| Wile Coyote
1949:
"Fast and Furryous" (Road Runner).........ok
1952:
"Beep Beep" (Road Runner).................ok
"Operation rabbit" (Bugs Bunny)...........ok
"Going Going Gosh" (Roadrunner)...........ok
1953:
"Zipping Along" (Roadrunner)..............ok
"Don't Give Up The Sheep" (Sam Sheepdog)..ok
1954:
"Stop, Look and Hasten"(Roadrunner).......ok
"Sheep Ahoy" (Sam Sheepdog)...............ok
1955:
"Guided Muscle" (Roadrunner)..............ok
"Double Or Mutton" (Sam Sheepdog).........ok
1956:
"Gee Whizzz" (Roadrunner).................ok
"There They go Go Go" (Roadrunner)........ok
"Ready, Set, Zoom (Roadrunner)............ok (?)
"To Hare is Human" (Bugs Bunny)...........ok
1957:
"Scrambled Aches" (Roadrunner)............ok
"Zoom and bored" (Roadrunner).............ok
"Steal Wool" (Sam Sheepdog)...............ok
1958:
"Whoa Be gone" (Roadrunner)...............ok
"Hook Line and Stinker" (Roadrunner)......ok
"Hip Hip Hurry" (Roadrunner)..............ok
1959:
"Hot Road and Reel" (Roadrunner)..........ok
"Wild About Hurry"(Roadrunner)............ok
1960:
"Fastest With the Mostest" (Roadrunner)...ok
"Hopalong Casualty" (Roadrunner)..........ok
"Rabbit's Feat" (Bugs Bunny)..............ok
"Ready, Woolen and Able" (Sam Sheepdog)...ok
1961
"Zip N' Snort" (Roadrunner)...............ok
"Lickety Splat" (Roadrunner)..............ok
"Beep Prepared" (Roadrunner)..............ok
"Zoom at the Top" (Roadrunner)............ok
"Compressed Hare" (Bugs Bunny)............ok
1962:
"A Sheep In The Deep" (Sam Sheepdog)......ok
1963:
"To Beep Or Not to Beep" (Roadrunner).....ok
"Hare-Breadth Hurry" (Bugs Bunny)........ok
"Woolen Under Where" (Sam Sheepdog).......ok (?)
1964:
"War and Pieces" (Roadrunner).............ok
1965:
"Zip Zip Hooray" (Roadrunner).............ok
"Roadrunner A go Go" (Roadrunner)........ok
The post-1965 era
While they're very funny and quite enjoyable, in my opinion,
most of these cartoons are undeniably inferior in production quality to those of Chuck Jones in years past.
Chuck Jones Left in 1964, and the studio closed soon after, re-opening as De-Patie/Freleng Enterprises and
using lower budgets. Most of the cartoons from this era, though they get a bashing from critics
(Leonard Maltin, in his book "Of Mice and Magic", calls the films as a whole "abysmal" and
the Road Runner series "...witless in every sense of the word") are at least enjoyable.
Their principal characters were Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales, as a pair, and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
They're no classics, but they're not a total loss. Robert McKimson and Rudy Larriva handled most of the films of this time,
although McKimson, Friz Freleng, and Larriva all tried Road Runner at least once.
What makes the Road Runner series of the time so enjoyable anyway is the Bill Lava score, that, although
credited to him in the cartoons, was simply done once and "canned", is great! Also, before the "Larriva Eleven",
Friz Freleng's rotoscope experiment with Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote chasing Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales,
is very clever if not all that funny.
1965:
"The Wild Chase" (d: Friz Freleng)-besides Road Runner, Sylvester and Speedy Gonzales also star.....................ok
"Rushing Roulette" (d: Robert McKimson)...........ok
"Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" (d: Rudy Larriva)...ok
"Tired and Feathered" (d: Rudy Larriva)...........ok
"Boulder Wham" (d: Rudy Larriva)..................ok
"Just Plane Beep" (d: Rudy Larriva)...............ok
"Harried and Hurried" (d: Rudy Larriva)...........ok
"Highway Runnery" (d: Rudy Larriva)...............ok
"Chaser On The Rocks" (d: Larriva -NOTE- 2 endings seem to exist for this cartoon, one from theatrical release, in which the Coyote ends up shooting down the sun with a cannon, and a TV version that has the cannon shoot him.)........................ok
1966:
"Shot and Bothered" (d: rudy Larriva).............ok
"Out and Out Rout" (d: Rudy Larriva)..............ok
"The Solid tin Coyote" (d: Rudy Larriva)..........ok
"Clippety-Clobbered" (d: Rudy Larriva)............ok
"Sugar and Spies"(d: Robert McKimson).............ok
Other misc. films
-in 1979 and 1980, Chuck Jones got the chance to produce and direct 2 more Road Runner films for TV specials.
Both feature some odd variations on the theme. "Freeze Frame" (1979) has Wile E. Chase Road Runner into a snowscape,...............ok
and "Soup or Sonic" (1980) has the Coyote actually catch the Road Runner...although.........................................ok
he is made miniature and the road runner enormous! And in 1994, the short-lived Chuck Jones Film Productions
contract to produce more LT's put the duo back on the big screen again with "Chariots Of Fur",........................................ok
although it was better than the lousy movie it got paired with, "Richie Rich." "Little Go Beep" (2000)
was a non-Jones effort that recieved no wide release and used the concept of a Road Runner and Wile E. as babies.
-That's all Folks!.
-Matthew Hunter
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