The first half of the Hoot Kloot series was on the whole very watchable, never great but never less than mediocre. With, despite not being a fan really of Crazywolf, 'Pay Your Buffalo Bill' being particularly good for its for the series creative concept and for containing the best gag of all the Hoot Kloot cartoons. The second half of the series generally to me was weaker, did like 'Gold Struck' and 'As the Tumbleweeds Turn' had its moments but the others were mediocre at best. Something that 'Strange on the Range' just about scrapes by exceeding.
Didn't think that highly of the other cartoon featuring Billy the Kidder 'Big Beef at the O. K. Corral' and consider that one of the weakest in the Hoot Kloot series. Am going to say the same about 'Strange on the Range' as an overall whole, while considering it marginally better, for pretty much the same reasons (despite being one of the better cartoons of the series' second half). Except that this is the funnier cartoon and had some fun moments, while 'Big Beef at the O. K. Corral' was devoid of those. Sadly it is also significantly less appealing visually, while that cartoon was still uneven in animation there was actually more of a sense of lower budgets and tighter deadlines, that may not have been the case but that's how it came across.
By all means there are things that are not badly done at all. Some of the colours are lively and have vibrancy in the second half. The music has a lot of character and rousing energy that has an authentic Western vibe. There are some fun moments, including one of the more inventive little moments of the second half of the series with a door/elevator embedded in a rock that Billy the Kidder goes through to escape.
Regardless of the material, Bob Holt's voice acting was never a problem for me in any of the cartoons of the series and it is no exception here. He always sounded like he was having fun as Hoot Kloot. Hoot and Kloot and Fester are still great characters, with the former being amusingly brash and the latter being sassy and also likeable.
Significantly less appealing is Billy the Kidder. It is hard to not expect a lot from a character parodying one of the most fascinating outlaws, but Billy the Kidder is neither remotely amusing or menacing. Instead he is reminiscent of an even more annoying Crazywolf in human form and Larry D. Mann overdoes it with the voice acting. Which really undermines any tension or fun the conflict should have had. The animation on the whole is not great, the first half looks under-budget and rushed looking and it looks ugly and over-simplistic. The colours are an eysore in the first half.
Although the humour has moments and there is more of it than there is in 'Big Beeft at O. K. Corral', much of it is very derivative of late 50s-early 60s Looney Tunes except being a lot less inventive. The wordplay has been sharper and wittier in other Hoot Kloot cartoons.
Concluding, average. 5/10.
Didn't think that highly of the other cartoon featuring Billy the Kidder 'Big Beef at the O. K. Corral' and consider that one of the weakest in the Hoot Kloot series. Am going to say the same about 'Strange on the Range' as an overall whole, while considering it marginally better, for pretty much the same reasons (despite being one of the better cartoons of the series' second half). Except that this is the funnier cartoon and had some fun moments, while 'Big Beef at the O. K. Corral' was devoid of those. Sadly it is also significantly less appealing visually, while that cartoon was still uneven in animation there was actually more of a sense of lower budgets and tighter deadlines, that may not have been the case but that's how it came across.
By all means there are things that are not badly done at all. Some of the colours are lively and have vibrancy in the second half. The music has a lot of character and rousing energy that has an authentic Western vibe. There are some fun moments, including one of the more inventive little moments of the second half of the series with a door/elevator embedded in a rock that Billy the Kidder goes through to escape.
Regardless of the material, Bob Holt's voice acting was never a problem for me in any of the cartoons of the series and it is no exception here. He always sounded like he was having fun as Hoot Kloot. Hoot and Kloot and Fester are still great characters, with the former being amusingly brash and the latter being sassy and also likeable.
Significantly less appealing is Billy the Kidder. It is hard to not expect a lot from a character parodying one of the most fascinating outlaws, but Billy the Kidder is neither remotely amusing or menacing. Instead he is reminiscent of an even more annoying Crazywolf in human form and Larry D. Mann overdoes it with the voice acting. Which really undermines any tension or fun the conflict should have had. The animation on the whole is not great, the first half looks under-budget and rushed looking and it looks ugly and over-simplistic. The colours are an eysore in the first half.
Although the humour has moments and there is more of it than there is in 'Big Beeft at O. K. Corral', much of it is very derivative of late 50s-early 60s Looney Tunes except being a lot less inventive. The wordplay has been sharper and wittier in other Hoot Kloot cartoons.
Concluding, average. 5/10.