Ready.. Set.. Zoom! (1955) User Reviews

Sometimes It's Better To Draw The Gags Out A Little More

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 18 April 2007]

A comedy bit early on in this cartoon gives a perfect example of how much funner some of these stunts can be if they drew out more than the usual 10-15 seconds. Wile E. Coyote gets stuck in glue with a stick of dynamite he can't get off his hands and the various ways he tries to get out of that situation makes it a very funny "skit."

Don't get wrong; I laugh at most of the poor coyote's failed attempts at the Road Runner. I think they would be better with five or six drawn-out gags than the usual 10-15 you see in most of the seven-minute cartoons.

Wile's contraption of a little wagon filled with water and an outboard motor and roller skates strapped to himself was another inventive move by our never-say-die coyote. Where he gets the money to buy all these Acme Company supplies every cartoon is a mystery.

The ending to this is a shock.....and very funny!

By far one of the better Roadrunner/Wile E.Coyote cartoons

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 17 May 2010]

The story is pretty basic, but Ready..Set..Zoom! is a handsomely animated and very funny Looney Tunes cartoon. In my personal opinion, this is by far one of the better Roadrunner/Wile E.Coyote cartoons. As I have said already, the cartoon is very handsome to look at, very nice colouring and backgrounds. The music is very good as well, not annoying and intrusive but clever and jaunty. But what made the cartoon were the gags. They all worked, but two stood out for me. One was the glue sequence, you could tell what was going to happen but the outcome was hilarious. The other was the ending, easily one of the funniest endings to a Roadrunner/Wile E.Coyote cartoon, like the glue sequence it was hilarious. The two characters play off against each other seamlessly each as crafty as the other. Overall, very handsome and funny, recommended. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Very good

[rbverhoef · 8/10 · 7 May 2004]

This is one of the better Road Runner cartoons I have seen. The Coyote, or Famishus Famishus, is trying to catch the Road Runner, or Speedipus Rex, with some Acme glue on a road, putting himself on a rocket, making fake tunnels, throwing a lasso with some dynamite attached and dressing himself up as a female Road Runner.

This terrific cartoon made me laugh almost constantly. Directed by Chuck Jones, who has made the funniest Road Runner cartoons, 'Ready.. Set.. Zoom!' is perfect and every gag is good for at least a smile. The early sequence with the glue and some dynamite is a great start and the ending where the Coyote wears a female Road Runner costume is one of the funniest endings I have seen. Recommended.

Probably the greatest Road Runner cartoon. Includes the perfectly executed glue sequence

[phantom_tollbooth · 10/10 · 1 October 2008]

Chuck Jones's 'Ready, Set, Zoom', the sixth Road Runner cartoon, had the mammoth task of following 'Stop, Look and Hasten', one of the best cartoons of the series. Jones and his regular Road Runner writer Michael Maltese more than rose to the challenge and, if anything, 'Ready, Set, Zoom' is even better than its classic predecessor. A startlingly handsome and extremely funny short, 'Ready, Set, Zoom' opens with the unusual sight of a stationary Road Runner. From here, it continues to confound audience expectations with the most unpredictable set of jokes yet. When we do arrive at a gag with an obvious outcome (the enormous weight), Jones opts to trust our instincts as an audience and not even bother showing us the Coyote's inevitable clobbering, instead simply allowing a squashed creature to waddle past the screen after an off-screen clang! The facial expressions of the Coyote are priceless throughout 'Ready, Set, Zoom', from the glorious evil grin as he formulates his first evil plan to the look of horror in the final unexpected twist. The best sequence, however, is the extended scene in which a glue-drenched Coyote attempts to rid himself of a sticky stick of dynamite. Everyone knows what's going to happen. Effectively, the gag has already ended the moment the glue covers the Coyote. Yet Jones wrings out every last laugh from the situation, playing on our sympathies as we hope that just maybe this time he'll be spared and our wicked sides as we savour his desperation to evade the inevitable Ka-boom! It's a glorious sequence in a glorious cartoon which makes a convincing case for being the absolute best of the series.

