Hot-Rod and Reel!

How many schemes can Wile E. Coyote (insert bogus scientific name implying eating) think up in order to trap Road Runner (insert bogus scientific name implying speed)? I don't know, but "Hot-Rod and Reel!" shows some of them. I could pretty much figure out what sorts of things were going to happen each time, but the pleasure is watching them happen. And in this case, RR gets a little tougher.

The truth is, I just never tire of watching these cartoons, even as an adult. As the cartoons' creators explained in interviews, WEC comes just close enough to catching RR so that he believes that he'll succeed next time. He correlates exactly with George Santayana's definition of fanaticism (redoubling your efforts after you've forgotten your aim).

I don't know which of the Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoons I like the best, but this is certainly a funny one. I recommend it. And just be careful the next time that you start playing with a train set.

Another excellent Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short from the great Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Wile E.'s attempts to nab the Road Runner this time include using roller skates, a trampoline, shooting a stick of dynamite out of a crossbow, a decoy railroad crossing, and an ACME jet propelled unicycle. All of the gags are funny and well-timed in this one. Wonderful animation with nicely-drawn characters, backgrounds, and action. Love the bright colors. Energetic music from Milt Franklyn. As with most Road Runner & Coyote shorts, it's a simple but fun cartoon that everybody with a funny bone should enjoy. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

The Coyote (Famishius-Famishius) chases the Road Runner (Super-Sonicus-Tastius) and of course he does not succeed in catching him. This time the Coyote uses some roller skates, a snapshot camera with a gun, an Acme unicycle, some bombs and a fake rail road.

Because the cartoon is directed by Chuck Jones you know that it will be entertaining. I was not disappointed. 'Hot-Rod and Reel!' is a nice one with some great gags. The one with the rail road was perfect and the one with the bombs had a perfect timing. Instead of simply letting the bombs explode, Jones has the patience to wait a little longer than you might expect. With good animations and music that fits that animation this is another fine cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series.

Around this time the desert backgrounds in the Road Runner cartoons - always splashes of sun-baked colour, always attractive, always inventive - started to look alike. (Not WORSE - if anything, better - but alike.) The gags, though, started to look LESS alike. This cartoon has gravity and dynamite, same as always, but there's also unwieldy technological sophistication (the unicycle; or the rifle-in-a-camera, which backfires - literally - in a particularly clever way), jokes where the only point is that they defeat our expectations, and also the kind of absurdist joke, misplaced in the Road Runner universe, but which Jones from time to time was unable to resist (in this case, the Coyote goes to a lot of effort to create the ILLUSION of a railroad crossing, and ... well, you know what happens). Perhaps it was a mistake to include one of every kind of joke in a single cartoon.

Or perhaps not. One doesn't so much watch individual Road Runner cartoons as immerse oneself in the mythology.

The everlasting chase between Wily E. Coyote and Roadrunner continues with Coyote desperately trying to catch his prey. Armed with his Acme catalogue, Coyote tries every trick he knows to catch Roadrunner - including false train tracks, a fake camera, skates, an unicycle and others.

Having just watched the horrid film `The Wild Chase', I really needed to remind myself that the Coyote and Roadrunner formula was actually quite good at a time. Luckily this film was on not long afterwards and marked itself out as being an enjoyable cartoon that basically does all the things that a good Roadrunner cartoon does. The plot is the usual quest to catch Roadrunner, but this is only an excuse for (hopefully) witty and imaginative attempts by Coyote to do so. In this case that is so, with Coyote using many devices to try and catch him.

It's not rocket science and it won't win over those viewers who can only see banality in the cartoons but it is enjoyable for those who like the series. Roadrunner has a bit of attitude here that helps - he isn't just a streak of blue here. Coyote is as determined and hapless as ever and is funny for it.

Overall, this film may just stick to the formula but it is a formula that works so why not?! The only downside of the film is that the ending is abrupt and not very funny, leading me to the conclusion that they simply didn't know how best to finish it - so they just kind of, well, stopped!