Category: Chuck Jones

Anything directed by the man who was responsible for directing the number one greatest cartoon.

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There they go-go-go

“?”

Wile E. Coyote is preparing a delicious feast: a turkey made of mud. After it cooks, he finds he can not eat it and proceeds to toss it into a mud trash can. Cue object of desire. Lunging with a spear (crashes into road) and using a pop-out gun (comes out too far, thus shooting him) are both nothing new. Then he makes some really cool mace copter! That lands on him.

He deploys a ladder for use as a bridge, but cuts it partly so it will break. When he sees the Roadrunner above him, he grabs the ladder and prepares to climb, only for it to snap in half. Eventually he sets up a trap where various boulders will be emptied onto the bird, but they are packed in too tightly. He pokes them with a stick before he realizes what he’s doing. CRASH!

Personal Rating: 3

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Gee Whiz-z-z

“Egad!!”

While Wile E is chasing his prey, the bird makes a sharp turn just to confuse the canine. (Remember this trick.) The coyote shoots a gun, but the bird actually outruns the bullet. He holds up a steel plate but the bird runs through it. (I think he took the coyote’s body too.) Wile E tries a bat man’s (not Batman) outfit and surprisingly, it works. If he had only looked where he was going…

He makes use of his artistic side and paints a “bridge out” scene. The tunnel gag goes in reverse now, with the bird running through it and the coyote running off it. As a last resort, Wile E rides a jet engine and nearly catches his prize. It pulls the same sharp turn trick though and the coyote falls off a cliff. As he falls he asks that the cartoon end before we see his impact I suppose that’s fair.

Personal Rating: 3

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Guided Muscle

“Acme Grease“

Ahh, lunchtime. Today the coyote is stewing up a delicious can. Too bad he can’t bring himself to actually eat it. Especially when there is better game to hunt. Turning himself into an arrow works until he launches himself into a cactus and off a cliff. He sets up a slingshot attached to a red fuzzy cactus (?) but it does not launch until he does not want it to. He tries firing a cannon, but it shoots him back into a cliff wall before shooting himself in the head.

A wrecking ball just makes the tree it’s attached to fall on him, and when he greases the road, the Roadrunner just mocks him by skating. He thinks tarring and feathering would work, but did you know roadrunners are already feathered? Finally, he buries some dynamite but the bird causes him to run over it just as it detonates. Frustrated, he quits his cartoon job, and and pulls out the “That’s all, folks!” card.

Personal Rating: 3

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Ready, Set, Zoom!

“Detour thru tunnel”

One morning, the coyote awakes for a fresh day of Roadrunner chasing. Today’s tricks include painting a road with glue. (Look, he’s on it, but then there’s a circle around him. Did it just evaporate?) He gets hit by a truck. He tries again with the glue and a dynamite stick, but the bird just runs through it, splashing the glue on him and the TNT. BOOM!

He successfully gets the bird into a log perched off a cliff, but the bird just jumps out through a knothole. The coyote falls. He tries to drop a weight that does not fall until he’s under it and when he tries a TNT lasso, the bird takes an alternate route, and the coyote blows up. He also makes a creative device complete with wagon and boat motor.  He goes careening off a cliff, and quickly unties himself only for the machine make it to the other side, anyway. He also puts on a female roadrunner suit, and gets chased by every coyote in the desert.

Personal Rating: 3

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Stop! Look! and Hasten!

“Coyote (Eatibus Anythingus)”

365 days of this blog! One more until the first anniversary!

Food is scarce in the desert, so the coyote has to make do with flies and old cans. Then his dream lunch runs by and new ideas swarm in his head. A boulder just falls on him and a snare trap gets him a truck. A tiger trap only catches a tiger (obviously) and when he tries a steel wall that will pop out of the ground, the stupid thing gets stuck.

The chase continues onto the railroad where he gets creamed by a train, and when he decides to use a detonator, he blows himself up. (Watch the handle, it changes color.) Getting the bird to stop for some free bird seed, he tries the classic saw around prey, and whole bridge falls gag. (Good thing roadrunners can fly.)

As a last resort, he chugs down some leg vitamins and now he can catch up to the bird, but of course just as he is about to catch it, the wall from earlier pops up. The Roadrunner spells out “That’s all Folks” in his dust.

