Wild About Hurry

There were major missteps later on in the series. On the other hand, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote is on the most part most engaging, and the best of the series showed Looney Tunes at the top of their game.

While not quite among the best of the series, there are more inventive entries in the series and slightly more tighter-paced, it does contain some of the greatest individual scenes and gags of all Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote cartoons combined and it is one of Chuck Jones better cartoons of the series. The animation is great, it's smooth, vibrant with nice detailed backgrounds if not among the most meticulous of the series, and both Roadrunner and Wile are drawn well. Milt Franklyn seldom disappoints and it doesn't here, while not quite as characterful and action-enhancing as the music of Carl Stalling it still does those things well and is cleverly and beautifully orchestrated. Loved the use of pre-existing music too, such as Mendelssohn's Spring Song.

As said in the previous paragraph, Wild About Hurry is enormously entertaining. The Indestructo Steel ball gag is among the funniest of the entire Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote series, and the climactic sequence is one of the best and cleverest of all of their cartoons too. A gag that also went over my head as a child are the Latin names of the Roadrunner and Wile, which once you get them are very funny indeed. It is however consistent in the humour stakes, and it is never dull.

Roadrunner is amusing and never annoying, but Wile has always been the funnier and more interesting of the two (even in their weaker entries), and he is hilarious, a great job is done with his cunning facial expressions yet it is easy to feel sympathy for him.

Overall, great Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon if just missing out on masterpiece status. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The Road Runner, or Batoutahelius, is chased once again by the Coyote, or Hardheadipus Oedipus, in this cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series. This time the Coyote uses an "Indestructo Steel Ball" after attempts with a rocket failed. The ball, indeed not possible to destruct, ends up falling and bouncing in a loop with the Coyote in it. The Road Runner even comments on the loop, "Here we go again."

This is a nice entry in the series and like every episode it is enjoyable. Although it could have been better I liked the sequence with the steel ball. The ending, some pretty nice animation and music that adds something to the cartoon make this a cartoon worth watching.

Among the best of the always-engaging Road Runner series, Wild About Hurry opens with a superior title sequence, Chuck Jones' director credit on a rocket that helps Wile E. pursue the lightning-fast Road Runner (of course identified with a bogus Latin name) before the hapless wolf brethren slams into a cliff overhang.

A slingshot proves ineffective, and a drill-shaped rock leaves the coyote with a fit of the spins, before the most implausible gag - and thus among Jones' funniest - appears in the rocket train that plunges through the cliff-mounted track spur into the ground.

But then comes the short's coup de grace - the Acme Indestructo Steel Ball. Wile E. rides inside to catch Road Runner, but misses and winds up on a spectacular journey through a desert river aided by a recently-erected dam and waterfall. That, though, is just the start, as a speeding train and a abandoned minefield prove the real blast of the short, leaving the Road Runner showing the sympathy for the coyote that is the hallmark of the entire series before speeding off into the iris-out.

If a cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones, it was almost guaranteed to be great. And so it is with "Wild About Hurry", the 16th pairing of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. WEC tries things like a rocket (it crashes into an incline), rubber band (it throws him onto the ground), falling rock (it falls with him on top and he spins it, giving himself the worst case of dizziness imaginable). So surely the Indestructo Ball will work, right? Well, it would have, had Wile E. possessed any directional control! Why does WEC try time and again to catch RR? George Santayana said that fanaticism means redoubling your efforts after you've forgotten your aim. But there's something else. As the cartoons' creators said in interviews, each time, Wile E. comes just close enough to catching RR, so that he's certain that he'll succeed next time. Yeah, you'd think so, but we all know what's going to happen! These cartoons are a pleasure to watch time and again.