into a tense fight for survival as Woody begins to blindly hack at the man like a maniac - is he actually trying to kill him? Who the hell knows!? By that point we're as much in the dark regarding that detail as that poor sap is! Which is what makes it so fun! A frenetic blast to watch, quite funny, and pretty scary besides!!! Totally awesome, loved it.

This was the first appearance of the redesigned Woody Woodpecker, intended to make him more appealing -- no buckteeth. The ongoing competition to turn out the best short cartoons in the business were still on. The Fleischers were out of it, Paul Terry was idling at Fox with his guaranteed contracts, and Disney was distracted by features and the aftermath of a strike. Meanwhile, Tex Avery was being given a free hand at MGM, and Schlesinger had just sold his cartoon factory to Warner Brothers.But to turn out the best cartoons you needed a good character and good scripts. Lantz could buy talent, particularly talent eager to escape from Uncle Walt, but what about stars? A brief attempt to revive Oswald the Lucky Rabbit turned out too precious to stomach. Andy Panda was too bland and Wally Walrus was a good supporting comic, but nothing more. Woody Woodpecker had color, energy and sound. All he needed was a new look and a couple of vehicles to show him off to best advantage.And that's this movie. Seamus Culhane was an old hand in the field -- he'd been directing cartoons since 1930, and he directed this one for speed and energy, splitting Woody into five or six images at some points. The whole thing explodes off the screen and is a fine, funny cartoon. Plus it's a wonderful handling of the music from 'The Barber of Seville'.