Little Go Beep

Here's a recent pretty good entry in Warner Brother's occasional cartoons. It posits that once upon a time, the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote were toddlers, and the Coyote was trying to catch the roadrunner back then, too, with as little success as later.

For what is essentially a silent cartoon -- Stan Freberg gets a few lines as the Coyote's father, instructing him on being a predator -- the excellence of the gags is paramount, and the creators of this cartoon have done a fine job, converting various children's toys into weapons. Against the Coyote, of course.

The result succeeds in not only being funny, but in being cute. Since Chuck Jones -- who created these characters -- started out wanting to make cute cartoons, I'm sure he'd be pleased with the result.

The Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote series was on the most part entertaining, especially for Coyote. Little Go Beep was surprisingly delightful for a late Looney Tunes cartoon, and is almost as good as the best Road Runner/Coyote cartoons. Road Runner has very little to do, in fact he's barely in it but that it was all that wasn't quite so good. Wile really does steal the show, even as a baby he is hilarious and crafty with priceless facial expressions that are just as funny as the gags. And he is so cute. The story is vibrantly paced and very loyal to the "formula" format of the series, if you've seen a Roadrunner/Coyote cartoon before the story and the outcomes of Wile's traps won't come as a surprise but that doesn't matter. In fact, the cartoon really respects the previous Roadrunner/Coyote cartoons, with the type of gags, Wile's facial expressions and even the screen captions at the beginning. The animation is bright and colourful with lots of detail and fluid movements, characters move easily and are always on model, and again Wile's expressions are beautifully and cleverly done. The music has much bombastic energy and the orchestration is very lively, enhancing the action really well. You won't be surprised by the outcome of the gags, but they are still hilarious, felt very fresh and quite clever actually, can't decide which is the favourite because they all worked, with an ending that you do not expect. Coyote's father has a final line that raises a laugh and Stan Freberg does a good job voicing him. All in all, cute, colourful and hilarious, a delightful modern cartoon that re-captures the charm and spirit of the Roadrunner/Coyote series really quite well. 9/10 Bethany Cox