Chuck Jones's 'Ready, Set, Zoom', the sixth Road Runner cartoon, had the mammoth task of following 'Stop, Look and Hasten', one of the best cartoons of the series. Jones and his regular Road Runner writer Michael Maltese more than rose to the challenge and, if anything, 'Ready, Set, Zoom' is even better than its classic predecessor. A startlingly handsome and extremely funny short, 'Ready, Set, Zoom' opens with the unusual sight of a stationary Road Runner. From here, it continues to confound audience expectations with the most unpredictable set of jokes yet. When we do arrive at a gag with an obvious outcome (the enormous weight), Jones opts to trust our instincts as an audience and not even bother showing us the Coyote's inevitable clobbering, instead simply allowing a squashed creature to waddle past the screen after an off-screen clang! The facial expressions of the Coyote are priceless throughout 'Ready, Set, Zoom', from the glorious evil grin as he formulates his first evil plan to the look of horror in the final unexpected twist. The best sequence, however, is the extended scene in which a glue-drenched Coyote attempts to rid himself of a sticky stick of dynamite. Everyone knows what's going to happen. Effectively, the gag has already ended the moment the glue covers the Coyote. Yet Jones wrings out every last laugh from the situation, playing on our sympathies as we hope that just maybe this time he'll be spared and our wicked sides as we savour his desperation to evade the inevitable Ka-boom! It's a glorious sequence in a glorious cartoon which makes a convincing case for being the absolute best of the series.
