Have seen a lot of work over the past few years from Hugh Harman and have liked enough of them, though the recently seen efforts have been a bit of a mixed bag (nothing terrible, few great). His visual style wasn't as polished perhaps as frequent and maybe better known collaborator Rudolf Ising, but to me he was the better storyteller with fewer cartoons to have a too cutesy approach and a few of his cartoons were ahead of their time in dealing with already bold themes.
One of his best for me is 'The Hungry Wolf'', a great cartoon worthy of more credit. It may not be one of my favourite cartoons or innovative, but it is enormously entertaining, spirited and well made and shows that Harman does have a comic touch and a good one. When it comes to his cartoons, 'The Hungry Wolf' is one of his funniest, most energetic and also one of his cutest and a welcome break from all the too cutesy and tired cartoons seen in the past three or so months.
Did think that it is a little too long by about 2 minutes, which did affect some of the pace a little early on.
'The Hungry Wolf' is excellent otherwise. The animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. Composer for the prime-era 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and regular Tex Avery composer Scott Bradley provides a lush and atmospheric music score that is beautifully orchestrated and full of lively character. The voice work is stellar, Mel Blanc can do no wrong.
It is a very funny cartoon as well and at its funniest hilarious. Absolutely loved the zany antics of the wolf, while action excites and has imagination visually. The story is slight but full of energy and charming, without being saccharine. The rabbit is very cute but the more interesting character is the wolf, who is both menacing and remarkably conflicted.
All in all, absolutely great. 9/10.