Hip Hip-Hurry!

Hip Hip-Hurry!
Directed by	Chuck Jones
Story by	Michael Maltese
Produced by	John W. Burton
Starring	Paul Julian (uncredited)
Music by	John Seely William Loose Henry Russell
Animation by	Keith Darling Ken Harris Abe Levitow Richard Thompson Ben Washam Harry Love (effects animation)
Layouts by	Maurice Noble
Backgrounds by	Phillip Deguard
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	December 6, 1958 (1958-12-06)
Running time	6 minutes
Country	United States

Hip Hip-Hurry! is a 1958 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. ^[1] The short was released on December 6, 1958, and stars Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. ^[2] The title is a pun on the phrase "Hip Hip Hooray!!"

Plot

The Road Runner (Digoutius-unbelievablii) zooms into view, and then moves away to escape Wile E. Coyote (Eatius-slobbius). Eventually, the chase leads to a 3-way Y fork, leaving the coyote confused as to which way his rival went. The bird answers for him by pulling up behind him and beeping, giving the coyote a real headache on the rocks above. However, before he can chase the Road Runner in that direction, the bird pulls behind him a second time. Wile E. instantly suspects the situation, and peeks through his legs, but this only leads to him bumping his head on the ground when the Road Runner beeps. The chase now begins in full force, ending when the Road Runner barely escapes the coyote's grip and sets a bridge on fire due to his speed. As Wile E. is incredulously gesturing the incident, he falls through the bridge and down to the ground. He quickly recovers and comes up his usual ideas on how to catch the Road Runner.

1. While the Road Runner is munching on desert plants, his opponent attempts to drop a hand grenade on him. However, the grenade, by pure misfortune, drops onto a power line and is hoisted directly back to its owner, instantly wiping the laugh off his face. The grenade explodes, and the unhappy Coyote lets go of the pin. This, however, causes a second grenade to be thrown up to Wile E. and explode on him as well.

Later on, Wile E. paces the cliff he's still on and it isn't until he stops near the edge that he comes up with a new plan.

2. Wile E. starts his painful trapeze act and ends up getting scraped on the ground, hitting the top of a tunnel and hit by the face by an ACME truck.

3. Hoping to ambush the Road Runner, Wile E. loads a firework into a slingshot and prepares to fire it at the Road Runner, but it explodes on him first.

4. Having mined the road with a giant firework, the coyote can't light the match properly, so the Road Runner "gratefully" gives his nemesis a lit match. As soon as Wile E. lights the fuse, the Road Runner disappears, causing the coyote to chase after him. The Road Runner then stops next to the firework, signals for the coyote to stop, and points at the sizzling firework before he dodges the explosion that Wile E. suffers.

5. The coyote flips a rock across a high outcropping to drop it on the Road Runner from above, rather predictably leading to the entire outcropping breaking off. Wile E. continues to flip the rock over, and it is only when it ends up in the air above him does he realize what is happening. He runs through the air to avoid being squashed directly by the rock, and the piece of outcropping lands on a small rock to create a see-saw. Wile E. lands on the right end, while his rock smashes onto the left end and sends the coyote up into a rock face, then down onto the see-saw again before he flips the rock onto himself.

6. Wile E. tears apart the river on a motorboat as he attempts to catch the Road Runner on the riverbank. However, when he climbs out to attempt to grab his opponent, the bird points him to a looming waterfall, and Wile E. only barely steers himself back in the other direction. With relief, the coyote relaxes until he ends up falling off a second waterfall in the opposite direction.

7. Finally, the coyote tries to use raw speed to catch the Road Runner and tests his new high-speed tonic (containing "Vitamins R, P, & M") on an unsuspecting mouse. The mouse rattles around as a "warm-up", then darts across the desert at an impossible speed, and runs up and down a rock arch to return to his tester. Happy with this development, Wile E. releases the now-jittery mouse into his hole, and then drinks the entire bottle of it himself. After the warm-up period, he begins the chase and quickly begins to erase the Road Runner's considerable head start. However, just as it is getting down to the wire, the Road Runner sidesteps and trips the coyote, making him roll out of control into a construction zone marked by a sign with two kerosene road torches that fall off and roll with him into a dynamite shed, exploding everything inside. The small silo top is transformed into a rocket with Wile E. lodged in it, which is fired through the clouds with its rider and goes off, creating fireworks in the starry night sky, much to the Road Runner's amusement. The words "The End" also appear in the fireworks.

See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1950–1959)

References

1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 312. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 128–129. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.

External links

• Hip Hip-Hurry! at IMDb