Wild About Hurry (1959) User Reviews (6)

Pushing the limits with the Latin names

[DaniGirl1969 · 8/10 · 27 September 2015]

For me, the funniest thing about this episode in the wonderful Road Runner vs Wile E Coyote series is the joke that, of course, flew right over my head as a child, but made me laugh out loud when I finally noticed it as an adult. The Latin names that writer Michael Maltese and director Chuck Jones chose for the two adversaries shows just how much they enjoyed seeing what they could get away with.

The coyote in this episode is "Hardheadipus Oedipus" -- and even funnier is the road runner's Latin name: "Batoutahelius".

But you don't have to be an adult to enjoy the rest of the gags in this episode. To be honest, they're fairly routine for the series -- although there are a few surprises, such as when Wile E actually manages to slow down his descent in yet another fall down another cliff, by causing the rock he's standing on to start spinning rapidly. Does it help soften his landing? Well, I'll let you watch the episode to find out for yourself! There's also a very funny scene involving a defective roller-skate (must be from Acme) and a hand grenade. The best part is the woeful look the poor coyote gives us just before disaster strikes yet again.

But the best part is the drawn-out scene involving an Acme "Indestructo Steel Ball", which Wile E climbs inside and then rolls himself down the side of a cliff, presumably to flatten Road Runner -- but instead sending him onto a series of disasters before the entire sequence starts all over again, to the amusement of that rascally bird.

This, by the way, was the final time Michael Maltese would be credited as storyman for a Road Runner cartoon. He was about to take his creative mind over to Hanna-Barbera and several of their TV cartoons being produced in the late 1950's and early 60's.

Here we go again

[rbverhoef · 6/10 · 25 April 2004]

The Road Runner, or Batoutahelius, is chased once again by the Coyote, or Hardheadipus Oedipus, in this cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series. This time the Coyote uses an "Indestructo Steel Ball" after attempts with a rocket failed. The ball, indeed not possible to destruct, ends up falling and bouncing in a loop with the Coyote in it. The Road Runner even comments on the loop, "Here we go again."

This is a nice entry in the series and like every episode it is enjoyable. Although it could have been better I liked the sequence with the steel ball. The ending, some pretty nice animation and music that adds something to the cartoon make this a cartoon worth watching.

Whether it's the "Acme Giant Rubber Band" or the . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 13 June 2018]

. . . "Acme Indestructo Steel Ball," Wile E. Coyote--representing we true blue loyal patriotic normal average 99 per center progressive union label folks to whom the eponymous Warner Bros. outfit continually telegraphs telepathic Extreme Early Warnings to We Americans of (The Then) Far Future through its cadre of always-prophetic Animated Shorts seers (aka, The Looney Tuners)--this series of brief cartoons involving the Road Runner (not to be confused with the Detroit Tigers' so-called "Rally Goose") has one consistent theme: now that corrupt corporate capitalism has become synonymous with corrupt KGB-run Red Communism, these massive corporate conglomerates produce products (whether Acme Rocket Railroad Sets, Acme Iron Pellets, Acme Bird Seed, or Acme Industrial Steel Balls) that will only hurt the Little Guy. It's virtually impossible to watch WILD ABOUT HURRY all the way through (or nearly any of the other offerings in this series) without realizing that the American People MUST convene a Constitutional Convention immediately to implement the ideas of the New Founding Fathers, and PURGE any and all vestiges of the Corrupt Corporate Culture once and for all. WILD ABOUT HURRY warns us that we will not survive for long with Acme-style corporate octopi trawling our troubled seas. As the Robber Baron Fat Cat One Per Centers now maintaining a stranglehold on 99 per cent of The People's Wealth through their bloated spider merger-formed might of the ever bigger (and fewer) Acme leviathan monsters, WILD ABOUT HURRY demands that we learn a lesson from Wile's failures, and BUST THE TRUSTS now!!

Wile E. Coyote Keeps On Rolling With The Indestructo Ball

[stp43 · 9/10 · 28 January 2003]

Among the best of the always-engaging Road Runner series, Wild About Hurry opens with a superior title sequence, Chuck Jones' director credit on a rocket that helps Wile E. pursue the lightning-fast Road Runner (of course identified with a bogus Latin name) before the hapless wolf brethren slams into a cliff overhang.

A slingshot proves ineffective, and a drill-shaped rock leaves the coyote with a fit of the spins, before the most implausible gag - and thus among Jones' funniest - appears in the rocket train that plunges through the cliff-mounted track spur into the ground.

But then comes the short's coup de grace - the Acme Indestructo Steel Ball. Wile E. rides inside to catch Road Runner, but misses and winds up on a spectacular journey through a desert river aided by a recently-erected dam and waterfall. That, though, is just the start, as a speeding train and a abandoned minefield prove the real blast of the short, leaving the Road Runner showing the sympathy for the coyote that is the hallmark of the entire series before speeding off into the iris-out.

rolling Indestructo Ball on the lost highway

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 29 June 2007]

If a cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones, it was almost guaranteed to be great. And so it is with "Wild About Hurry", the 16th pairing of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. WEC tries things like a rocket (it crashes into an incline), rubber band (it throws him onto the ground), falling rock (it falls with him on top and he spins it, giving himself the worst case of dizziness imaginable). So surely the Indestructo Ball will work, right? Well, it would have, had Wile E. possessed any directional control! Why does WEC try time and again to catch RR? George Santayana said that fanaticism means redoubling your efforts after you've forgotten your aim. But there's something else. As the cartoons' creators said in interviews, each time, Wile E. comes just close enough to catching RR, so that he's certain that he'll succeed next time. Yeah, you'd think so, but we all know what's going to happen! These cartoons are a pleasure to watch time and again.

Worth seeing for the Indestructo Ball gag alone

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 4 February 2016]

There were major missteps later on in the series. On the other hand, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote is on the most part most engaging, and the best of the series showed Looney Tunes at the top of their game.

While not quite among the best of the series, there are more inventive entries in the series and slightly more tighter-paced, it does contain some of the greatest individual scenes and gags of all Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote cartoons combined and it is one of Chuck Jones better cartoons of the series. The animation is great, it's smooth, vibrant with nice detailed backgrounds if not among the most meticulous of the series, and both Roadrunner and Wile are drawn well. Milt Franklyn seldom disappoints and it doesn't here, while not quite as characterful and action-enhancing as the music of Carl Stalling it still does those things well and is cleverly and beautifully orchestrated. Loved the use of pre-existing music too, such as Mendelssohn's Spring Song.

As said in the previous paragraph, Wild About Hurry is enormously entertaining. The Indestructo Steel ball gag is among the funniest of the entire Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote series, and the climactic sequence is one of the best and cleverest of all of their cartoons too. A gag that also went over my head as a child are the Latin names of the Roadrunner and Wile, which once you get them are very funny indeed. It is however consistent in the humour stakes, and it is never dull.

Roadrunner is amusing and never annoying, but Wile has always been the funnier and more interesting of the two (even in their weaker entries), and he is hilarious, a great job is done with his cunning facial expressions yet it is easy to feel sympathy for him.

Overall, great Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon if just missing out on masterpiece status. 9/10 Bethany Cox