And so another character performs the “Hungarian Rhapsody #2” on the piano, yay. In this case it’s the turn of Woody Woodpecker, though to be fair he hasn’t much say in the matter as he’s being forced to at gunpoint. Woody’s appearance in this cartoon is pretty lacking, as he doesn’t really do anything much outside of playing the piano. The main meat of the short is in the attempt of the robber and his men to get the piano from the music shop and get it to their hideout. Of course having a demented woodpecker play classical music on it should attract attention, but the nearby police officer is a bit of a dim bulb, who only notices the crooks when they're right under his nose (or rather when a bill falls on his nose). From there on the cartoon is simply a chase set to the music with Woody having to hit the keys despite the chaos going on around him.

That’s it for the premise (it's not really a plot) so what’s left? Well the animation from Lantz seems to have fallen a peg or two, also Woody Woody’s appearance noticeably changes throughout the picture, mostly his size compared to the other characters. The other characters wouldn’t look too out of place on any televised animation in a decade’s time. Thankfully this year at Lantz would also bring in Tex Avery to the field, although he would be a bigger help to Chilly Willy than to Woody Woodpecker; however since he only made four shorts there, Avery’s influence was minimal. Apart from the occasional good flash, the Woodpecker’s best shorts (and that of Lantz Studio’s) were behind him.

This short passes the time is about the nicest thing you can say for it, Woody goes through some interesting contortions to continue playing and the chase gets frantic enough to keep most viewer’s interest for its six minutes of run time. That said, the lack of real substance works against the short, there really isn’t a point to the whole thing. Ultimately what it really lacks is any real reason to watch it over other shorts.

Coming back to the beginning, I’m of the opinion that the best “Hungarian Rhapsody #2” cartoon is Tom and Jerry’s The Cat Concerto, which flows brilliantly and effortlessly. Woody’s cartoon by contrast, is quite clumsy by comparison. Of course Walter Lantz’s cartoon never had anything near the budget of MGM’s cheapest cartoons, but the studio did make much better shorts than this one, despite it fiscal limitations.