Chilly Willy's best cartoons were perfect examples of how a potentially one-joke character and concept could end up actually being a perfect mix of the cute and the funny with a lot of colour and good comic timing to go with it.'Vicious Viking' is another average Chilly Willy cartoon directed by Paul J Smith. This is the man responsible for Chilly's debut cartoon 'Chilly Willy', that was a great cartoon and one of Chilly's better cartoons while a lot of Smith's other Chilly Willy cartoons from the late 60s onward lost a good deal of what made that cartoon click. Chilly Willy and Smedley are still great characters and they are always more than watchable together.Let's start with the good things. Chilly hasn't lost his irresistible cuteness, charm and fun, his comic timing and clever outwitting are very much on full display and he still shows an ability to be incredibly effective when using gestures, actions and expressions while saying little. Smedley shows perfectly why he and Chilly Willy work so well together, he has great comic timing with some very humorous lines and is marvellously voiced by Daws Butler in southern drawl Huckleberry Hound mode. The two really sparkle together and their friendship is endearing.Some of the colours are bright and lively. Walter Greene's music is lively and rousingly, cleverly and beautifully orchestrated and fits very well if not quite enhancing the action and occasionally a little too free. Love the opening title credits music. Some of the gags are very amusing and well timed.On the other hand, the animation is simplistic and looks very carelessly drawn and detailed, time and budget constraints show clearly here. The story is barely existent, and what there is very obvious and not quite varied enough.The pacing tends to be a little too hectic. The polar bear came over as pointless, but more problematic was the Viking character. He was less than vicious and actually came over as an annoying buffoon. Chilly Willy's voice here really did not suit the character at all.Overall, average. 5/10 Bethany Cox