Tired and Feathered

While the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons are very enjoyable on the most part, there were some bad ones and while it is a little superior to 'Shot and Bothered', 'Tired and Feathered' has very little going for it and in quality it's pretty much on that cartoon's level.

Have to disagree too that 'Tired and Feathered' is one of the better mid-to-late-60s, to me it is one of the worst and also one of the worst of the whole Roadrunner vs. Wile E. Coyote series. Everything that this viewer, and many others, dislikes about these cartoons in this period is here, and even other weak entries from the mid-to-late-60s cartoons fared slightly better in all departments if not by much.

Redeeming qualities are very few but Coyote still has some amusing and endearing expressions and, while earlier cartoons did it much better, it is easy to root for him, if maybe more the fact that it is impossible to like Roadrunner here. He is also not quite as badly drawn as he is in most mid-to-late-60s Roadrunner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoons, if somewhat oversized. Coyote however has been far more interesting and much funnier before, his personality not really shining properly.

That is nothing compared to Roadrunner, who is not cute or funny at all. He is incredibly obnoxious actually and injects very little personality if at all, while his character design is similarly awful and rushed-looking. The chemistry between the two is incredibly bland. 'Tired and Feathered' contains some really cheap-looking animation, yes budgets were smaller and time constraints tighter but that does not excuse the lack of quality. There is no vibrancy, backgrounds have absolutely no detail and look unfinished and everything except Coyote (if really not by much) looks ugly.

Bill Lava's music score doesn't work in this cartoon and doesn't cut it even on its own. The canned sound is unappealing and that's putting it mildly indeed, the whole score is repetitive, has no energy or character and is so at odds with the rest of the cartoon that it was like Lava had forgotten completely what sort of cartoon he was writing for.

None of the gags work. As weak as 'Boulder Wham' for example was, it at least had the opening titles and the hypnotism sequence and actually to its small credit on reflection 'Shot and Bothered' had the crack-a-very-slight-smile tennis net gag. 'Tired and Feathered' has nothing. Everything, like 'Shot and Bothered', feels tired, looks poorly animated and feels incomplete and skippy, clearing showing that the series was running out of ideas. The cartoon takes far too long to set up, the beginning felt like padding above all else, while the ending is very abrupt and is not funny at all. The story is dull and, while the series is formulaic in general, because of the material being so lacking and nothing new, it is also extremely repetitive.

In conclusion, doesn't work and one of the biggest stinkers of the Roadrunner vs. Coyote series. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Although this is definitely not one of the best Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoons it is a pretty nice one. The Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner with a backpack and a propeller, a rolling stone and with a phone booth that the Coyote changes into a bird sanctuary. The phone is a stick of dynamite instead of a real phone, so we know who will get the explosion.

Directed by Rudy Larriva, probably the worst of Road Runner directors, I was expecting a bad cartoon, but it was actually quite entertaining. The preparation for the bird sanctuary took over half the cartoon and that makes it a little different than we normally see.

Another terrible Rudy Larriva Road Runner & Coyote cartoon. The reviewer before me says it's one of Larriva's better ones. That may be but a turd is still a turd. In addition to lame gags that reminds us of better ones from the Chuck Jones years like the propeller backpack, the log roll, and the repeated falls down the same canyon, this has a bird sanctuary gag that takes up a lot of time. The other reviewer praises the long set-up for this bit but, in my opinion, a long set-up requires a greater payoff. Since Larriva never put any thought into the gags in his shorts, you get the feeling the set-up was just to pad time. The payoff is weak (of course) and then the short abruptly ends. Brilliant. Someone should have explained to Larriva that "leave them wanting more" did not mean what he thought it meant. The canned Bill Lava music is awful in every way. The animation is flat and cheap-looking. Why is Wile E. Coyote now a giant compared to the Road Runner? Just a lackluster effort all around. Don't bother with this mess. Watch the Jones shorts instead.