Hip Hip-Hurry!

Hip Hip-Hurry! is a 1958 Warner Bros. cartoon in the "Merrie Melodies" series featuring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

This was one of a few Road Runner cartoons that was produced in 1958 during a strike by the studio musicians union, necessitating the use of stock music. This gave the cartoon a somewhat different feel. This method would be used on later Road Runner cartoons in the 1960s.

Plot

The Road Runner zooms into view, labeled "Digoutis-unbelievablii", and then moves away to escape Wile E. Coyote, labeled "Eatius slobbius" (no doubt due to Wile's protruding tongue at this time). Eventually, the chase leads to a 3-way Y fork, leaving the coyote confused as to which way his enemy went. The bird answers for him by pulling up behind him and beeping, giving the coyote a real headache on the rocks above. However, before he can chase the Road Runner in that direction, the bird pulls behind him a second time. Wile instantly suspects the situation, and peeks through his legs, but this only leads to him bumping his head on the ground when the Road Runner beeps.

The chase now begins in full force, ending when the Road Runner barely escapes the coyote's grip and sets a bridge on fire due to his speed. Wile does his best to slow down when he sees the upcoming hole left in it, but fails and falls down to the ground.

While the Road Runner is munching on desert plants, his opponent attempts to drop a hand grenade on him. However, the grenade, by pure misfortune, drops onto a power line and is hoisted directly back to its owner, instantly wiping the laugh off his face. The grenade explodes, and the coyote lets go of the stop perforce. This, however, causes a "second" grenade to be thrown up to Wile and explode on him as well.

Wile, on top of a high butte, comes up with his new plan: use two strings to Tarzan-swing towards the Road Runner and capture him. However, he "just" misses, and scrapes across the ground before being scooped up again by the strings and thrown into an arch. As soon as the coyote falls off this, he is smashed by (surprise!) an ACME truck.

Hoping to ambush the Road Runner, Wile E. loads a firework into a slingshot and prepares to fire it at the Road Runner, but it explodes on him first.

Having mined the road with a giant firework, the coyote has logistical problems with the match, and is "gratefully" helped out by the Road Runner, who gives the coyote a lit match. As soon as Wile lights the fuse, the Road Runner disappears, causing the coyote to chase after him. The Road Runner then stops next to the firework, signals for the coyote to stop, and points at the sizzling firework before he dodges the explosion, leaving Wile to take the entire blast.

To hopefully squash the Road Runner, the coyote flips a rock across a high outcropping, rather predictably leading to the entire outcropping breaking off. Wile continues to flip the rock over, and it is only when the rock ends up in the air above him that he realizes what is happening. He runs through the air to avoid being squashed directly by the rock, and the piece of outcropping lands on a rock to create a see-saw. Wile lands on the right end, while the rock smashes onto the left end and sends the coyote up into a rockface, then down onto the see-saw again before he flips the rock onto himself.

With his own special steamboat, it looks good for Wile E. Coyote, tearing apart the river as he attempts to catch the Road Runner on the riverbank. However, when he climbs out to attempt to grab his opponent, he sees that he is going over a waterfall and only barely steers himself back in the other direction. With relief, the coyote relaxes until he ends up falling off a second waterfall in the opposite direction.

With stealth exhausted, the coyote tries to use raw speed to catch the Road Runner and tests his new high-speed tonic (containing "Vitamins R, P, & M", no less!) on an unsuspecting mouse. The mouse rattles around as a "warm-up", then darts across the desert at an impossible speed, and runs up and down a rock arch to return to his tester.

Happy with this development, Wile releases the mouse, still suffering the effects of RPM, into his hole, and then drinks the entire bottle of it himself. After the warm-up period, Wile begins the chase and quickly begins to erase the Road Runner's considerable head start. However, just as it is getting down to the wire, the Road Runner sidesteps and trips the coyote, making him roll out of control into a construction zone and then into a dynamite shed, along with a bomb, which explodes everything inside. The small silo top is transformed into a rocket, which is fired into the sky along with its rider and explodes, creating fireworks in the starry night sky, much to Road Runner's amusement.

Crew

*Story: Michael Maltese
*Animation: Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, Ben Washam, Abe Levitow, Keith Darling
*Layouts: Maurice Noble
*Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard
*Effects Animator: Harry Love
*Film Editor: Treg Brown
*Music: John Seely (from "The Gumby Show")
*Directed by: Chuck Jones

ee also

*Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1950-1959)