The Larriva Eleven (Looney Tunes)

NOTE: Not to be confused with the more infamous Censored Eleven. Also, please have some respect for poor Rudy Larriva and William "Bill" Lava.

The Larriva Eleven (episode 949, 951-952, 954-955, 957-958, 960-961, 963, 965)
The Looney Tunes version of the Gene Deitch-era of Tom and Jerry.
Directed by: Rudy Larriva Release date: August 21, 1965 - March 12, 1966 Prequel: "Tease for Two" Sequel: "Chili Corn Corny" "Go Go Amigo" "The Astroduck" "Mucho Locos" "Mexican Mousepiece" "Daffy Rents"

The Larriva Eleven is the collective name of eleven Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons produced from 1965-1966 during the dark age of the Looney Tunes franchise, which were all outsourced to TV animation studio Format Films (in association with DePatie-Freleng Enterprises); and directed by Rudy Larriva, a former Warner Bros. animator who worked for Chuck Jones' unit between 1939 and 1943. While the Chuck Jones Road Runner shorts were well-received by fans and critics, these Road Runner shorts were not received well from fans and critics alike.

List of Cartoons

1. "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" (August 21, 1965)
2. "Tired and Feathered" (September 18, 1965)
3. "Boulder Wham!" (October 9, 1965)
4. "Just Plane Beep" (October 30, 1965)
5. "Hairied and Hurried" (November 13, 1965)
6. "Highway Runnery" (December 11, 1965)
7. "Chaser on the Rocks" (December 25, 1965)
8. "Shot and Bothered" (January 8, 1966)
9. "Out and Out Rout" (January 29, 1966)
10. "The Solid Tin Coyote" (February 19, 1966)
11. "Clippety Clobbered" (March 12, 1966)

