Fast and Furry-ous

The first Road Runner and Coyote cartoon ever made (and their only one made in the 1940s). It's directed by Chuck Jones with a story by Michael Maltese. This team would be responsible for most of the great Road Runner and Coyote shorts. This first one sets the template for the rest of the series. The concept was always the same in that Wile E. Coyote tries various devices and traps to catch the Road Runner but constantly fails, typically in hilarious fashion. Here we have the basics already on display: boomerangs, dynamite, a roadblock, disguises and costumes, rockets and jets, running off a cliff, and classic ACME gadgetry. Chuck Jones would use a variation of every gag in this first short over and over throughout the series. The animation is beautiful with great colors and well-drawn backgrounds. The Road Runner and Coyote look slightly different than they would look later, but that's true of pretty much all the Looney Tunes characters in their first appearances. It's a fun, fast-paced short that begins one of the best and most consistently creative and funny series in the Looney Tunes library. It's one every fan should see at least once. A classic by every definition.

Fast and Furry-ous (1949)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The first ever Coyote and Road Runner film turns out to be a very enjoyable one. As would become the norm, the Coyote is hungry and wanting to eat the Road Runner but he's simply not fast (or smart) enough to catch him. This first short has plenty of wonderful laughs as the violent action is constantly finding hilarious ways to injure the Coyote. One of my favorite gags in the film is when the Coyote pants the side of a mountain to appear like a road so that the Road Runner will kill himself by running into it but things don't work out as planned. Another funny jokes includes the Coyote making a ski machine to build up speed but of course this doesn't go as planned either. Director Jones was a fan of silent movies and that's easy to see with these shorts.

This is the very first Road Runner cartoon. Fresh and funny it was at the time, but after a while many of these toons began to resemble each other and it was impossible to tell them apart especially when they started recycling footage in the non Looney Tunes Rudy Larriva shorts of the 60s and 70s. It lessens the quality of the real Roadrunner cartoons of the time and it's a real shame considering how intelligent they were.

The formula (before it got tired) is the same as ever. Wile E. Coyote, is a starving desert dog, there doesn't seem to be much food around other than a cheeky Roadrunner so he uses everything at his disposal (and endless shoddy products from the Acme corporation) to catch the bird only for his plans to backfire.

Roadrunner is kind of met with a lot of criticism now with many moans of 'They are all the same'. While this is true now, the characters were only good as long as Chuck Jones and Co were in control. This being the first of many great Roadrunner shorts before it went downhill.

And I just love the sticking out tongue thing Roadrunner does.

The first of the Roadrunner cartoons sets things up nicely. We get to see some of the precious moments that will appear throughout their "careers." There are refrigerators, rockets, painted tunnels, and on and on. We also get to see the coyote stunned by the speed of the roadrunner when he sees him run for the first time.

Wile E. Coyote spots the Road Runner from high up. He chases after his dinner, but he is nowhere near fast enough. He sets out with various tricks. He uses a lid, a boomerang, a school crossing, a rocket, a giant rock, a painted tunnel, explosive, a flying costume, a refrigerator and skis, jet-propelled tennis shoes, and finally a short cut.

This is most notable for being the first Road Runner cartoon. It is a great start. These characters are off and running in a highly successful side franchise. In this one, the Road Runner road map gets drawn. A lot of these attempts would be reused in future shorts.