Guided Muscle

Guided Muscle (1955)

*** (out of 4)

Entertaining episode in the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner series. This time out the coyote is cooking a tin can when he sees a better dinner, the road runner of course, passing. The coyote tries grease, large rocks, rubber bands and turning himself into an arrow but we know what's going to happen. Once again there original ideas are pretty much gone, although several of the old tricks are given a face lift here. The grease joke is something we've seen before but it still works here. Another very good scene is the one where Wile tries to turn himself into the arrow.

These are lean times, once again, for poor Wile E. Coyote (Eatibus almost anythingus) who cooks a tin case in desperation, but can't eat it. The Road Runner (Velocitus Delectibus) sprints by and knocks the poor coyote over. Once upright, Wile licks his chops and the chase is on, but it is a short one. Wilie stops, thinks things over and comes up with some plans.

Some of this is the standard fare: boulders, pouring something on the road, etc., but there were some different ploys in here that were very good. My favorites were the coyote making himself into a human arrow, shooting himself from a big bow, the fuse going up from the TNT back through the fishing reel and, of course the tar-and-feather bit. In that, Wile reads from the book "How To Tar and Feather A Road Runner." In small print, it says "tenth edition." You just know this isn't going to go by the book!

While most Wile E. Coyote-Road Runner cartoons begin with WEC chasing RR - accompanied by parody scientific names - "Guided Muscle" starts with the former cooking some food before getting interrupted by the latter. Then comes the chase. As always, WEC has a litany of tricks and gadgets in store, but they always get him somehow. There are some repeats from earlier cartoons and some new ones. Probably the best involves WEC trying to tar and feather RR (of course, it doesn't work).

So, even if this cartoon doesn't really add anything new to the cinematic landscape, it's always great to see that the more you try to harm someone, the more you get harmed. Classic.

Another solid Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short from Chuck Jones. This one starts with poor Wile E. reduced to cooking a tin can over an open fire. No, not a can of beans or anything -- just the can! Desperate times for coyotes. Road Runner shows up and our coyote friend is quickly in pursuit. Who needs to eat metal when you can have Road Runner? A funny cartoon in a great series. It's not one of the best but it's good. Some of the gags here include ACME grease, arrow nose, and another variation on the old bird seed gag. The animation is good but not quite on the level of some of the other shorts from this series around the same time. Carl Stalling's energetic score also seemed to be a bit overbearing at times. Anyway, minor flaws aside it's a good short with plenty of laughs. It only suffers by comparison to others in the wonderful Road Runner series.

I agree the story is pretty standard, and there are some repeated gags, not that that is a bad thing. But there are some new ideas too, and they are clever and well used. The animation is good with some nice backgrounds especially, the music while not taking a significantly-major role has enough energy to bring some dynamic expression into the cartoon and the sight gags are very amusing. The cartoon also moves along briskly and both Roadrunner and Coyote are entertaining, especially Coyote who I have always considered a better character due to his devious and cunning personality.

Overall, enjoyable enough Roadrunner vs. Coyote cartoon, even with some repeated gags and a standard story, Coyote himself and some clever sight gags more than make up for any misgivings. 8/10 Bethany Cox