Why They're Not Looney At All

1. The main problem with these eleven Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons is that none of them have the same charm as those from the classic era.
2. Another significant issue is that the primary rule, which prohibits the Road Runner from harming Wile E. Coyote except by beeping, is frequently violated throughout the cartoons, as the Road Runner actively retaliates against Wile E. Coyote. It is conceivable that Larriva was not aware of this rule since he departed from Jones' unit in 1943, a full six years before the characters made their debut.
3. Very poor and bizarre animation when compared to the other Road Runner cartoons of the time, especially the late cartoons such as "To Beep or Not to Beep", "War and Pieces", "Zip Zip Hooray!", "Roadrunner a Go-Go", "The Wild Chase", "Rushing Roulette", and "Sugar and Spies", and is comparable to the animation in the Seven Arts era. It also suffers heavily from washed-out colors and simplistic-looking background designs, and the loss of artist Maurice Noble robbed the backgrounds of their depth and style.
   • The animation has a lot of errors as well, such as in "Shot and Bothered", where Wile E. Coyote does not disappear after a boulder falls on him for the first time, and in "Out and Out Rout", where Wile E. Coyote's eyebrows change color while flying.
   • The background art and color schemes of these eleven cartoons are loosely based on the background art and colors from "Hopalong Casualty" and the rest of the final Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoons of the early-1960s, albeit less detailed and with small puffy clouds rather than crescent-shaped ones, with a pale light blue sky as opposed to a rich blue sky previously used, as well as the notable lack of shading and reflections used in the backgrounds compared to these earlier cartoons.
   • The animation often recycles certain scenes, such as the "coyote fall" and various explosions. Typically, with the exceptions of "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner," "Highway Runnery," and "Chaser on the Rocks," the reused fall sequence begins with Wile E. Coyote nearly at the bottom. In "Chaser on the Rocks," the falls are depicted from Wile E. Coyote's perspective with slow-motion close-ups of the approaching canyon floor. Both "Boulder Wham!" and "Just Plane Beep" feature the Road Runner performing the same dance, with the latter reusing the former's closing animation, accompanied by the iconic "Beep beep!" sound as Wile E. Coyote meets his defeat. It's worth noting that while these recurring elements were present in the Chuck Jones era and the two Robert McKimson shorts, they were sparingly and strategically used to conclude the segments.
4. Off-model character designs; the heights of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote tend to be inconsistent and Wile E.'s ears are sometimes too short.
   • Wile E. Coyote also lost his red eyes and gained some white spots on his feet heels, neither of which were used on Chuck Jones' or Robert McKimson's designs. This is probably due to Larriva trying too hard to make Wile E. Coyote resemble a real coyote.
5. False Advertising: The title card of "Out and Out Rout" displays a Hot Rod, implying it's the central theme of the episode. Yet, it only makes a single appearance throughout the episode.
6. Slow pacing and weak gags that carry out for too long; a notable example is the phone booth gag in "Tired and Feathered". Almost every gag takes at least 30 seconds to get through, meaning less gags per short.
   • While Jones' and McKimson's cartoons tend to utilize anywhere from 7-12 gags, Larriva's cartoons range between 3 and 6 at best. The two cartoons which Larriva storyboarded himself, "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" and "Tired and Feathered," only use three gags.
7. Most of the gags in these shorts are recycled from the Chuck Jones cartoons with lazy changes, and thus, are very predictable:
   • The last scene in "Shot and Bothered" is basically the same as the balloon gag in "Fastest with the Mostest".
   • The metal arm gag in "Haired and Hurried" was borrowed from "Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z".
   • The invisible paint gag in "Clippety Clobbered" was borrowed from "War and Pieces".
   • The mirror gag in "The Solid Tin Coyote" is a rip-off of the wall gag from "Zoom and Bored".
8. While these cartoons often utilize the new idea of a linear gag instead of blackout interchanging gags (examples being "Just Plane Beep", "The Solid Tin Coyote" and "Clippety Clobbered"), they are executed very poorly due to their slow pacing.
9. Repetitive, unexciting and wearisome canned music score from William Lava. Due to budget reasons, the music was repeated for every short except "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner". Some find the music catching -- in an aural virus way.
10. With the combination of both the repetitive and annoying canned music score from William Lava and limited number of stock sound effects used, as a result, these cartoons tend to have very monotonous soundtracks in general.
11. Both Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner have been flanderized in these cartoons:
    • The Road Runner has evolved from a charming and innocent bird into a malicious and sadistic annoyance who actively retaliates against Wile E. Coyote beyond the signature "Beep, beep!" For instance, in "Chaser on the Rocks," the Road Runner fires Wile E. Coyote out of a cannon and even runs him over with vehicles.
      • A memorable scene occurs penultimately in "Chaser on the Rocks," where Wile E. Coyote attempts to quench his thirst from a fire hose, only to have the Road Runner crank the nozzle to maximum. It's worth noting that in this particular scene, Wile E. Coyote is not pursuing or attempting to consume the Road Runner; his sole intention is to alleviate his thirst amidst the sweltering heat.
    • Wile E. Coyote has transitioned from a cunning, voracious predator fixated on capturing the Road Runner to a bumbling figure who regularly humiliates himself due to escalating ineptitude, particularly in "Shot and Bothered." Moreover, he exhibits considerably less character in these cartoons than in earlier ones; where once Wile E. Coyote had a distinct purpose in chasing the Road Runner—to satiate his constant hunger by catching and eating the bird—in these later episodes, his pursuit seems motivated solely by the intent to create slapstick comedy.
12. The cartoons have logic that make no sense, even for Looney Tunes' standards. An example is when Wile E. Coyote drowns in a birdbath fountain in "Chaser on the Rocks".

