I've always thought of Road Runner as a girl, and this was the episode that convinced me, the way she cheerfully teases Coyote. I guess she reminds me of the way I used to tease my older brother when I was a little girl myself, although my brother had a bit more luck in getting even than poor Wile E, who just never gets a break! This is one of the very best episodes of this wonderful cartoon series --- from Coyote's opening encounter with a wayward rocket and an Acme delivery truck, to his calamitous ride through a minefield inside an Acme Instant Tornado at the end. Director Chuck Jones once wrote one of his guiding rules of the Road Runner series was to, wherever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy -- and this may be the episode he was thinking of. That rascally Road Runner shows Wile E the proper way to set a trap, tricking him off the same cliff three times! And, once again, we're treated to a Road Runner's eye-view of his plunge to the bottom each time. Wile E's expressions are always so hilariously cute -- first anger at being tricked, then resigned defeat, and finally smug satisfaction because THIS time, he set up a trampoline at the bottom to soften his landing (yeah, right!). He does another canyon dive later when his "high-wire" attempt to catch Road Runner goes just the way you expect it to -- with a "shocking" little postscript added on! There are other gags that will have you laughing all the way through, including a rubber band and some very large boulders, a barrel of dynamite and a poor quality rope (must be from Acme), and a booby trapped bridge. This is a cartoon I giggled at as a little girl, then giggled at with my daughter when SHE was little, and I'm still giggling as I watch it with my GRANDdaughter! Some things just never get old! An excellent cartoon!
Review of Whoa, Be-Gone!
