Guided Muscle

In this cartoon we see the Coyote cooking a meal for himself. When he wants to start eating (his meal is an empty tin can) something better comes along, Road Runner. Coyote, this time introduced as Eatibus Almost Anythingus, tries to catch Road Runner, this time Velocitus Delectibus. He uses himself as a giant arrow, he tries to shoot himself with an elastic, he tries cannon balls, and even follows the instructions from a book called 'How to Tar and Feather a Road Runner'. The Road Runner actually comments on that one.

This is another fine cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series. The animation is nice, the timing for the gags perfect and the music adds a lot to the funny moments.

Starting off with the Road Runner interrupting the crafty coyote's meal, the seventh pairing of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner has a few gags repeated from the earlier shorts which while old still made me chuckle, but it has a few new ones as well that made me laugh. And as always ANY short with Wile E. in it is so VERY much worth watching, as he's one of my absolute favorite cartoon personalities of all time. This animated short can be seen on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. This cartoon also has an optional music only track.

My Grade: B

While most Wile E. Coyote-Road Runner cartoons begin with WEC chasing RR - accompanied by parody scientific names - "Guided Muscle" starts with the former cooking some food before getting interrupted by the latter. Then comes the chase. As always, WEC has a litany of tricks and gadgets in store, but they always get him somehow. There are some repeats from earlier cartoons and some new ones. Probably the best involves WEC trying to tar and feather RR (of course, it doesn't work).

So, even if this cartoon doesn't really add anything new to the cinematic landscape, it's always great to see that the more you try to harm someone, the more you get harmed. Classic.

By the time Chuck Jones directed 'Guided Muscle', the seventh Road Runner cartoon, he had already perfected the formula. The previous two cartoons, 'Stop, Look and Hasten' and 'Ready, Set, Zoom' were both amongst the best cartoons in the entire Road Runner series, with the latter staking a convincing claim to being the best of the entire bunch. One might ask if Jones could justify continuing a series that threatened to get repetitive. Perhaps surprisingly, however, Jones's stringent rule that the characters must always remain in their natural desert habitat ensured that the series stayed fresh. While Friz Freleng's Sylvester and Tweety series quickly went stale thanks to the same routines being replayed in different settings, the constant location of the Road Runner cartoons pushed writer Michael Maltese to come up with more and more inventive jokes and Chuck Jones to direct them with more and more inventive flair. So 'Guided Muscle' keeps the series right at the top of its game with ample hilarious gags enhanced by glorious reaction shots from the Coyote, whose relationship with the audience was now established beyond doubt. As well as being stuffed with great gags, 'Guided Muscle' continues the run of more inventive opening and closing segments. There's a brilliant opening set-up in which the Coyote prepares a tin can for consumption as if it were the finest delicacy known to man but fails to fight off the reality of the situation when he finally sits down to eat it. There's also a delightful ending in which he finally reaches breaking point and effectively tenders his resignation!

These are lean times, once again, for poor Wile E. Coyote (Eatibus almost anythingus) who cooks a tin case in desperation, but can't eat it. The Road Runner (Velocitus Delectibus) sprints by and knocks the poor coyote over. Once upright, Wile licks his chops and the chase is on, but it is a short one. Wilie stops, thinks things over and comes up with some plans.

Some of this is the standard fare: boulders, pouring something on the road, etc., but there were some different ploys in here that were very good. My favorites were the coyote making himself into a human arrow, shooting himself from a big bow, the fuse going up from the TNT back through the fishing reel and, of course the tar-and-feather bit. In that, Wile reads from the book "How To Tar and Feather A Road Runner." In small print, it says "tenth edition." You just know this isn't going to go by the book!