Redeeming Qualities

1. The title cards tend to be attractive. In most cases they were drafted by animator Art Leonardi, who proved to also be a talented designer. For example, the airplane he drew for the title card of "Just Plane Beep" is much more eye-pleasing than the ugly crate that Wile E. Coyote builds, flies and crashes in the cartoon itself.
2. The uncredited Ray Thursby provides smooth, graceful photography. On this account he was Rudy Larriva's favorite crew member.
3. The animation in "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner," although frequently off-model, has its own style (thanks to former UPA stalwart Tom McDonald, whose only Warner's animation credit is here) and an occasional smooth moment. When Wile E. Coyote falls, he starts closer to the camera and drops more smoothly than in the stock falls of the following ten cartoons.
   • In addition, "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" at least has an original (if simple) musical score unlike the other shorts.
4. Hiring Warner's veterans Bob Bransford (a former Chuck Jones animator) and the long-experienced Virgil Ross for ten cartoons starting with "Tired and Feathered" was a good move. They kept the characters a bit more on-model and were occasionally allowed to bring the animation up to Warner's early 1960s standards.
5. "Out and Out Rout" and "The Solid Tin Coyote" contain relatively clever gags, and the latter cartoon demonstrates that the Road Runner isn't totally infallible.
6. The episodes "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner," "Boulder Wham!," "Just Plane Beep," "Hairied and Hurried," "Shot and Bothered," and "The Solid Tin Coyote" make an effort to adhere to the Road Runner rules, particularly by not violating the primary rule. They avoid portraying the Road Runner as excessively sadistic or cruel.
7. "Highway Runnery" has the only fully animated coyote fall (a long one) in the series.
8. "Boulder Wham!" has some nice poses and expressions (one of its idea poses would resurface as publicity art reprinted by Jeff Lenberg in his 1981 book The encyclopedia of animated cartoon series), good suspense-building, and a rare for the L11 example of Virgil Ross animating his signature ear tilt (when Wile E. is about to pole vault). The "That's All, Folks!" sign, not seen in any other cartoon among Warner's run of 1965-1969 releases, is also a nice touch.
9. "Shot and Bothered" has two perspective shots of Road Runner racing through a tunnel until his eyes fill the screen. It's not known for sure who animates the first run, but it looks very much like Bob Bransford crafts the second -- easily the best animation of Road Runner in the entire L11.
10. "Hairied and Hurried" has some decent Virgil Ross animation of Wile E. Coyote with a magnet gun. Later we see effective Bob Bransford animation, with distinctive eyebrow movement and stylized mouth, after Wile E. Coyote's practice bomb drops on target. H&H is also is the only Larriva cartoon laid out by Ray Morita and Shirley Silvey, who designed some beautiful shrubs.
11. "Clippety Clobbered" has a clever ending as the pupil of Wile E. Coyote's eye transforms into an image of Road Runner.

Reception

These Larriva shorts, unlike the Chuck Jones' original Road Runner shorts, have been very negatively received (though "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner", "Out and Out Rout", "The Solid Tin Coyote", and "Clippety Clobbered" got slightly more positive or average reception) by both fans, critics and animation buffs. Film critic Leonard Maltin calls these eleven cartoons in his book Of Mice and Magic as "witless in every sense of the word."

Videos

Riffs on a few episodes from the Larriva Eleven.

Trivia

• "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" no longer airs on US networks due to Native American stereotypes related to its last gag, even though it was just Wile E. Coyote doing a rain dance. It still airs without any edits on international feeds as the issue is less relevant there.
  • Eventually, MeTV aired the aforementioned short on an airing of Toon in with Me on April 2, 2021. However, this airing appears unrestored unlike most shorts that aired on MeTV.
• At present, all of the shorts have been restored one way or another for DVD or streaming service releases, except "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner", which was released on the Bugs and Friends - Bugs and Road Runner: Runaway Rabbit LaserDisc as a 1997 "dubbed" version release (and is one of the only four DePatie-Freleng era shorts to get "dubbed" versions), but is currently not officially restored as of the moment. Every other short, however, except "Tired and Feathered" and "Just Plane Beep", were restored on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote: Supergenius Hijinks DVD, and "Tired and Feathered" and "Just Plane Beep" were later restored on the HBO Max streaming service.
• The stock music cues in the last ten shorts would be reused for the bumpers of The Road Runner Show.

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