Such a frustrating disappointment

Lack of good storyline.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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!

Chuck Jones's 'Fast and Furry-ous' was the first installment in what went on to be one of the most popular Warner Bros. cartoon series; the Road Runner shorts. Despite being universally referred to as the Road Runner cartoons, the undisputed star of the series is Wile E. Coyote, the scrawny obsessive with a continual misplaced trust in the Acme corporation. It was the Coyote's hysterical facial expressions and reaction shots that would ultimately upstage the gags. At this early stage in his career however, the Coyote is not quite as handsome as he would become and his reactions are less captivatingly observed. Also, this being the first Road Runner cartoon, the novelty of the gag-after-gag-after-gag premise is seen as enough and therefore the gags themselves are largely weak or predictable. There are also early appearances of gags that would go on to be used time and again throughout the series; the logic defying painted landscape joke and the climactic hit and run of the Coyote by a vehicle with the Road Runner on board. These gags were strong the first time round but have become so well established that they fail to raise a smile after they are witnessed for the umpteenth time. There are a couple of nice sequences towards the end of 'Fast and Furry-ous' involving a refrigerator and some skis and a pair of Acme jet powered tennis shoes. These aside, however, 'Fast and Furry-ous' is an historically important but fairly underwhelming cartoon. The series it spawned threw up some vastly superior episodes once the look of the Coyote was refined and his relationship with the audience cemented.

Fast and Furry-ous is Chuck Jones' first cartoon starring the Road Runner and While E. Coyote. It was originally supposed to be a one-shot but there was so much demand that a sequel was made four years later which then became a series. Since this was the first one, I noticed a few differences. One, the backgrounds were more detailed than in subsequent ones. Also, when the bird sticks out his tongue a few times, you don't hear the sound effects that Treg Brown provided on later entries. And only once as the Coyote falls do you then see the ground from a sky-view before some smoke appears. Otherwise, there's the spot gags that are similar to other series entries like the scenery While E. paints over a rock formation that the Road Runner runs right through but the Coyote bumps into hard! And there's some Acme products, of course! Very funny first entry to a classic, if formulaic, series. By the way, Road Runner is described as Accellleratii Incredibus while the Coyote is Carnivorous Vulgaris.

This short marks the first appearance by either Wile E. Coyote or The Road Runner on-screen. Wile E. is really the star here and a more interesting character, to be sure, but their relationship is really a symbiotic one. Without each other, neither would have had success in films. This short more or less sets the tone for the series: lots of sight gags and a probable increase in Wile E. insurance premiums, while his insurance agent lives on antacids and his agent checks on his remaining hit points with each accident. Most certainly a gem and worth watching. Recommended.