This is going to be similarly worded to my previous Baby Huey reviews, because the strengths and flaws are pretty much identical in all.
Generally am not a fan of the character of Baby Huey, a rather one-joke character and especially in his later Famous Studios cartoons annoying. When it comes to Famous Studios' cartoons, there is a general preference for the Popeye, Casper and even Herman and Katnip cartoons. Although they all in all fairness had not so great cartoons in their later years, which was due to an overall decline in quality for Famous Studios due to what seemed like tighter deadlines and lower budgets.
'Scout Fellow' is a good example of why generally Baby Huey doesn't do it for me. Tolerated him in his debut cartoon 'Quack a Doodle Do', thanks to attempts of a story that was easy in a way to empathise with, and 'One Quack Mind' had a few amusing moments if more from the fox than Baby Huey. Here though, like in 'Party Smarty', what was mildly amusing at first has now gotten very old and this is only the fourth of twelve cartoons.
Not without virtues. Some of the animation rich and colourful, with very meticulous and beautifully drawn backgrounds, even if some the drawing lacks finesse in parts. The voice acting is good from Sid Raymond, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck in types of roles they were famous for and excelled at. The fox is an amusing and interesting villain character, and the most rootable character in the cartoon ironically.
Winston Sharples provides yet another outstanding music score, even in mediocre or worse cartoons Sharples' music was never among the flaws (if anything always one of the strengths or the best asset). Also love the lusciousness of the orchestration here and how characterful, haunting and whimsical the music was without going overboard in either, even better was how well it fitted in the cartoon and how it merged with the action.
However, Baby Huey himself is a large part of the problem. There is less of the big heart and good intentions that made him tolerable in his debut cartoon 'Quack a Doodle Do' and even more of the stupidity and dim-wittedness, he is annoying here and to be honest found myself rooting for the fox, a more interesting and funnier character. The drawing does lack finesse and some of the designs are inconsistent.
Dialogue is simplistic and forgettable at best, and the story is very predictable and takes a good while to get going with not even the interplay between Baby Huey and the fox igniting any sparkle. The gags are mostly very pedestrian and repetitive, apart from the odd mildly amusing one, and manage to take the fun out of the violence, laying it on too heavy with the execution and pacing it too literally. Consequently, the violence is more mean-spirited more than it is well-engineered or fun.
To conclude, didn't do much for me. 4/10 Bethany Cox