The Wild Chase

For years, Wile E. Coyote had unsuccessfully chased Road Runner, and Sylvester had unsuccessfully pursued Speedy Gonzales. With RR racing against the Fastest Mouse in Mexico, it's no surprise that WEC and Sylvester try to catch them...whether they cooperate or get on each other's nerves.

I should identify that despite the overall plot, "The Wild Chase" is not a particularly original cartoon. Many of the traps were lifted out of previous cartoons. I also felt that the cartoon ended sort of abruptly. But in the grand scheme of things, I liked the idea of what would happen if these two most accelerated Looney Tunes had to race against each other. If it brings up the continuing immigration debate in our country (a Mexican and an American as opponents), then so be it. This is still a pretty interesting cartoon.

I actually really wanted to like The Wild Chase. I love Looney Tunes and Sylvester, there are a fair few Roadrunner-Wile E Coyote cartoons that I do enjoy(though their overall series is not what I call consistent). Speedy Gonzales I don't dislike, but he has never been one of my favourites either. Plus it did have a very interesting idea. Sadly this was never lived up to due to very mediocre execution. It does have its moments, the line ups of people betting on Speedy and the Roadrunner, the TNT pump gag and the ending were at least amusing, Mel Blanc does a good job providing the vocals- though he has done much better work- and Bill Lava's music does have a certain jauntiness to it. I do much prefer Carl Stalling's scoring though. However, I didn't care for the animation, the backgrounds looked very sparse and lacking in colour and Sylvester and Wile E were very poorly drawn. I think also that a lot of the animation looked recycled further cheapened The Wild Chase. The story was also rather limp, I kind of knew that it was going to be predictable as a lot of the Roadrunner-Wile E cartoons are, but when under Chuck Jones' involvement they at least do have energy and a sense of fun. I do think The Wild Chase suffers from the lack of Chuck Jones, don't get me wrong I love Fritz Freleng but because the material wasn't anywhere near as inspired as some of his other work it doesn't allow him to put enough of his own style to it. The humour offers little new or exciting, apart from a couple of moments a lot of it feels like a tired rehash of some of their previous efforts. The four main characters had so much potential but all of them seemed bland. Sylvester and Wile E have such great personalities but as a consequence of the humour being so lacking those personalities just didn't come through. And Speedy just ended up being annoying, there were times when I did question what the point of him was other than being a foil for Sylvester. All in all, a disappointing cartoon considering its potential. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The fastest mouse from Mexico, Speedy Gonzalez, finally in a race against the Texas road burner, Road Runner. They are gonna decide who is the fastest but of course Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote try to catch the two racers before they reach the finish. They do not succeed, of course, but there is a nice little surprise in the end.

This cartoon could have been hilarious, considering the possibilities. Instead they have chosen to use the best gags from earlier and better cartoons. I recognized all the gags from previous Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoons, but I have to say that I still smiled. The reason for that was Sylvester who simply added to the gags. Still, he made sure this cartoon was pretty enjoyable.

This is particularly for those who would criticize this cartoon because it doesn't quite meet your expectations.

Get over it. It is, after all, a cartoon.

If you want an Academy Award winning performance, by all means, watch an Academy Award winning film. This is a cartoon. I mention that again just in case it has escaped your observation up until now.

And this cartoon combines the two best elements from cartoons gone by - specifically the Road Runner and Speedy chases. Not only does it combine the two best pairs of good guy vs. bad guy, but also some of the best gags from past shows.

If you still don't think it's up to par, go back and watch an hour of the shows from the early 1930s, and then watch this one again. And remember, it's only a cartoon.

Face it, unless you're over 60, you've been watching re-runs of these guys your whole life, so if you're gonna complain about re-runs, then don't watch them. There's plenty of brand new much-lower-quality cartoons out there for you to complain about.

Admittedly, the idea of Speedy Gonzales and the Roadrunner having a foot race is a great idea.

While it's not as bad as most shorts from that era, it's nothing to write home about either. The fact is that is recycles animation (and, by extension, gags) from previous Roadrunner cartoons. This also results in a jarring contrast between Sylvester (who is drawn in the DePatie-Freleng style) and Wile E. Coyote (who is drawn in Chuck Jones' distinctive style).

That being said, it could be pretty enjoyable if you haven't seen "Zoom and Bored" (which the short recycles its animation from) and the ending was decent.