The Wild Chase (1965) User Reviews

Road Runner vs. Speedy Gonzalez

[rbverhoef · 6/10 · 26 April 2004]

The fastest mouse from Mexico, Speedy Gonzalez, finally in a race against the Texas road burner, Road Runner. They are gonna decide who is the fastest but of course Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote try to catch the two racers before they reach the finish. They do not succeed, of course, but there is a nice little surprise in the end.

This cartoon could have been hilarious, considering the possibilities. Instead they have chosen to use the best gags from earlier and better cartoons. I recognized all the gags from previous Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoons, but I have to say that I still smiled. The reason for that was Sylvester who simply added to the gags. Still, he made sure this cartoon was pretty enjoyable.

Solid concept, not as good as most Roadrunner shorts though

[KalloFox34 · 6/10 · 1 November 2021]

Admittedly, the idea of Speedy Gonzales and the Roadrunner having a foot race is a great idea.

While it's not as bad as most shorts from that era, it's nothing to write home about either. The fact is that is recycles animation (and, by extension, gags) from previous Roadrunner cartoons. This also results in a jarring contrast between Sylvester (who is drawn in the DePatie-Freleng style) and Wile E. Coyote (who is drawn in Chuck Jones' distinctive style).

That being said, it could be pretty enjoyable if you haven't seen "Zoom and Bored" (which the short recycles its animation from) and the ending was decent.

branching out

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 29 June 2007]

For years, Wile E. Coyote had unsuccessfully chased Road Runner, and Sylvester had unsuccessfully pursued Speedy Gonzales. With RR racing against the Fastest Mouse in Mexico, it's no surprise that WEC and Sylvester try to catch them...whether they cooperate or get on each other's nerves.

I should identify that despite the overall plot, "The Wild Chase" is not a particularly original cartoon. Many of the traps were lifted out of previous cartoons. I also felt that the cartoon ended sort of abruptly. But in the grand scheme of things, I liked the idea of what would happen if these two most accelerated Looney Tunes had to race against each other. If it brings up the continuing immigration debate in our country (a Mexican and an American as opponents), then so be it. This is still a pretty interesting cartoon.

An interesting experiment that doesn't make the grade

[slymusic · 15 February 2007]

"The Wild Chase" is a fairly weak Warner Bros. cartoon that was made after the studio terminated its cartoon department; director Friz Freleng then formed a partnership with producer David H. DePatie to crank out an additional series of Warner Bros. cartoons with much tighter budgets. This particular film features quite an odd combination of character teams: the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote, and Speedy Gonzales & Sylvester! The plot is very simple: The Road Runner & Speedy compete together in a race, with the uninvited Coyote & Sylvester in hot pursuit. The Road Runner cries his usual "Meep meep!" and Speedy says nothing more than his usual Spanish shouts of excitement while running. Neither the Coyote nor Sylvester speaks one word as they work together to catch their respective lunches; one can only wonder what they would say to each other if they DID speak.

Despite its shortcomings, "The Wild Chase" still contains its share of funny scenes. The single shot of all the Texan cowboys lining up to bet on the Road Runner, as well as all the Mexicans lining up to bet on Speedy, is quite amusing indeed. The Coyote runs through a thick cloud of smoke, not realizing until too late that he is standing in midair (stock footage from "Zoom and Bored" [1957]). The Road Runner beeps Sylvester off a cliff and onto the Coyote, who was slowly climbing up the cliff. With Sylvester watching from close behind, the Coyote takes some dynamite, attached to a TNT pump, through a tunnel underneath the road on which the two contestants travel; the pump, however, operates by itself, and while we don't see what the explosion does to the Coyote, we DO see Sylvester's half-naked carcass outside the tunnel!

"The Wild Chase" might have been interesting during its conceptual stages, but the finished product comes off very flat. Neither the protagonists nor the antagonists are interesting enough to satisfactorily entertain the audience. This cartoon isn't helped very much by the repetitive music score of Bill Lava either.

