Freeze Frame

Chuck Jones' Roadrunner vs Wile E Coyote cartoons ranged from thoroughly enjoyable to some of the best and funniest cartoons he and Looney Tunes ever made. The series sadly took a nosedive in quality around 1965 and even more unfortunate was that the series never got back to its former glory.

'Freeze Frame', a late 70s made for TV effort, is not even close to being classic Chuck Jones. It does however make do for a later Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon and is significantly better than the 1965-1968 efforts (which saw some bad stuff generally from all the major Looney Tunes characters).

It is true that Jones' best ideas were long gone by the time 'Freeze Frame' was made, but there is no mistaking his visual and humour style here and they are put to good if not great or classic display in 'Freeze Frame'. The story is basic and routine with a bit too much of a samey feel at times, but is efficiently paced and never feels tired. The gags while not hilarious are sweet and funny, with some knowing references, well-known physical humour and good timing. So this viewer had a good chuckle, without busting a gut.

The animation has an obvious made-for-TV look, but despite some stiff movement and lack of finesse in places it is not bad. It's colourful enough, with some nice wintry detail, Coyote's expressions are very cleverly drawn and priceless and Roadrunner is much better rendered than he was in the Rudy Larriva-directed cartoons. There is a canned sound to the music, but there are also some nice sounds, nothing sounds cheap, it's energetic and unlike Bill Lava's scores for the Rudy Larriva cartoons it fits at least, without being completely action enhancing.

Coyote has always been the funnier and more interesting character of the two between him and Roadrunner, and he is as cunning, funny and rootable as ever. Roadrunner's material isn't quite as funny, though it's amusing, but he is far less annoying than he was in the 1965-1968 cartoons and the dynamic between him and Coyote is strong.

All in all, not bad but falls short of being another Chuck Jones classic. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Originally part of the Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales TV special, this later Chuck Jones effort is surprisingly not terrible. I say surprisingly because, let's face it, 99.9% of the post-classic era Looney Tunes are garbage or garbage approximate. This one also pales in comparison to earlier greats but it's pretty watchable and even amusing in spots. The animation is colorful but flat like you might expect from something produced for television. The score sounds like it's canned but still fits the action better than most of Bill Lava's inferior '60s music. None of the gags are all that great but the wintry backdrop is something different. It's Chuck Jones' first Road Runner short in over a decade and arguably his last good one. He did one more the following year and another in the '90s but neither were remarkable.

A late Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoon, 'Freeze Frame' has a great start and is nice from there, although the second part of the cartoon can't live up to the first part. In this cartoon the Coyote learns from a book called 'Everything You Always wanted to Know About Road Runners But Were Afraid To Ask' that Road Runners hate the snow and that they are pretty easy to catch in a snow drift. First he tries to make snow with an Acme machine, some very funny moments, but when that doesn't work he leads the Road Runner to some real snow.

From that moment the short is a little too much of the same and the predictable jokes do not really work anymore. Still, the great start makes sure you will like this cartoon.

Decent, post-Warners-stint fare from Chuck Jones. Although Mr. Jones seems to have exhausted all his really great ideas by 1965, what remains is still better than any other animation of the era. While not a picture to seek out, if you are in the audience when it plays, you won't suffer.