Guided Muscle (1955) User Reviews

A Few New Wrinkles Keep It Entertaining

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 22 April 2007]

These are lean times, once again, for poor Wile E. Coyote (Eatibus almost anythingus) who cooks a tin case in desperation, but can't eat it. The Road Runner (Velocitus Delectibus) sprints by and knocks the poor coyote over. Once upright, Wile licks his chops and the chase is on, but it is a short one. Wilie stops, thinks things over and comes up with some plans.

Some of this is the standard fare: boulders, pouring something on the road, etc., but there were some different ploys in here that were very good. My favorites were the coyote making himself into a human arrow, shooting himself from a big bow, the fuse going up from the TNT back through the fishing reel and, of course the tar-and-feather bit. In that, Wile reads from the book "How To Tar and Feather A Road Runner." In small print, it says "tenth edition." You just know this isn't going to go by the book!

Some repeated gags, some new ones, still VERY watchable

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 30 October 2005]

Starting off with the Road Runner interrupting the crafty coyote's meal, the seventh pairing of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner has a few gags repeated from the earlier shorts which while old still made me chuckle, but it has a few new ones as well that made me laugh. And as always ANY short with Wile E. in it is so VERY much worth watching, as he's 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. This cartoon also has an optional music only track.

My Grade: B

Even with some used gags, it is very enjoyable

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 23 June 2010]

I agree the story is pretty standard, and there are some repeated gags, not that that is a bad thing. But there are some new ideas too, and they are clever and well used. The animation is good with some nice backgrounds especially, the music while not taking a significantly-major role has enough energy to bring some dynamic expression into the cartoon and the sight gags are very amusing. The cartoon also moves along briskly and both Roadrunner and Coyote are entertaining, especially Coyote who I have always considered a better character due to his devious and cunning personality.

Overall, enjoyable enough Roadrunner vs. Coyote cartoon, even with some repeated gags and a standard story, Coyote himself and some clever sight gags more than make up for any misgivings. 8/10 Bethany Cox

"Eatibus almost anythingus"

[slymusic · 18 May 2009]

"Guided Muscle" is another terrific Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones. I've been a fan of these Road Runner cartoons ever since I was a kid back in the late seventies. We all know the Coyote is going to fail in his various attempts to capture the Road Runner, so with each successive cartoon, we all try to anticipate HOW the Coyote will fail.

My two favorite sequences from "Guided Muscle": First, the Coyote sticks an arrow point on his nose and shoots himself from a bow, but his body crashes through a cactus and falls off a cliff. And second, the Coyote buries a stick of dynamite in the ground and awaits the Road Runner's approach; he lights a long fuse and chases the Road Runner, but the dynamite blows up by the time the Coyote runs over the burial spot.

One final remark I'd like to make about these wonderful Road Runner/Coyote cartoons. I know it's easy to cultivate the attitude that if you've seen one Road Runner cartoon, you've seen 'em all. But I prefer to agree with what animator Willie Ito once remarked about the Road Runner/Coyote series: You might watch one Road Runner cartoon and figure that you've seen all the possible gags you could ever see in a six-minute film, but when you watch the next Road Runner cartoon, you say to yourself, "My gosh! Here's a whole new series of gags!"

Nice cartoon

[rbverhoef · 7/10 · 24 April 2004]

In this cartoon we see the Coyote cooking a meal for himself. When he wants to start eating (his meal is an empty tin can) something better comes along, Road Runner. Coyote, this time introduced as Eatibus Almost Anythingus, tries to catch Road Runner, this time Velocitus Delectibus. He uses himself as a giant arrow, he tries to shoot himself with an elastic, he tries cannon balls, and even follows the instructions from a book called 'How to Tar and Feather a Road Runner'. The Road Runner actually comments on that one.

This is another fine cartoon from the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote series. The animation is nice, the timing for the gags perfect and the music adds a lot to the funny moments.

Keeps the series right at the top of its game

[phantom_tollbooth · 9/10 · 1 October 2008]

By the time Chuck Jones directed 'Guided Muscle', the seventh Road Runner cartoon, he had already perfected the formula. The previous two cartoons, 'Stop, Look and Hasten' and 'Ready, Set, Zoom' were both amongst the best cartoons in the entire Road Runner series, with the latter staking a convincing claim to being the best of the entire bunch. One might ask if Jones could justify continuing a series that threatened to get repetitive. Perhaps surprisingly, however, Jones's stringent rule that the characters must always remain in their natural desert habitat ensured that the series stayed fresh. While Friz Freleng's Sylvester and Tweety series quickly went stale thanks to the same routines being replayed in different settings, the constant location of the Road Runner cartoons pushed writer Michael Maltese to come up with more and more inventive jokes and Chuck Jones to direct them with more and more inventive flair. So 'Guided Muscle' keeps the series right at the top of its game with ample hilarious gags enhanced by glorious reaction shots from the Coyote, whose relationship with the audience was now established beyond doubt. As well as being stuffed with great gags, 'Guided Muscle' continues the run of more inventive opening and closing segments. There's a brilliant opening set-up in which the Coyote prepares a tin can for consumption as if it were the finest delicacy known to man but fails to fight off the reality of the situation when he finally sits down to eat it. There's also a delightful ending in which he finally reaches breaking point and effectively tenders his resignation!

