Pantry Panic (1941)

Pantry Panic Review

Pantry Panic is a 1941 animated short film from the Woody Woodpecker series. It is a very dark, but great entry.

All the birds escape from the upcoming blizzard, but stubborn Woody remains, so now he tries to survive in the snowy landscape with no food. Then, a cat arrives that is also hungry and the two fight. This is one immensely dark cartoon that ended with the two killing and eating a moose off-screen. That final moment threw me off as it was so unexpected and almost too brutal for me to handle.

The two fighting each other was familiar as we’ve seen Looney Tunes do similar gags with Bugs Bunny numerous times. But the cat was a great nemesis and Woody was memorably unhinged here. The highlight for me here was the first half that was so well done and quite cinematic with the title cards being amusingly utilized and the animation being painterly in quality and vividly detailed.

Pantry Panic is a terrific Woody Woodpecker short that has an uncommonly dark ending, but beautiful animation and a strong premise.

My Rating – 4.1