Personal Rating: 4

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Zipping Along

“Yeooooow!”

We all know the Roadrunner is fast, but did you know he can outrun a speeding train? He may just be minding his own business, but there are hungry eyes watching. This time the coyote tries to throw a grenade, but only throws the pin. He tries the old classic: mousetraps, but they just end up on him. He tries to drop a bomb from a kite, but kites were not exactly designed to carry that much weight, now were they?

Since there are no cops around he can get away with chopping a telephone pole. (It falls on him.) He learns hypnotism, but the bird has a mirror and he gets himself to walk off a cliff. He tries making a booby trapped doorway but he gets hit by a car before it can be used for its intended purpose.

Personal Rating: 3

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Going! Going! Gosh!

‘Road runner (acceleratti incrediblus)’

After the Roadrunner runs by, the coyote jumps from his hiding place to pounce…and misses. Time to use the old noggin! When launching a TNT arrow, only the bow gets fired. Using a large slingshot ends up with the coyote pinned against… err… some plant, and his cement just ends up covering himself.

He tries a grenade while under a manhole but the bird takes a different route and ends up pinning a rock on the manhole cover. BOOM! He dresses up as a female hitchhiker (the bird already has a date) and paints a fake road (only to have a real truck drive out of it.) After some more gags (including a genius hot air balloon) the coyote decides to jump and harpoon the bird. However he gets hit by another truck. This one driven by the bird himself.

Personal Rating: 3

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Beep Beep

“Last water for 300 miles”

After the title cards, the coyote notes that his prey is just too dang fast, and he will not be able to catch it on foot. This calls for stradegy. He rigs a boxing glove up to a boulder, but when he releases it, the boulder crashes into him. (So does the glove.) He tries dropping an anvil on the bird from a tightrope but the weight drags him down. (If you’re watching “Space Jam” this is where the short would end) He is not worried because he has a parachute…or not.

He tries a clever booby trapped glass of water, which the bird ignores and a chase through the mines ensures. (This breaks one of Chuck’s rules: “The Roadrunner must stay on the road”) The coyote later tries some rocket skates but he can’t control them. Battered and bruised he tries to get a drink, only to be blown up by his device. As a last resort he makes a fake railroad but gets clobbered by a real train. Need I say who is riding in it?

Personal Rating: 4

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The Bugs Bunny Show

“On with the show, this is it!”

During the sixties, “Looney Tunes” was on its last legs. Also during this time, Looney Tunes got its TV show. (Why not? It was the latest fad!) The premise was simple: Bugs showing us cartoons with various bridging sequences in between, such as Bugs feeding Taz carrots or Slowpoke coming to visit Speedy. The show was black and white which may have been odd today since all the shorts in the theaters were color, but color TV was only starting to get started. Lack of pigment  was a small price to pay for the convenience of watching animated masterpieces in your own living room.

Now for the bad news. This show is gone and you’re not liable to find any full episodes. (At least, as I’m originally writing this.) If you ever have seen, or have any somehow, you are quite lucky. Maybe you’d like to make the rest of the world feel as lucky as you?

Personal Rating: (From what little I’ve seen) 3

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Baby Buggy Bunny

“Dada.”

A stick up at a local bank is taking place and the thief is a tall, shadowy figure. Or so it would seem. In reality, it’s a pint-sized burglar known as Ant Hill Harry, alias: Baby Faced Finster. That comes from the fact that he is able to disguise himself as a baby so he will not get noticed. (Because babies left alone in alleys are not suspicious.) After the cops go past, his buggy with the loot inside rolls away. The money lands in Bugs’ rabbit hole and he laughs at his fortune.

Thinking it over, Finster decides to play orphan so he can get in, and the guise fools the rabbit. Once inside the crook makes it clear he wants the money and holds his breath so Bugs will comply. Once he gets it though, he tries to escape. The rabbit never gets wise. Later at bedtime, every time Bugs turns out the light he gets clobbered. He pretends to turn out the light and sure enough Finster is the one responsible. He plays innocent and Bugs is still deceived… that is until he turns on the tube and sees a news report about the robbery that took place earlier. Bugs gets his revenge and Finster is sent to prison.

Personal Rating: 3