"Hook, Line and Stinker" (1958)- Looney Tune
Director: Chuck Jones
Story: Michael Maltese
Anim: Richard Thompson, Ken Harris, Ben Washam
Layout And Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard
Film Editor: Treg Brown
Music: John Seely
This 1958 Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon is not only funny, it's unique as well. First of all, a person watching this will notice immediately that the music is not done by Carl Stalling, or Milt Franklyn for that matter, but John Seely. In fact, Seely did not really "do" the music at all, he used stock "canned" music to snip together a score, and it actually works really well here. The tune is catchy, you might remember it from somewhere else. The 1960's TV sitcom "Dennis the Menace", based on the comic strip, used it as the opening theme! This same music plays over the opening credits with Dennis depicted as a tornado destroying things. It also played as the background music in many episodes. The cartoon itself includes a lengthy gag tribute to cartoonist Rube Goldberg, in which Wile E. Coyote rigs up all kinds of crazy devices to work together at one simple task-drop a cannonball on the Road Runner. (Nice effort, but unsuccessful). Keep an eye out for Philip De Guard's layouts in this film, the same style is used in a number of other Roadrunner films: the sky is yellow and the cliffs are very red-colored. "Hook Line and Stinker" is also unusual in that it is available on THREE video collections, two of which are no longer available. It can currently be found on the Warner Home Video "Chariots of Fur". It is also played often on Cartoon Network, but the film print used is awful.
