Hairied and Hurried

Despite really enjoying the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons on the whole, with the best of them being wonderful, the mid-to-late-60s saw quite a number of duds.

'Hairied and Hurried' is a little better than 'Shot and Bothered', 'Tired and Feathered', 'Highway Runnery' and 'Boulder Wham', but while not quite one of the duds of the series it's one of the weaker ones. It's not as tired or as dull as the cited cartoons, with the pacing having a little energy in places and a couple of moments induces a very wry smile and not being as repetitive as the mid-late-60s cartoons could be. Wile E. Coyote is appropriately cunning and easy to root for, but he has had stronger material before which allows him to be funnier than he is here, he's not unfunny just not up to what he is capable of.

Roadrunner however, while not as much as some of the other Larriva-directed cartoons, is more annoying than he is funny, and the chemistry between the two is bland. As with all the Rudy Larriva-directed Roadrunner vs. Coyote cartoons, the tight time constraints and limited budget shows in the flat and simplistic animation that contains nothing imaginative or eye-catching. Bill Lava's music score manages to be one of his most grating, and sounds really repetitive and misplaced here.

The gags could have been much worse but they could have also been much better. Nothing squirm-inducing, and there are a couple of small-wry-smile-worthy moments, but there is still a distinct lack of spark and despite not being quite as repetitive as others in the series the material still has an over-familiarity. As does the formulaic story, the series is formulaic to begin with but most of them in a charming and enjoyable way, this just felt uninspired.

In conclusion, not awful but never rises above lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Oh joy, a Ruddy Larriva Road Runner cartoon. These are just...well, they're just. This one maintains the low standards fans expect from Larriva. The animation is lackluster, at times even ugly. Did you know things like proportion and scale don't even matter? Live and learn. The music is extremely repetitive and irritating. Oh but the jokes are great, aren't they? Nope! This features one tired failed gag after another. Wile E. Coyote uses a snow machine, a kite bomb, dynamite, and karate. None of these bits are well animated or funny. The closest thing to an original gag that comes within a mile of working is the parachute one. It's really a cruddy cartoon. Watch it if you're a completist but not if you're looking for a legitimately entertaining Road Runner & Coyote cartoon.

I suspect that this one could easily have been titled, "Hey, we got a contract that calls for so many cartoons, that's why!" without too much trouble. By this point, they were basically just doing whatever they could to meet quota. This isn't that bad a cartoon, it's just that the early stuff is so much better, it suffers by comparison. They did quite a few worse, as well as some that were very good. Worth watching at least once. Formulaic but okay. Sort of recommended.