There They Go-Go-Go!

Michael Maltese must have liked to start a number of these cartoons showing just how starved poor Wile E. Coyote is, that he will do anything to feed his empty stomach. Here, he bakes mud in his oven, pretending it's a chicken. Once it bites into it, he discovers the sad truth and "Famishius Fantasticus" dumps it into his trash bin. The rude Road Runner (Dig- Outius Tid-Bittius) races by, knocking down Wile and making the trash can land on top of his head....and smugly sticking out his tongue while racing away. (Just once I'd like to see poor Wile give the RR what's coming to him!)

In addition, before the chase starts and Wile's wild ploys to catch the bird, he has to desperately search for water because his butt's on fire.

The spring-loaded gun sequence was excellent and really laughed at Wile's little umbrella trying to protect him falling boulders. Otherwise, overall it just a "fair" Road Runner cartoon. Not bad, but not memorable, either.

This is a very good cartoon featuring the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Instead of starting the chase right away, the Coyote first tries to make a chicken out of mud. After he tastes it, and breaks his teeth on the thing, he also makes a trashcan where he puts the chicken in. At this point the Road Runner enters this cartoon. The Coyote uses a gun, some other things that belong to the army, a broken ladder and some rocks that must fall down.

This is a very good cartoon. The opening sequence that makes it a little different is very nice, the gags work (the Coyote even comments on his own stupid ideas,) and the animation is simple but doesn't distract. A very good cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Coyote series.

. . . would be self-defeating. It would be tantamount to having a "hotfoot" ALL the time! It also would increase local road repair budgets astronomically. Every time a fully-loaded tanker truck with a flammable cargo smashes into a freeway overpass near where I live, it seems to result in years of detours, road closures, bridge-rebuilding and untold millions in repair costs generally passed along to motorists such as myself. If the Road Runner was wreaking as much highway mayhem as depicted during THERE THEY GO-GO-GO!, I'm pretty certain that some citizen would take him out if the proper authorities could not eradicate such a public nuisance first.

Typically wonderful Chuck Jones Road Runner & Coyote short. The opening scene, where Wile E. Coyote shapes a pile of mud to resemble a turkey and then "cooks" it, is pathetic in the most hilarious way. What follows is another funny gag, then another, and another. It's fun from start to finish. Some of the Coyote's attempts at catching the Road Runner in this one include a tree catapult, a mace contraption that has to be seen to be believed, a ladder bridge, and a tire full of dynamite. All of these attempts backfire, of course. There's also one of the better sign gags the series ever used. The animation is quite nice, with slightly sketchy backgrounds and lovely colors. The desert never looked as colorful as it does in the Road Runner cartoons. Carl Stalling's music is whimsical and fun. It's a solid cartoon all the way around. Perhaps not the best of the lot but it's up there.

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.