Fast and Furry-ous (1949)

One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

Fresh and Exciting

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Obviously, Wile E. is meant by Warner Bros. to represent the hard-working Every Coyote (that is, Every Man) in FAST AND FURRY-OUS, its first-ever Coyote animated short. Voiced by Union-defying scab artist Paul Julian, the Roadrunner (with its sinister "Hmeep-Hmeeping") is symbolizing everything standing between normal hard-working blue-collar citizens and their attainment of the American Dream. The Roadrunner, a fowl foreigner Jibber-Jabbering in a Alien Tongue, always manages to stay one step ahead of Mr. Coyote, smug in his knowledge that the Game is rigged in his favor. Wile E. bravely soldiers on in his Zero Sum Contest against this demeaning Arch Villain, his voice muted as Warner Bros.' way of acknowledging that Big Business controls ALL U.S. media (and most of the access there-to), with the Average Joe deprived of any say-so. The emaciated coyote's only hope of sustenance lies in the remote chance that he can catch and consume the elusive Roadrunner, finally partaking in the Riches reserved for his Fat Cat "Betters" (who sit in their air-conditioned L.A. Mansions chowing down on Breast of Roadrunner or Roadrunner Pot Pies morning, noon, and night). But Wile's odds of succeeding are LESS than those of YOU winning the top Powerball Prize (that is, not even a one in 292 million chance!). Film historians and the animators involved admit that the Roadrunner is a Management Scab. "Hmeep-Hmeep" yourself!

Not knowing this until I came to this title page, I thought, "This would be a good introduction to anyone who hasn't seen "Roadrunner" cartoons." Now I see it WAS the first Road Runner cartoon.Right off the bat, we see the road runner zipping down roads. Then they stop the action, freeze it and show the graphic "Road Runner (Accelleratii Inncredibus). Moments later, we see the coyote, who is watching our speedy hero from a pair of binoculars on cliff high above. He's licking his lips in anticipation and is described as "Coyote (Carnivorous Vulgaris).Coyote puts on a bib, grabs and knife and fork, and speeds down the hill to catch the road runner. He immediately discovers he can't outrun the bird, so he hatches a number of inventive plans......and so goes this cartoon and many others to follow as coyote's meal plans are frustrated time and again.Some of many coyote schemes to catch his prey are simple (falling boulders) to inventive (jet-propelled sneakers) to very elaborate. Almost all of them are funny. This animated short set the tone for all the good ones which followed. Good stuff!

This is the very first Road Runner cartoon. Fresh and funny it was at the time, but after a while many of these toons began to resemble each other and it was impossible to tell them apart especially when they started recycling footage in the non Looney Tunes Rudy Larriva shorts of the 60s and 70s. It lessens the quality of the real Roadrunner cartoons of the time and it's a real shame considering how intelligent they were. The formula (before it got tired) is the same as ever. Wile E. Coyote, is a starving desert dog, there doesn't seem to be much food around other than a cheeky Roadrunner so he uses everything at his disposal (and endless shoddy products from the Acme corporation) to catch the bird only for his plans to backfire. Roadrunner is kind of met with a lot of criticism now with many moans of 'They are all the same'. While this is true now, the characters were only good as long as Chuck Jones and Co were in control. This being the first of many great Roadrunner shorts before it went downhill. And I just love the sticking out tongue thing Roadrunner does.

'Fast and Furry-ous' is the cartoon that started the chases between Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. The cartoons with those two characters belong to my favorites. From the opening where Road Runner is introduced with his kind of Latin name Accelerati Incredibulis and Coyote with his kind of Latin name Carnivarious Vulgaris the shorts are always funny.Funny I say, but also very predictable. With this first cartoon that is a fact as well. May it is the charm of a cartoon like this. You expect something, exactly that will happen, and still it is funny. There is one surprise in this one and that is the ending. I laughed numerous times. If it was really the first one I saw I would have laughed even more. This is a great cartoon.