Cartoon a Day: Hook, Line and Stinker

Hook, Line and Stinker
1958
Directed by Chuck Jones
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6

The 13th Road Runner / Coyote short is not the strongest of the batch, but it's hard to go wrong when these characters are in the hands of Chuck Jones.

The right elements are all there...the great backgrounds, the crazy inventions (especially the final one used in this cartoon), the great reaction shots...these are the things that make the Road Runner films great. There is one thing that really gets in the way in this short, however. It may seem like nit picking, but the music is just all wrong.

I know nothing of John Seely, who is given the music credit on this film, but for this film he needed to take a few lessons from the maestro Carl Stalling. Stalling knew when to let it rip with the music and when to lay low. Here the music just draws attention to itself...which is exactly what film music should never do.