Review of Woody Woodpecker (2017) by Darren E — 09 Feb 2018

I just watched the new Woody Woodpecker movie with my family for our weekly movie night and we all LOVED it!!! It was such a treat for my parents and my wife and I, who all grew up watching the original cartoons to be able to turn our kids onto Woody too. They now love Woody as much as we did....and they can even do his laugh!

The film is very, very FUNNY and the animation looks fantastic. At first I wasn't sure how I would like seeing Woody as a 3-D character when I've only known him as a 2-D one...but I have to say, I think this little red-headed troublemaker looks even better in 3-D and it was amazing to see how seamlessly he was inserted into the real world.

The filmmakers stayed faithful to both Woody's classic look and his impish attitude of the original cartoons. But I have to say, I think the filmmakers even improved on Woody, giving him much more dimension and a bigger range of emotion than he ever had before. For example, he starts out as a loner but then comes to appreciate the true meaning of friends and family and you really feel bad for him at times.

The pace of the movie is great and breezes along. Woody has some really fun musical scenes where he turns pecking on wood into drumming. The human actors are wonderful and it was treat to see Tim Omundson, who starred in both the TV shows Galavant and Psyche have to take on Woody in the ultimate human vs crazy bird turf war.

From start to finish, this is a GREAT family film that is full of comedy, heart and nice themes about friendship and ecology. My family and I can't wait for the sequel!