Disappointing

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 16 November 2012]

I actually really wanted to like The Wild Chase. I love Looney Tunes and Sylvester, there are a fair few Roadrunner-Wile E Coyote cartoons that I do enjoy(though their overall series is not what I call consistent). Speedy Gonzales I don't dislike, but he has never been one of my favourites either. Plus it did have a very interesting idea. Sadly this was never lived up to due to very mediocre execution. It does have its moments, the line ups of people betting on Speedy and the Roadrunner, the TNT pump gag and the ending were at least amusing, Mel Blanc does a good job providing the vocals- though he has done much better work- and Bill Lava's music does have a certain jauntiness to it. I do much prefer Carl Stalling's scoring though. However, I didn't care for the animation, the backgrounds looked very sparse and lacking in colour and Sylvester and Wile E were very poorly drawn. I think also that a lot of the animation looked recycled further cheapened The Wild Chase. The story was also rather limp, I kind of knew that it was going to be predictable as a lot of the Roadrunner-Wile E cartoons are, but when under Chuck Jones' involvement they at least do have energy and a sense of fun. I do think The Wild Chase suffers from the lack of Chuck Jones, don't get me wrong I love Fritz Freleng but because the material wasn't anywhere near as inspired as some of his other work it doesn't allow him to put enough of his own style to it. The humour offers little new or exciting, apart from a couple of moments a lot of it feels like a tired rehash of some of their previous efforts. The four main characters had so much potential but all of them seemed bland. Sylvester and Wile E have such great personalities but as a consequence of the humour being so lacking those personalities just didn't come through. And Speedy just ended up being annoying, there were times when I did question what the point of him was other than being a foil for Sylvester. All in all, a disappointing cartoon considering its potential. 4/10 Bethany Cox

It's just a cartoon

[garrisonaw · 9/10 · 3 June 2009]

This is particularly for those who would criticize this cartoon because it doesn't quite meet your expectations.

Get over it. It is, after all, a cartoon.

If you want an Academy Award winning performance, by all means, watch an Academy Award winning film. This is a cartoon. I mention that again just in case it has escaped your observation up until now.

And this cartoon combines the two best elements from cartoons gone by - specifically the Road Runner and Speedy chases. Not only does it combine the two best pairs of good guy vs. bad guy, but also some of the best gags from past shows.

If you still don't think it's up to par, go back and watch an hour of the shows from the early 1930s, and then watch this one again. And remember, it's only a cartoon.

Face it, unless you're over 60, you've been watching re-runs of these guys your whole life, so if you're gonna complain about re-runs, then don't watch them. There's plenty of brand new much-lower-quality cartoons out there for you to complain about.

Since Warner Bros.' own alternate audio commentary guy . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 1 September 2016]

. . . says that HE'D only rate THE WILD CHASE as a 5 out of 10 at best, who am I to quibble? This largely recycled Mishmash provides some insight into the Decline and Fall of the Looney Tunes Empire, if you like that sort of Inside Baseball kind of thing. It's unfortunate that CHASE is so Uninvolving, since the Looney Tuners couldn't help themselves from exercising their Gift of Prophecy, with which they were cursed. Warnologists already have documented that 78% of these animated shorts have predicted Major (Mostly American) Disasters to date (which suggests that the remaining 22% forecast End Times Apocalypti yet to occur). CHASE, of course, clearly is urging the supposedly apolitical honchos at NASA that they must NOT launch the Space Shuttle Challenger, with the first U.S. Space Cadet teacher on board, while its O-rings are frozen, just because some Gipper Geezer wants to mention the launch in an annual speech. As Wile E. Coyote is piloting the Shuttle along above the Roadrunner and Speedy Gonzales at the very end of CHASE, Sylvester Cat taps him on the shoulder, points down, and mouths the words "Bad O-rings," as any lip reader will tell you. Moments later, the craft explodes in that iconic Gipper Trail which is among the earliest memories of most older Millenials.

Should be hilarious - but is a poor rerun of jokes from better shorts

[bob the moo · 27 February 2004]

Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales are the two competitors in a road race to decide, finally, who is the fastest. However their race risks being disrupted by two unwelcome spectators who are out to get some food - Sylvester and Wily E Coyote. The two do all they can to catch their prey.

When I found out that this film brought together the two fastest characters and the two unluckiest characters, I hoped that it would be as good as one would have hoped that it would be. Sadly, the film marks itself out to be a poor, late cartoon by virtue of it's cheap animation. This puts it firmly in the territory of the nasty, cheap little shorts made in the 60's that really showed a lack of care in production.

This cheapness extends through the whole short in all aspects. The plot has promise but really it is the usual jokes as you have seen before. This is not in a good way either - they are carbon copies of gags I have seen in other films; no new ideas or fresh feel, it is all very stale and, as a result, the mixing of the characters smacks of desperation rather than imagination. Roadrunner is OK when he is with Coyote, but Speedy is poor no matter what he does. The combination of Coyote and Sylvester had potential but it adds nothing to the mix without the material - both are poorly drawn both in terms of animation and character.

Overall this was a big letdown considering the potential. The animation is rubbish, the action is stale, the characters are just graphics without personalities and the whole film is just a cheap attempt to make money without making effort.