Hopalong Casualty

Road Runner, or Speedipus-Rex, is chased by the Coyote, or Hard Hepipus Ravenus, once again. This time the Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner with some dynamite, with a machine that changes things into nice little gifts and with some pills that will create an earthquake effect with every step. Of course thing do not go as planned.

This is a fine cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series. It gave me a lot of smiles. Especially the extended sequence with the earthquake pills, and even more the moments right before that, are hilarious. The timing there is as perfect as it can be. A great cartoon.

Wile E Coyote is a study in blind perserverance. He pursues one quarry with total fixation and even a failure rate of stunning perfection deters him not a whit. If the concepts of reincarnation and karma are at all valid, then you have to wonder just what horrible sin lies in a past life to cause Wile E. Coyote such agony and misfortune. The only thing I can figure is that he was the first politician in a previous life, possibly a lawyer, (or both) as that is the only thing that would remotely consign him to such a karmic fate. Excellent cartoon. Well worth watching. Most recommended.

Enjoyable Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short from the great Chuck Jones. It's a fast-paced cartoon that never slows down, although I wouldn't put it up there with the best of the series. This one features the classic earthquake pill gag and an amusing bit involving a Christmas packaging machine. There are some other gags involving dynamite that are okay, too. The animation is solid, if a little less exciting than Jones' better Road Runner cartoons. The colors are a little dull, as well. Lots of pink and gray. Milt Franklyn's music is upbeat and playful. It's an entertaining entry in the series that any fan should enjoy. The earthquake pill gag alone is worth giving it a look.

At its best, the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote were really wonderful cartoons, while they were formulaic at the series' best they were very funny, often hilarious, with great music, often clever visuals and even greater interplay between Roadrunner and Coyote.

Unfortunately, the series have seen a fair few duds as well, disadvantaged by being not particularly funny (quite tired in fact), being too repetitive, Roadrunner being annoying, looking cheap and Bill Lava's ill-fitting and even more cheap music, made only watchable by the odd decent gag and Coyote having some likability.

Thankfully, while not one of the classics of the series 'Hopalong Casualty' is a long way from being one of the duds. Not one of the all-time best Roadrunner vs Coyote cartoons but in the top end, with not much really that is wrong.

It is not among the most audacious looking of the Roadrunner vs Coyote cartoons, with the drawing having been slightly smoother before and the backgrounds having a little more detail. That said the animation is certainly not bad at all, it is still bright and colourful, the colours are eye-catching and both characters are well drawn with their movements fluid. The earthquake pills gag contains some really clever and quite brilliant animation on Coyote, a huge part as to why the gag is as good as it is. Milt Franklyn's music is lushly orchestrated, energetic, characterful, cleverly used and action-enhancing in equal measure as ever. Have a preference to Carl Stalling's scores, which had all of those things but even more so. Both are instantly more preferable to Bill Lava's.

'Hopalong Casualty' is never less than very funny and is paced beautifully. The highlight is indeed the classic earthquake pills gag which is just hilarious, one of the cleverest of the latter Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons in my opinion. The story may be formulaic and ever so slightly predictable, but it always feels fresh and is never dull. Roadrunner is cute and amusing, but Coyote has always been the funnier and more interesting character and he doesn't disappoint at all.

Overall, hugely enjoyable with one particularly great gag. 9/10 Bethany Cox