Woody Woodpecker (2017)

Woody Woodpecker is the titular main protagonist of the critically panned 2017 film of the same name. Sadly, his character was badly butchered.

Why He Was "A-A-A-Awful"
(NOTE: This will focus exclusively on the 2017 live-action film.)
 * 1) He was severely flanderized from being a comedic slapstick animal into an unlikable sadist who annoys and tortures Lance and his family and makes everyone's life a living hell.
 * 2) * Granted, Woody may have been a mischievous screwball prankster in the original cartoons (especially in the earlier 1940s cartoons), but not to this extent of being malicious and sadistic, making this out of character for him.
 * 3) While Eric Bauza actually didn't do so bad as the character, his voice sounds like it was sped up too much, though strangely also slowed down at the same time, as well as being exported poorly, thus somewhat wasting his talent.
 * 4) * His singing is very bad, unlike in the original cartoons. This is very notable when he sings a pop rendition of his signature song "Everybody Thinks I'm Crazy" as originally heard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon short "Woody Woodpecker" (1941)
 * 5) Some of his dialogue is incredibly poor and laughable as well, mainly due to how he tries too hard to be "hip" and "trendy" using outdated slang and bad marks, as well as references to pop culture. Such as when he outsmarts the hunters at the beginning "Okay boys, you got me fair and square. NOT!!!", or even when he calls Lance's son Tommy as his "BFF" which he refers to as his "Bringer Of Free Food".
 * 6) He hardly shows any remorse at all for making Vanessa and Lance break up. But then again, Vanessa wasn't much better anyways.
 * 7) He provides way too much toilet humor, something which is never found in any of his original cartoons, such as when he farts out his signature laugh, poops on a guy's chocolate ice cream and the guy eats it (which, when he does, Woody is disgusted), and poops on Lance's girlfriend.
 * 8) Most of the injuries that he conflicts on Lance and Vanessa in the film are more lifelike and hurtful rather than being cartoonish and funny, most notably the scene where he gets both of them covered in wet cement and getting their caravan house burned down, the latter being the reason why Vanessa decided to break up with Lance (see WIS #5).
 * 9) He even strips two underage boys to their underwear and threatens to go further with his infamous line "Get ready to go commando!". Apparently, this scene was meant to be "funny", but instead is rather pedophilic and even zoophilic, considering he's a woodpecker!
 * 10) Because of his actions as described above, he comes off more like the main antagonist rather than the main protagonist of the film. Not helping is the fact that despite being called Woody Woodpecker, the first half of the film focuses on Lance and his son, and none of any of his animated co-stars like Wally Walrus or Buzz Buzzard appear in the film.
 * 11) He never got any comeuppance for his actions.
 * 12) The only reason why he stops abusing Lance and his family in this film is because they keep bribing him with his favorite peanut butter biscuit, which can convey a bad lesson about family and the environment and automatically cancels the film's lesson about tree felling.
 * 13) His CGI design, while it closely resembles his modern character design from the early-1950s Walter Lantz cartoons, can look unintentionally creepy because of his overly detailed eyes, especially in his green irises circling around his eyeballs.Consequently, he even severely destroyed, damaged and ruined Woody Woodpecker's overall reputation as well, especially in Brazil where Woody is very popular over there, since his film was so poorly received critically and commercially there that it almost brought Woody's popularity in Brazil down to zero. Even when the most recent Woody Woodpecker show was released, some Brazilian Woody Woodpecker fans would see it as an insult to the franchise and the classic series, possibly partially for this reason.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) He got better later on, even trying to help rebuild, only because they keep bribing him with peanut butter biscuits (see WIS #11).
 * 2) To be fair, he didn't intentionally cause Lance's newly built blue house to burn down.
 * 3) He is much more likable in all the other incarnations of the franchise, including the earlier 1990s version.
 * 4) * On top of that, he would redeem himself in the later 2018 version.
 * 5) His design is at least faithful to how it looks like in the cartoon.
 * 6) Eric Bauza still did a good job at voicing him, even though the pitch of his voice shifted.