There They Go-Go-Go!

There They Go-Go-Go! (1956)

*** (out of 4)

Poor ol' Wile E. Coyote is so hungry the film starts off with him cooking mud to eat but he even messes that up. Then the Road Runner goes pass him and an all new hunt begins. This time out we see Wile try using a sling, a gun, spiked balls and even a rope on a tree but, of course, we know what's going to happen. I'm watching these shorts in order and I must say that I've love to see Wile take one big chunk out of the Road Runner. Considering this is the ninth attempt of Wile you can't help but wish he could just eat one time. If not the Road Runner I wish he could eat anything the right way. The series was certainly starting to repeat itself but there's enough action and explosions here to make it worth watching.

The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons are generally very enjoyable, and Coyote is one of Chuck Jones' best overall characters. Sure, some of the later cartoons are duds, where the series got tired and repetitive as well as somewhat cheap. There They Go-Go-Go! is towards the better half of the series, a touch formulaic in terms of how the samey premise is structured but there is very little problematic here.

With the animation, the backgrounds are more stylised and abstract than usual but not to an ugly or over-sparse extent, and the rest of the animation is simply but smoothly drawn and colourful, with the fourth wall use of camera and expressions as ever inspired. It may not be the best-looking Roadrunner/Coyote cartoon, but it is a long way from looking as cheap as some of the later cartoons of theirs. With Carl Stalling and the music, this viewer has always associated Stalling with writing consistently good to outstanding music scores for the Looney Tunes cartoons and they are nearly always one of the highlights. That is precisely the case with his scoring for There They Go-Go-Go! (particularly in the spiked balls gag, which was a great marriage of visuals, action, humour and music), the orchestration is lush and clever, it's lively and characterful rhythmically and it matches with everything seamlessly and even adds to the enjoyment.

It doesn't forget to entertain either, the loaded gun and ending gags (elevated by Coyote's hysterical and very truthful laugh out loud moment) are absolutely hilarious and it was nice to see much more of Coyote's own inventions. There They Go-Go-Go! is not completely formulaic either, sure it's the same premise as the rest of the series, but especially with the beginning and the inventions it does do things differently as well which stops it from getting repetitive and tired. It's nicely and efficiently paced too, and the conflict between Roadrunner and Coyote is done well. Roadrunner is one-dimensional but still memorable and amusing, but, ever the much funnier and more interesting character, Coyote steals the show. Not only is he a cunning and often funny to hilarious character but one that one does feel sorry for (very like Sylvester), and not in a way that feels forced (one of the easiest Looney Tunes characters to root for in fact).

All in all, great fun and tries to do different too. While not one of the absolute best of the Roadrunner/Coyote cartoons it's in the top half. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of the worst cartoon that have ever been made. Extremely poor sceneries, por editing, poor music, poor execution, poor animation, poor story, even poorer gags which are deadly repetitive and is extremely painful to watch. Chuck Jones did not pay any heed to an even contest. He made the coyote look feeble, incapable and so horribly out of shape compared to the godly roadrunner that it can not be deemed to be a rivalry. It is a poor watch. The cartoons are rubbish and the endless blowing up of the coyote is neither funny nor hilarious and is outright boring and painful to watch. I could not appreciate Chuck Jones work as they are truly very very poor.

Chuck Jones's 'There They Go-Go-Go', the ninth Road Runner cartoon, is the inevitable moment when this excellent series finally hits a snag. Having managed to sustain genuine brilliance across the last four cartoons, 'There They Go-Go-Go' feels like a very tired entry into the series. Even the title seems to indicate a dearth of ideas. Many people, when they think of the Road Runner shorts imagine a repetitive and not especially funny set of predictable gags. If they wanted proof to back up this argument then 'There They Go-Go-Go' would be the ideal candidate. Set against the more stylised backgrounds introduced in the previous cartoon, 'Gee Whiz-z-z', 'There They Go-Go-Go' fails to offer enough funny gags to distract attention away from the less sumptuous scenery and the impression I am left with is that of an unattractive and unamusing cartoon. There's a couple of chuckles but that can be said of practically any Road Runner cartoon (bar the dire later ones). All in all, 'There They Go-Go-Go' is a disappointment but is easily excused as an inevitable hiccup in a series that managed to sustain the same premise for an astonishing amount of time.

Everybody knows While E. Coyote is the real star of the Road Runner cartoons (after all, he has more of a personality) and occasionally we get a moment alone with him at the start of `his' cartoons. The starving superstar attempts to bake some mud (shaped in the form of a chicken) in his home-made oven. This inspired gag features the first of several elaborate punchlines that set `There they Go-go-go' apart from other R.R. shorts.

Out of all the Loony tunes, Wile E. and Road Runner probably break the fourth wall the most (presumably because they don't speak). The knowing looks While E. constantly throws at the camera are classic. At one point he even gestures to the audience to come closer, as if to let us in on his next cunning plan. After all, he is a selfproclaimed genius.

It is especially good to see Wile E. relying on his own wits and inventions instead of the usual Acme products for a change. He is able to use lots of left over material from the local abandoned mines and army bases (including a ladder, a wheel, some dynamite and even a unused rocket shell). But where did he find that tiny pink umbrella? Perhaps he should try to sell some of his ideas to the Acme company. They might give him a discount on their products.

8 out of 10