Ya Just Gotta Feel Sorry For Him

[DaniGirl1969 · 10/10 · 5 December 2010]

One of the reasons Wile E Coyote is so good at making us laugh is that we can really relate to his suffering. Okay, so most of us don't get run over by trucks, trains and giant boulders, or fall off two-mile-high cliffs, on a daily basis, but we've all had our best-laid plans blow up in our faces, or been in a bad situation that only seems to get worse the more we try to fix it. Coyote reminds us of ourselves -- or maybe our husbands! In "Ready, Set, ZOOM!", there are several such scenes in which Coyote's terror is drawn out by his desperate attempts to save himself from his latest calamity -- with predictable results! When Road Runner douses him with glue while he's holding a burning stick of dynamite, his panicked attempts to get rid of it only manage to bring it closer, to the point where he's forced to hobble along on his scrawny butt in a last-ditch effort to reach a nearby pond before it detonates. The fact we all know what's going to happen only makes it funnier when it does. Likewise, when his latest crazy contraption (an outboard motor and a wash tub filled with water) propels him straight toward the edge of a deep ravine, his frantic efforts to free himself only succeed once he's midway across -- and he can only watch in agony as his contraption makes it safely to the other side -- without him! There are several other wonderful scenes in this episode, including a 10,000 lb weight, a lariat filled with dynamite and a female roadrunner costume Wile E uses to attract his prey (even though I'm convinced Road Runner really IS female!). A wonderful cartoon, and one of my 3 or 4 favorites of the entire series!

The ending alone is worth the price of admission

[movieman_kev · 10/10 · 30 October 2005]

The sixth pairing of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, has the crafty coyote trying glue on the road, a giant rubber band, an outboard motor in a wash tub, and in quite possibly the funniest ending of any of these cartoons dressing up as a female road runner. I feel that the ending made it as funny as the great first animated short featuring these two wonderful characters. But perhaps I'm a bit biased as Wile E. Coyote is one of my absolute favorite cartoon personalities of all time. This animated short can be seen on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

My Grade: A+

Speedipus Rex

[utgard14 · 8/10 · 30 August 2016]

Wonderful Road Runner & Coyote short from the great Chuck Jones. In my opinion it's one of the best of the series. The animation is beautiful with well-drawn action and rich colors. The gags are all funny and flow well together. Wile E. Coyote's efforts to trap the Road Runner in this one include glue, dynamite lasso, slingshot, the classic female Road Runner disguise, dynamite rocket, and some sort of contraption made from an ACME outboard motor, roller skates, and a wash tub. Very creative stuff. This one's also interesting in that we get a glimpse at other coyotes (that look identical to Wile E.) and see they share his appetite for Road Runner. I could be wrong but I think it might be the only time in the series that we see other coyotes. Anyway, if you like Road Runner cartoons you'll want to see this one because it's one of the better ones.

"Speedipus Rex"

[slymusic · 26 May 2009]

"Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" is a Warner Bros. cartoon starring our old friends: the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote! The Road Runner never has anything to worry about, whereas the Coyote constantly has to worry about the laws of physics and gravity.

Highlights: The Coyote tries to release a lit stick of dynamite that is stuck to his hand (he's covered in glue); the dynamite explodes just after he jumps off a hill but just before he hits the lake. The Coyote swings a lasso full of dynamite sticks, but the Road Runner never comes around, and the Coyote looks funny after the explosion, still twirling the lasso. There is a nice overhead shot of the Coyote falling off a cliff after his washtub contraption fails.

"Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" is a perfect title for a Road Runner cartoon, and you can easily see why.

Poorly-versed pundits have carped for years . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 19 May 2016]

. . . that an omnivorous apex predator such as Wile E. Coyote should have no reason to continually chase after the mythical roadrunner bird in the Looney Tunes Coyote Series. READY . . . SET . . . ZOOM! sets the record straight for the more diligent students of Wile's exploits, so that they, at least, can enlighten the ill-informed prattlers who've only seen 15 or 20 Coyote Cartoons. ZOOM!'s closing scene shows 57 OTHER coyotes chasing after Wile E., because of the latter's unfortunate decision to dress up as a plump and slow female roadrunner. Since the slim pickings of Wile's desert contain barely enough eats to sustain the life of ONE coyote pup, it's clear that a foolhardy coyote population boom has created a sellers' market for mythical birds. No doubt this reflects Warner Bros.' uncanny knack of forecasting America's future; in this case, specifically, scribbling the handwriting on the wall of the End Times that will apply to the so-called "Baby Boomers" from the 1900s. Roadrunner-in-Chief Trump will conspire with Speaker Ryan to down-size or completely eliminate their Social Security Gravy Train, so they'll end up grasping at flies, just like Wile E. in his outing immediately previous to ZOOM!

Wile E. is Back

[Michael_Elliott · 2 May 2009]

Ready.. Set.. Zoom! (1955)

*** (out of 4)

A motored bathtub, glue on the road, a large rubber band and cross dressing are just a few of the ways that Wile E. Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner but I'm sure you know how everything is going to end. The sixth film in the series is perhaps the weakest so far but it still manages tog et a few laughs as that poor Wile just keeps trying no matter how badly it hurts him. There are some nice gags this time including the glue on the road, which does harm to the coyote in a few ways. The gag with the female road runner is without a doubt very neat but I won't spoil it for you.