Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Another great Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote short from Chuck Jones. Once again, Coyote is trying his darnedest to catch the bird with no luck. Some hilarious gags, including grenades, mouse traps, hypnosis, and a wonderful telephone pole bit. Excellent animation in this one. Beautiful colors with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. I really love some of these early Road Runner shorts when the gags were so fresh and the animation so crisp. There were certainly some amazing ones later, too, but there's just something dynamic about some of the earlier ones. If you're a fan of the series, you'll no doubt love this one. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything but it does give you lots of laughs crammed into six minutes.

After the very funny and clever third episode of the "Road Runner" series ("Going! Going! Gosh!"), creator Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese seemed to backslide a bit on this fourth episode of the series. I always felt "Road Runner" worked best when Coyote was a victim of his own obsession, his own miscalculation, or his own horrible luck (helped along by Acme's guaranteed-to-backfire merchandise). Road Runner generally never laid a feather on him, other than occasionally bowling him over, but instead would trick him or startle him ("MEEPMEEP!") into his own calamities. That's why I often think of Road Runner as actually being female, cheerfully teasing her pursuer. But in this cartoon, Road Runner not only bowls coyote over, but repeatedly kicks him while he's down in the opening sequence, which seems a bit mean. And the artists also gave Coyote rather noticeable incisors, lessening his "cute" factor... and first and foremost, Wile E Coyote was always cute! Nevertheless, there are some funny moments, and those patented woebegone Wile E expressions (such as when he's gazing up at a huge steel ball that's about to flatten him, or at a hand grenade about to detonate in his teeth) are as priceless as ever. And the end gag is hilarious, as another of those rogue trucks sends him straight into his own booby trap. (Just why did he need that much dynamite for one little bird, anyway??) Overall, an enjoyable cartoon -- but a much better one was on the way!

Zipping Along (1953) *** (out of 4) The fourth Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner series has four way roads, guns, bombs, bird seed, cutting the strings on a bridge and more TNT as the dumb one keeps trying to catch his dinner. Even early on in the series we're starting to get quite a few repeat jokes and this would certainly continue throughout the series but you can help but be entertained by Wile's effort to get something to eat. The joy of watching him try and try harder only to fail is the real key to this series since the Road Runner offers very little outside his classic "Beep Beep". The highlight of the film has to be the free bird seed offer.

The life of a predator isn't what it's cracked up to be! He must be up to his eyeballs in debt to Acme (or has a sizable source of funds), his medical bills equally large and for what? A singular lack of success in catching one bird! I say give up, get a pizza and take up stamp collecting. Great fun and worth watching. Recommended.