One of the most brilliant cartoon series of all time, and definitely my favorite, began with this short. Wile E Coyote (not named yet in this cartoon) is the star of this series, and he represents every bad day we've ever had, every gadget that ever misfired on us at the worst possible moment and every impossible dream we've ever thought we could make come true if we only "tried something else". The Road Runner is almost a phantom, darting in and out of the picture at will, taunting us with that relentless smirk and the flick of the tongue. Being the first in the series, you can see Chuck Jones & Michael Maltese had the basic idea in place from the get-go, but would work to refine it over the years. The two characters -- especially Coyote -- aren't quite as cute as they would become, and some of the gags aren't quite as clever. Also, Road Runner is a bit more aggressive in this short, socking Coyote with "Another Genuine Boomerang" (shortly after Coyote had launches his own) and bashing him with a metal trash can lid. In later cartoons, I would become convinced Road Runner was really female, but in this short, the bird seems decidedly male. Yet many of the elements that made this such a brilliant series are present -- the crazy laws of cartoon physics that always favor the Road Runner and always punish the Coyote (the bird can go right into -- and back out of -- a tunnel painted on a rock wall, while Coyote can only smash face-first into it) and Coyote's first reliance on a crazy contraption designed to give him more speed (a refrigerator attached to a meat grinder strapped to his back to give him artificial snow so he can ski in the desert -- and right off the edge of a cliff.. of course the thing sputters to a halt only inches away from the safety of the other side). All in all, a great beginning.. but the best was still to come!
Review of Fast and Furry-ous
