Hook, Line and Stinker

Lesser Chuck Jones Road Runner & Coyote short that's still better than all of the stuff that came after Jones left the series. The animation is solid, if not particularly exceptional. The colors are kind of dull, which is odd for the time. I thought maybe it was just the print I saw off TV but I checked out the DVD version and it appears to be the same there. As other reviewers have mentioned, the one notable gag involves a piano. The rest are pretty forgettable gags involving hammers, dynamite, and bird seed. What hurts the cartoon most of all is the canned music score, which is annoying and below the superior quality of the usual composers who worked in WB animation.

Not a bad Roadrunner effort, the film is hindered substantially by a score that will not let up, hammering away at the comedy when silence usually works best when Wile E.'s plans start to fail. Especially unfortunate since this is one where an early Coyote mishap provides an ongoing thread throughout the rest of the short--a nice Jones touch.

No matter how many times Wile Ethelbert "Famishius Famishius" Coyote tries to get Road "Burnius Roadibus" Runner, we always know what's going to happen, though our sympathy always remains with WEC. The highlight in "Hook, Line and Stinker" is a Rube Goldberg-style scheme that WEC hopes will finally finish off RR; but of course you know what happens.

So, Wile E. continues hilarious engaging in fanaticism (defined by George Santayana as redoubling your effort after you've forgotten your aim) while Road Runner pretty much never becomes aware of the potential danger - or lack thereof - in which he could find himself. A real classic.

And yes, the coyote's middle name is Ethelbert. I learned that from "Jeopardy!".

Another cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series and again a pretty funny one. 'Hook, Line and Stinker' introduces the Road Runner as Burnius Roadibus and the Coyote as Famishius Famishius before Coyote starts failing to catch the Road Runner. This time he uses dynamite (twice), birdseed at a railroad crossing and even a concert piano that must fall on the Road Runner. Of course the Coyote will not succeed.

This cartoon had me smiling a couple of times and although predictable most of the gags worked for me. The fact that you know exactly what will happen and the cartoon will not disappoint you is one of the charms from the series. Here, the gag with the railroad crossing and the birdseed made me laugh quite hard.

My previous comment inadvertently attributed a running dynamite gag to this film, whereas that actually appears in the (superior) "Lickety Splat". Without that gag, I have to grade this film even lower, because the heavy-handed non-Starling score still does diminish the overall effect of the film.