Zipping Along (1953)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Zipping Along (1953) *** (out of 4) The fourth Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner series has four way roads, guns, bombs, bird seed, cutting the strings on a bridge and more TNT as the dumb one keeps trying to catch his dinner. Even early on in the series we're starting to get quite a few repeat jokes and this would certainly continue throughout the series but you can help but be entertained by Wile's effort to get something to eat. The joy of watching him try and try harder only to fail is the real key to this series since the Road Runner offers very little outside his classic "Beep Beep". The highlight of the film has to be the free bird seed offer.

Chuck Jones's 'Zipping Along', the fourth cartoon in the Road Runner series, is notable for how it increases the relationship between the Coyote and the audience. The gags are hit and miss, ranging from hilarious (the mouse trap gag is still among my favourites) to dull (the bomb and the kite) or genuinely weak (the double "meep meep" from the Road Runner and the dust he leaves behind). However, the reaction shots of the Coyote are all priceless and there are many more of them than in the opening trio of cartoons. His endearingly defeated glances to the audience are capable of turning a weak gag into a hilarious one. For example, the nonsensical joke with the giant magnet and the TNT is improved 100% by the extremely brief look of horror the Coyote shoots our way a millisecond before the explosion. It's the tiniest piece of animation but it's monumentally effective. There are numerous little moments like that all the way through 'Zipping Along', considerably heightening its enjoyment factor. It's also notable for the fact that it is the first Road Runner cartoon not to close with the Coyote being hit by a vehicle which the Road Runner is on board. He is hit by a vehicle at the finale and we do hear a "meep meep" afterwards but it doesn't come from the Road Runner!

The forth pairing of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner is still good and features many gags that work, including grenades, mousetraps, a giant kite, a bigger magnet, and even hypnosis. Of course none of these work, but they make for a hilarious cartoon. Man I love that coyote's work ethic. This animated short can be seen on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also has a little 11 minute featurette "Behind the Tunes - Crash! Bang! Boom!: The Wild Sounds of Treg Brown" that I'll get more into in the listing for that on this site.My Grade:A+

The life of a predator isn't what it's cracked up to be! He must be up to his eyeballs in debt to Acme (or has a sizable source of funds), his medical bills equally large and for what? A singular lack of success in catching one bird! I say give up, get a pizza and take up stamp collecting. Great fun and worth watching. Recommended.