Ready, Set, Zoom! features the immortal sequence in which the Coyote is forced to walk with his bum. You’ll understand it, and remember, when you see it. We are accumulating some real thematic substance and power as these films go forward. Hope springing eternal; hope eternally frustrated. As so often happens, he is so-o close to deliverance. And then he keeps not getting there. Is it nihilism, or is he—are we—advancing in increments?
Now it’s dynamite and really giant elastic bands. We frequently get a kind of cookbook, gather-the-ingredients cinema here. In this case we have an Acme outboard motor, a Jim Dandy wagon, water, a wash tub, roller skates. Are they parodying Popular Mechanics, do-it-yourself-ism, the suburban male’s handyman hideout? They might also be honouring them. The conclusion to that elaborate setup is all-time amazing, and quite pitiable too. He woulda made it! Note similarities to the similar dispatching of the bull in Bully for Bugs (q.v.). This time we’re going in the opposite direction, and we identify with/feel for the about-to-be-victim!