Velocitus Delectiblus

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 8 October 2015]

Another solid Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short from Chuck Jones. This one starts with poor Wile E. reduced to cooking a tin can over an open fire. No, not a can of beans or anything -- just the can! Desperate times for coyotes. Road Runner shows up and our coyote friend is quickly in pursuit. Who needs to eat metal when you can have Road Runner? A funny cartoon in a great series. It's not one of the best but it's good. Some of the gags here include ACME grease, arrow nose, and another variation on the old bird seed gag. The animation is good but not quite on the level of some of the other shorts from this series around the same time. Carl Stalling's energetic score also seemed to be a bit overbearing at times. Anyway, minor flaws aside it's a good short with plenty of laughs. It only suffers by comparison to others in the wonderful Road Runner series.

Wanted! One Gullible Coyote!!

[DaniGirl1969 · 9/10 · 25 December 2010]

Our relentless underdog seems ready to finally throw in the towel at the end of this hilarious cartoon -- and who can blame him, after everything that happens to him in "Guided Muscle"? Not only is he the victim of his usual miscalculation or sheer bad luck -- getting flattened by a tree, an iron ball and another of those rogue trucks that seem to run rampant in that desert of his. But even the laws of physics won't work for poor Coyote. He attempts to fire himself after Road Runner, only to have the rubber band just stand there suspended after he cuts the restraining rope -- at least until he sticks his neck inside it! Then there's the cannon that fires itself -- and him -- backward into the side of a cliff.. and then to add insult (and injury) to injury, the thing spits right in his face when the battered and bruised coyote crawls out of its maw. And when he lowers a lit stick of dynamite attached to a fishing line behind Road Runner, does it blow the bird up? Of course not -- the spark somehow goes right through the TNT, jumps onto the fishing line and then travels up until it finds its way into the box full of explosives right behind Coyote! All this should tell him that he'd be better off trying to cook up that empty tin can he was planning to eat at the beginning of this cartoon. But the funniest moment of all comes at the end, when Road Runner once again tricks him into falling for his own trap. The look on Coyote's face after the inevitable explosion is just priceless. No wonder he appears to hand in his notice! Luckily for us (but not for him), Wile E would change his mind in time for the next episode, and try his luck again -- and again -- and again. Great cartoon!

"Wanted: One gullible coyote . . . "

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 22 May 2016]

" . . . apply to the manager of theater," Wile E. Coyote commands his audience to close out the Warner Bros. animated short GUIDED MUSCLE. What does this ending tell us? First off, it says WE'RE the coyotes (all of us know ACTUAL coyotes cannot read). To whom is this message addressed? Certainly NOT the audiences of the 1950s, when America's Top Tax Rate was about 90% under Rich People Party President "I-Like-Ike," when more than half of a Healthy U.S. Middle Class proudly wore their Union Labels, and when this country's wealth was evenly distributed, by Today's Barbarous standards. No, we hapless coyotes chasing the Mythical American Dream Roadrunner inhabit the 21st Century of the American Downfall, and are about to be led off the cliff by Pied Piper Trump like so many lemmings (or Death-Plunging Coyotes). As the May 19, 2016 USA Today Headline Story documents, this self-described Billionaire has sued ALL levels of U.S. government more than 100 times in attempts to weasel out of paying even his scandalously LOW fair share of taxes. (YOU AND I have had to pick up the school, rabid animal control, water, and garbage bills for Mr. Trump due to his non-stop litigation!!) A year from now most U.S. corporations will be owned and\or controlled by the Oligarchal Octopus Trump (who's playing a crazy Game of Monopoly with our Children's Futures!), and we gullible coyotes will be lucky to get paid a nickel an hour!

A winner all around

[Moax429 · 9/10 · 30 April 2005]

"Guided Muscle" has to be one of my Top 5 all-time favorite Looney Tunes.

Indeed, the scenes with the tar-and-feathering machine and where Wile E. Coyote exploded after emerging from the cannon were a riot, and the music, of course, added much comic punctuation. But the coupe de grace had to be the final scene; after Wile E. was defeated by the Road Runner (blown up by a stick of dynamite), he hauls out a placard reading, "Wanted: One gullible coyote. Apply to (the) manager of this theater" (which made me wonder, when I first saw this short on TV in 1972 and was 10 years old, if this was actually shown in a theater rather than made for television. And, as my folks attested, all the pre-1968 Looney Tunes were first shown theatrically), after which Wile E. pulls out the red, target-like "That's all Folks!" title card.

So why, Boomerang, haven't you shown "Guided Muscle" lately? I don't recall anything politically incorrect about the short that would warrant withholding airing it. And Warner Home Video, would you PLEASE see about putting "Guided Muscle" on DVD soon?

Beware of the Arrow

[Michael_Elliott · 2 May 2009]

Guided Muscle (1955)

*** (out of 4)

Entertaining episode in the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner series. This time out the coyote is cooking a tin can when he sees a better dinner, the road runner of course, passing. The coyote tries grease, large rocks, rubber bands and turning himself into an arrow but we know what's going to happen. Once again there original ideas are pretty much gone, although several of the old tricks are given a face lift here. The grease joke is something we've seen before but it still works here. Another very good scene is the one where Wile tries to turn himself into the arrow.

birds already have feathers

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 26 November 2006]

While most Wile E. Coyote-Road Runner cartoons begin with WEC chasing RR - accompanied by parody scientific names - "Guided Muscle" starts with the former cooking some food before getting interrupted by the latter. Then comes the chase. As always, WEC has a litany of tricks and gadgets in store, but they always get him somehow. There are some repeats from earlier cartoons and some new ones. Probably the best involves WEC trying to tar and feather RR (of course, it doesn't work).

So, even if this cartoon doesn't really add anything new to the cinematic landscape, it's always great to see that the more you try to harm someone, the more you get harmed. Classic.