It's a movie from 2017 that feels like it's from 2008. Hey, remember all those movies from the late 2000s where a vintage cartoon character is suddenly in extra realistic CGI, now a side character to a live action drama about corporate business deals and/or a workaholic father who needs to spend time with his family? Well, we've got one of those for Woody Woodpecker now, and he now belches, farts, and makes Hip Cool jokes about "swiping left" and ringtones and songs that are his "jam". Otherwise, I'd stick to Speed Racer (2008). My recommendation: just watch the cartoon and give this one a skip unless you have kids. Is Woody Woodpecker as terrible as the critics and audiences made it out to be? Nope, I wouldn't go too far to say I hated it, it sadly, its still not a good film. Also the music score is pleasant and the scenery is very pretty. The CGI is ok and is accurately detailed on the design of Woody and the voice actor Eric Bauza did a good job imitating the actual character. It's a shame because there are some good things that came out of it. The story is juvenile and above all predictable with several cliches we've seen before which I'm not going to spoil, the writing is complete garbage with only one or two moments that are funny but the rest of the film is flat out mediocre so that doesn't matter, the characters are really generic despite the actors themselves trying hard, and the pacing is really uneven despite being only an hour and a half longer. It's marginally better than the terrible live action Death Note film back in 2017, but its still not very good. Unfortunately, it turned out to be very mediocre. The only reason is because I was expecting something that would at least have some effort. But that's not why I decided to watch it on Netflix a few days ago. So, wouldn't you know it, Hollywood decided to make a live action/cgi adaptation of said character and so far it falls I the same category of movie adaptations of classic cartoon characters not being very good. But I do understand how certain people are fond of that lovable woodpecker. It pretty much goes without saying that Illumination's Woody Woodpecker movie will be more of an all-ages-friendly and madcap slapstick-filled computer-animated cartoon, with more in common with Despicable Me than Altschuler and Krinsky's previous animated efforts (or their work on the new incarnation of Beavis and Butthead).I'm not a fan of Woody the Woodpecker, although I do remember watching a couple of cartoons revolving around the character when I was a kid. Heat Vision says that Illumination's plan is to "create a story that modernizes, hopefully launching a franchise in the process." Current in talks to create said story is writing duo John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who previously worked as executive producers/writers on King of the Hill and co-penned the Will Farrell sports comedy Blades of Glory. Universal Entertainment (which owns Illumination) purchased the rights to Woody Woodpecker back in 1985. The Woodpecker character eventually transitioned from being a wild and hyperactive troublemaker during the 1940s, to a more mellow and refined cartoon character, like the Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny, in the '50s. Woody Woodpecker was concocted by storyboard artist Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and cartoonist Walter Lantz as being a screwball character, similar to early incarnations of Looney Tunes icons Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck - both of which were also partly Hardaway's creations.
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