When Warner Bros. made the first Road Runner cartoon in 1949, they had no plans for bringing back the characters. Once movie audiences raved about how funny the short Fast and Furry-ous was, they made sequels to show in movie theaters. The cartoons featuring the Road Runner and the Coyote had their own rules and format, making them instantly familiar in a new short. Then TV beckoned, Warner Bros. laid off their artists to save money, and in the 1980s the cartoons were heavily edited to reduce the violence. "Reducing the violence" only made them shorter, because the ridiculously over-the-top violence was the main point. (via Boing Boing)
Arguably the best cartoons of that long era. Until they ruined them by going all PC.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, I had assumed it was me changing over the years. In the beginning I would watch them beginning to end, repeatedly. As I aged school, work, marriage, responsibilities, meant just catching only parts of them. Just painting a tunnel on the wall and running into it, or an ACME truck delivery made me think all was well in Beep-Beep land.
ReplyDeleteNot long ago I saw a one panel cartoon of Mr and Mrs Coyote in their kitchen.
She is wearing an apron saying, "I guess it's vegetable soup AGAIN".