The first half of the Hoot Kloot series was on the whole very watchable, never great but never less than mediocre. The only less than average cartoon of the previous cartoons to me being 'Ten Miles to the Gallop'. 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.
'Giddy Up Woe' sees the halfway point of the Hoot Kloot series. To me, it is one of the weaker cartoons in the series, and it was from here where the series generally started to get tired and increasingly uninspired with even the animation quality not being as good as before. 'Giddy Up Woe' is far from terrible, but the premise is pretty tried and tested and there is little freshness or spark here. A sense that the series was running out of ideas.
Of course there are good things. There are lively colours and the backgrounds are strikingly abstract and not too simplistic. The music is characterful and full of life, there is a lot of it but it never felt too much to me.
Bob Holt brings a lot of enthusiasm to all the characters, especially Hoot Kloot where he is suitably loudmouth but doesn't make the eardrums bleed. Although Fester's role is not big, he is difficult to dislike and part of me felt for him. The ending is sweet.
Didn't care for the supporting characters though. The replacement horse character is basically one joke and it's a one joke that wears thin too early and is not interesting or easy to endear to at all. Even despite Hoot Kloot's rapid fire dialogue the chemistry between him and the horse lacks spark. Alf Willett is also very annoying. While the colours and backgrounds are nice, there is generally a very rushed look to the cartoon with some very scrappy character animation and the characters look pretty ugly. Especially the horse.
Also felt that the story is far too thin, the second half is basically a series of gags of Hoot Kloot trying and failing to achieve one goal with nothing that really progresses. It did feel like the horse didn't really serve a huge amount of point when the robber is introduced with some potential but forgotten about, what was the point of getting him only to not do any of what he was swapped for in the first place. The energy is just not there and the gags are neither funny or inspired. They are too very repetitive, feeling like the same thing over and over.
In summary, mediocre. 4/10