Going! Going! Gosh!
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.
- Distributor
- Warner Bros.
Synopsis
Wile E. Coyote fires an arrow from a bow, but the explosive arrow stays. He tries to fire himself with a giant slingshot, but it snaps out of the ground and goes backward into him. He covers the road with quick-drying cement, which is splattered over him by the Road Runner. A boulder rolls over top of the cover that the manhole is under before he can throw a grenade. The Road Runner won't fall for his "Southern Belle" disguises because he already has a date. The Road Runner runs through the trick painting of a bridge where the bridge is really out. A truck comes out of it, but it tears like a canvas when the coyote tries it. The earth-shattering boulder that Wile E. tries to roll on the bird travels the circuitous mountain ledges back to him instead. The anvil that he drops from his makeshift balloon (holding a street cleaner's wagon) causes the craft to jerk upward and lose its gas. On hurling a javelin at the bird, the coyote goes straight into a beep-beeping truck- with the Road Runner at the wheel.
Characters
Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Chuck Jones (as Charles M. Jones)
Producing
- Producer
- Edward Selzer
Writing
- Writer
- Michael Maltese
Animation
- Animator
- Lloyd Vaughan (misspelled Vaughn in credits), Ben Washam, Ken Harris
Music
- Music
- Carl Stalling
- Orchestrations
- Milt Franklyn
Crew
- Layouts
- Robert Gribbroek
- Backgrounds
- Phil De Guard
Production notes
Acceleratti Incredibilis vs. Carnivorous Vulgaris.
Pictures
Reviews
Third time's the charm
The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote have only appeared in two cartoons before this one ("Fast and Furry-ous" and "Beep Beep"), and this cartoon is simply the best of the three (not to say that the other two aren't great as well!). The previous two cartoons featured a more realistic background, which has become more "stylized" in this cartoon. After the opening sequence, when we first see the Coyote actually chasing the Road Runner, you can notice a double-layered background which adds a lot to the scene.
The gags in this cartoon are absolutely brilliant, and are constantly building off each other. There's not as many of them here as in other cartoons, but the ones in this one are priceless. The classic "trick painting becoming real" gag is used here at it's absolute best. Not only does the Road Runner go INTO the painting, but an actual truck comes OUT of it before the Coyote tries his own luck and fails. Right after that is a great gag set high in the desert mountains with the Coyote unleashing a massive boulder on the Road Runner. This is one of the more "epic" feeling gags in the series, with the Road Runner just dodging the huge rock. Right after that is the often overlooked gag where the Coyote uses a green street cleaning wagon and a yellow balloon to try and drop an anvil on the Road Runner.
After these three wonderful gags, it's a bit disappointing to see the final gag in the cartoon be simply the Coyote swinging from a rope into a truck. The ending is slightly weak, but doesn't take away from all the excitement that is the bulk of the cartoon. Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn are at their absolute best in this cartoon, using the familiar "Dance of the Comedians" as the musical backdrop for the Coyote and Road Runner. Since this is an earlier RR cartoon, their characters are still being developed, and we see some of their classic facial expressions for the first time (prime example: the Coyote's look of horror when he is about to get crushed by his own boulder.)
"Going! Going! Gosh!" is one of the best RR cartoons, and one of the first where Chuck Jones got the formula right. It's often overshadowed by cartoons like "Zoom and Bored" and "Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z", but it is truely a gem of a cartoon in its own right.