Rushing Roulette

Once again, Robert McKimson shows he has no idea of what's going on as he takes Chuck Jones' Roadrunner-coyote series and wrecks it by having the Roadrunner do things to the coyote.

Although I am no fan of this particular series, which I feel Chuck Jones ran into the ground fairly early, a victim of its own success, there was a definite psychology and order to it. McKimson uses it to recycle gags, regardless of their relevance.

'Rushing Roulette' is a cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series, directed by Robert McKimson. In this cartoon the Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner with free piano lessons, free snap shots, a helicopter and an anvil, some glue on the road and he uses a mirror and sunlight to burn things, including the Road Runner. Of course things do not work as planned.

Although the cartoons in which the Road Runner actually does things to the Coyote are not my favorites (in the early cartoons the Road Runner was just running and the Coyote's tricks simply all backfired on him) this is a nice one and good enough for the series. I had my laughs. And although I don't like the endings where the Road Runner is driving a vehicle, the other gags involving vehicles are pretty good here.

Very basic post-Chuck Jones Wile E. Coyote vs Road Runner cartoon. Coyote tries different things to catch the Road Runner and fails. The Road Runner even goes on the offensive in this one, which is not something I'm a fan of. Also, there seemed to be a lot of his "Beep Beep" in this short, to the point of being annoying. As other reviewers mention, this cartoon misses the point of the classic Chuck Jones shorts. Nobody 'got' what made this series work but Jones and even he was spinning his wheels creatively by the end. This was just the second Road Runner short directed by somebody other than Jones. Robert McKimson was very talented but his style worked better with other characters like Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn. Still, the animation is adequate (for the '60s) and there are some passable gags. It's better than the Rudy Larriva stuff, that's for sure.

What you see before you is the second Road Runner cartoon directed by someone other then Chuck Jones, and the first ever with zero animation by Chuck either, ("The Wild Chase" was sorta a cheater, because it was like, 60% reused animation from other Road Runner shorts), as cool as this is, how does this cartoon fair against Chuck's? Well.. Not at all, any one of Chuck's Road Runner cartoons would blow this out of the water, but on its own? Its a pretty decent cartoon, seems McKimson's best cartoons from this era are his silent ones.

This short features some of (If not THE) best animation to come out of the DePatie-Freleng era of Looney Tunes, though there are some noticeable Sound/Animation mistakes here or there, and some of the gags (Namely the piano lessons scene, and the ending) have been done before countless times, also the scene with the giant rock and the truck started off good, and i like the idea of the gag, but the punch line isn't done very well.

Y'know the Road Runner takes on more of a Bugs Bunny type role in this short (as well as most of the others after this) because while he still acts like usual, he also out smarts Wile and does things to trick him, which is something that Chuck tried to do as little as possible, having Wile mostly lose to himself, that doesn't really bother me, in fact i think those are some of the funniest gags from this era of Road Runner, but i can see how a fan could be distraught about it.

The music in this cartoon is nothing to write home about, (Trust me, you'll soon find that when it come to Looney Tunes, Bill Lava has two modes, overly dramatic, and overly catchy, this one is not the catchy variety.) but at least its fully scored instead of just being a lotta stock music.

Over all this is a good to ok cartoon that i really enjoyed (Though if you know me, you'll know that i am easy to entertain, and i'm not sure if i can speak for most), McKimson would later go on to direct the much better Road Runner cartoon "Sugar and Spies", now that one, you really outta check out, these make me wish McKimson directed all of the Road Runner shorts during this time, Rudy Larriva just didn't do that good of a job in comparison, if you are a completionist, or you think 6/10 is a good score, i recommend you find it online or catch it on tv if you can, otherwise, just watch Sugar and Spies.

The late 40s-early-60s Roadrunner vs Wile E. Coyote cartoons were on the whole thoroughly enjoyable, with a fair number of classics as well. Once budgets were smaller and time constraints tighter and shorter, there was a significant decline in quality from 1965 onwards, especially with the Rudy Larriva cartoons (where only three of his eleven efforts are watchable).

'Rushing Roulette' was made when the series was starting to decline, and while it is nowhere near nadir-Rudy Larriva standard it's no classic Chuck Jones either. It's watchable but mediocre, for a Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote cartoon at this point that is disappointing.

Animation in 'Rushing Roulette' is decent, certainly never cheap-looking, while never great or inventive. Nice use of colour, great use of expressions on Coyote and it's smoothly drawn, but more detail in the backgrounds, which are reasonably sparse here, would have been more welcome. Coyote is a funny and easy-to-root-for character, with great facial expressions, a crafty demeanour and a clever mind that sadly doesn't count on his schemes backfiring so often. While somewhat familiar and reasonably predictable, the gags are at least amusing and timed well, no real tiredness or repetitiveness here. There is some good energy too, with things going at a pace that's never rushed or dreary.

On the other hand, the story is very basic and predictable, and as much as this reviewer hates to repeat what's already been said it does miss the point of the previous cartoons directed by Chuck Jones. Consequently, the cartoon isn't as funny (though it does have its moments) and it strips Roadrunner of any charm he previously had. Robert McKimson, who is often in the shadow of Fritz Freleng and Chuck Jones, is not in his best directing form.

His visual style is recognisable and there is energy sure, but while he doesn't do too badly with Coyote due to specialising in characters similar like Sylvester he messes up badly on Roadrunner (who was at least cute and amusing before despite being less interesting and more a plot device, but here he was a jerk and it was all downhill for the character from then on) and the chemistry between the two characters fails to spark. Although he wrote worse music later, in this series and for the Speedy Gonzales cartoons Bill Lava pales in comparison to Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn. Whereas those two wrote music that was energetic, beautifully orchestrated, characterful and fitting with the action (Stalling had a remarkable and perhaps unrivalled ability of enhancing it), while not as cheap, annoying or as stock as later the music doesn't generate much energy or appealing enough sounds and it doesn't gel completely either.

Overall, okay but a lesser effort without being one of the low-points. 5/10 Bethany Cox