McKimson's Road Runner

[Matthew Hunter]

Which of Robert McKimson's Road Runner cartoons do you like best?
-Matthew

[rodney]

I don't really like either of them, but I like Sugar and Spies better out of those two.

[Pilmedium]

I think "Rushing Roulette" is more ordinary, and for that reason voted "Sugar and Spies".

[Tintin]

i vote "Sugar and Spies". A recent movie where named "Sugar and Spice".

[Thad Komorowski]

I really like "Sugar and Spies", it's one of the best of the 1960s WB cartoons (and we know how few there are of those).


-Thad

[Matthew Hunter]

I said "Rushing Roulette", because I think it followed Chuck Jones' vision better than anything after his departure. "Sugar and Spies" is a good cartoon, but has a 'plot' so to speak...one of Jones' rules in Roadrunner cartoons was that it was to be a series of gags without a plot.
-Matthew

[Daffyfan2002]

I have to agree with Pilmedium and Matthew. I preferred "Rushin' Roulette." The spy concept just didn't seem to work with a Road Runner cartoon. If he more cartoons like that with Bugs or Daffy: (Ex: Boston Quackie) the formula would work better. "Rushin' Roulette" seemed to be more of a normal Road Runner cartoon, at least normal for the DePatie/Freleng era.

[Matt Yorston]

I went with "Sugar and Spies". That's always been a prime 1960's favorite of mine. I do agree that "Rushing Roulette" works somewhat better as "Sugar and Spies" has a "plot" but it's a GOOD plot... which holds more than its share of good gags. Probably my favorite scenes are the opening sleeping gas scene and the "time bomb in the mail" gag.

Maybe I just like the jazzy Walter Greene music score (in fact, one time it was playing in the background at my house and Joel, my brother, thought it was the Pink Panther I was watching!).

[PorkyandDaffy]

Sugar and Spies, but that ain't saying much.

[angilbas]

My vote goes to "Rushing Roulette," one of the handsomest post-1964 cartoons and a good attempt to duplicate the Jones style...although the exploding piano is derivative of Freleng's "Ballot Box Bunny" and "Show-Biz Bugs." Love the expression on Wile E. after he finds that the Ajax Stix-All Glue doesn't work on roadrunners (but before he discovers that it's effective on a coyote's feet). The blueprint (seen just before he drops the boulder) is another classic touch. McKimson and Detiege give the bird a most suitable occupation at the end.

"Sugar and Spies" is one of the best 1966 releases. Notice that Wile E. has the same 'Univac' computer seen in "To Hare Is Human." The bit in which he drifts back down to his driver's seat after being ejected is a spoof of Hertz rent-a-car ads. Some of the music in this film is also heard in the Woody Woodpecker cartune, "Prehistoric Super Salesman" (as the dino eats Woody's radio).

-Tony

[Sogturtle]

For my (wee bit of) money I go firmly with "Rushing Roulette" . The Coyote wearin' that darned spy trench-coat and hat through the whole of "Sugar And Spies" always distracts the heck out of little moi. Whereas the earlier "Rushing Roulette" is a very good attempt by Bob McKimson (and DePatie-Freleng) at really faithfully doing Chuck Jones. Compare this to any of Jones (not Levitow's) tries at doing Bill & Joe's Tom and Jerry...

[lislebartman]

I voted for "Sugar & Spies", mainly because I find it much funnier than "Rushing Roulette".

[J Lee]

Other than the railroad handcar gag, all of the gags in "Rushing Roulette" could easily have fit into any Chuck Jones Roadrunner cartoon. Plus, two of the gags, with the photo/canon and the mirror on the tower, end with very Jonsean gag-after-the-gag touches -- the floating photo of the blasted Wile E. and the cracking eyes after the cracking glass.

"Sugar and Spies" on the other hand, seems to rely on a script left over from the Rudy Larrivs/Format Films period. While it is better animted than any of Larriva's work and Walter Green's music is a welcome break from the canned score William Lava came up with based on his work on "Rushing Roulette," the idea behind the Roadrunner series is:

1.) There is supposed to be only the tiniest of plots in the cartoon, such as the flying dart bombs or the pop-up metal wall that link seperate gag segments to each other;

2.) There are never supposed to be any human characters in the desert (other than the unseen drivers operating those trucks and buses that nail Wile E.);

3.) Wile E.'s items should come from the Acme Corp. (though if they are out of super-stick glue, I guess ordering from the Ajax Corp. is allowed) and not out of some bag thrown by a guy driving down the highway trying to elude police.

The gags aren't awful in "Sugar and Spies" the way some of the ones in Larriva's 11 RRs are, but the violations of the rules set down in Jones' cartoons make me favor "Rushing Roulette."