Εκεί Φεύγουν-Φεύγουν-Φεύγουν!

Daniel's Productions3.5

I wonder if the reason I end up giving some Road Runner shorts 4 stars and some 3.5 depends entirely on mood or just some have better jokes. Still really good, always like when they hold up signs.

Cecil Selwyn4.0

this man was so offended by his mud dinner not hitting that he meticulously crafted and baked a mud trashcan just to throw it away

Tim Brayton4.5

Not to psychoanalyze a bunch of dead animators, but this feels like the point where they were starting to grow a little itchy with the Coyote & Road Runner formula and wanted to change things up. Mostly, this feeling comes from the extremely relaxed opening sequence, in which we watch the Coyote meticulous bake a mud-turkey, and upon finding it to be inedible, bakes a mud-trash can to throw it away, all before the Road Runner shows up. It's almost three minutes, in a cartoon that doesn't hit seven minutes in total, before the Coyote sets his first trap to catch the Road Runner - that is what trying to avoid formula looks like, IMO. And then all the way at the end, there's an actual hint of a character arc for the Coyote: he holds up a sign (one of the better incarnations of that gag, IMO) implying that he has had what alcoholics call "a moment of clarity", and then finally gives up the chase. Which is a very weird vibe for this series about the endless desperation of the chase, but it does make it feel distinctive, and even by this point, with so many cartoons in the series to go, having anything that makes them feel distinctive other than the quality of the gags takes some doing.All of which I guess is more "interesting" than "objectively good", though I liked it; I do think one must admit that the gags themselves aren't particularly distinguished (the mud baking sequence is definitely the highlight). But Chuck Jones is still in the prime of his ability to time these shorts, and this one is all the more impressive for including such variations in timing, from that languid opening to the punchy thrust of its fastest gags. Also, this is the last Jones short for a long time that doesn't have Maurice Noble layouts, and while Philip DeGuard's work in that capacity here isn't as brazen and bold as what Ernie Nordli did for the last Coyote short, Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z, it's still using impressionistic desert colors to lovely effect.