The Whizzard of Ow

This film was one of several new cartoons that Warner Bros. was going to release to theaters along with their live action features. While most of the finished shorts have not seen the light of day, this particular title was included on the DVD release of Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

It is a tepid and banal cartoon without much laughs, slightly better than the awful Rudy Larriva Road Runner theatrical shorts of the late sixties (produced by Seven Arts). It begins with an unnecessary set up in which a dueling wizard loses his book of spells. Wile E. Coyote then finds the book and decides to use magic to capture the Road Runner. Why waste time with such a long and unfunny prologue? Wile E. simply could have ordered the book from the reliable Acme Co. instead. This would have wasted less time and gotten right to the chase.

The rest of the cartoon is comprised of gags that misfire because of poor staging, or slow timing. There are some occasional funny gags here and there (I honestly can't remember them at the moment, though) but they are too few and far between.

The animation on only a few occasions rises above the type of fare we are used to seeing on television. In fact, the animation for the Ren & Stimpy Show is far superior to that of this theatrical short. And the former was produced on a television budget!

The filmmakers also break one of Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese's cardinal rules about the Road Runner series, and that is that the Road Runner never willfully causes the Coyote any harm.

Save yourself the trouble of seeing a once fine series corrupted by sitcom writers and television animators, and watch the original cartoons directed by Chuck Jones instead.

This Roadrunner cartoon preceded the awesome Looney Tunes: Back in Action movie. I saw it with a full house and everyone did find it funny (plus it was cool to get a little extra bonus before the movie started). The animation is slick and modern and there are some real funny moments.

The story behind this 'un sees a couple of dueling wizards wipe each other out. Wile E. Coyote comes across one of their spell books and instead of using shoddy acme products to catch the Roadrunner he decides to use a bit of magic. Though some of the timing is off.

I didn't think the joke with the levitating boulder was funny at all and everyone could see it coming. Though the last few moments with the flying horse, the train, the scorpions and the flying shark were hilarious. A series of increasing misfortune making for a great end.

I am a big Looney Tunes fan, and while it is not the best of the Roadrunner and Wile E.Coyote I've seen, it is an improvement on some of their cartoons from their cartoons made around 1965. What I didn't entirely like about The Whizzard of Ow were two or three things. One was the pace, which was uneven, the last minute and a half or so while having some fun and invention felt rushed in particular. Secondly, there was only one gag that didn't quite work and that was the levitating boulder, cool it was to look at, but the gag itself for my liking was rather drawn-out and predictable. Finally, at the end Roadrunner directly harms Coyote and quite harshly too, and while I loved the snakes, alligator and shark, this bothered me because in the older cartoons I don't seem to remember Roadrunner doing that. That said, the cartoon does start off very well with a cool idea and despite its flaws is very funny with some inspired parts such as Pegasus the flying horse, Coyote on a broom(which was like the writers experimenting with old and new ideas and merging them) complete with a very clever mobile gimmick and Coyote's ears falling off at one point. Coyote himself is very crafty and bad ass, very like he is in the old cartoons, which I liked very much. The animation is slick and colourful and the music is quite nice with a quite stirring instrumental in the opening sequence between the two wizards. All in all, worth a peek and very funny but at the same time it didn't wow me over. 7/10 Bethany Cox

When Wile E. Coyote comes upon(well, it hits him in the face... how do *you* find reading material?) a book of magic(from Acme, of course), he uses it to try to finally get his hands on the Road Runner, replacing the rockets, dynamite and fake paths through mountains with flying brooms, transmogrification and directed telekinesis.

This is one of the new Looney Tunes shorts that came out with their live-action ventures, and it's featured on the DVD of Back in Action. While I will confess upfront that I'm not a fan, and have not watched many of these, this one was pretty funny, albeit it is not on the level of their classic efforts.

The slapstick makes fine use of the wizardry element, and has some good ideas. As usual, expectations are either subverted or openly pointed out, and the laws of physics take as much of a beating as a certain hungry canine. The pace is swift throughout, and the 7 minutes fly by like so many conjured up tools of sweeping. All of the comedy is appealing to both children and adults.

There is a lot of cartoon violence in this. I recommend this to fans of the characters. 7/10

This was new on the Bugs Bunny and Friends show on MeTV Toons (to me at least).

Overall, it is great to see a newer Roadrunner v Coyote cartoon. New ideas, for the most part. New sound effects, as well.

While some may not appreciate the opening segment, as it does not have either the Roadrunner or Coyote. But it does set up the Acme Book of Magic, flying broom, and wizard's familiar (black cat). Aside from getting hit with the book, the cat also has first contact with the Coyote. Sort of adding insult to injury.

Using the book of magic leads to some new gags, as does the flying broom. The floating rock, unfortunately, is one of the old ideas, and does not add anything.

This also leads to the other disappointment, hardly any Roadrunner. Yes, he does show up to eat the birdseed, but is gone a few seconds later. I don't think there was even a meep, meep.

The series of transformations at the end were great, even if the ending on the shark is a callback to many different older Warner Bros cartoons.

At least at the end, the Roadrunner gets to make a friend.

Btw, to those who must bring in politics, get your computer nomenclature right. Harddrives are not quoted in "flops", they are quoted in bytes. As in a 122TB SSD harddrive, although it currently sells for as much as a good used car.