Truly Dreadful Film

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

While much of the Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote series was so enjoyable, the best of them some of the best and funniest Chuck Jones and Looney Tunes ever made once deadlines became tighter and budgets smaller there was a significant nosedive in quality which made the 1965-1968 output largely disappointing.More were made after, but while better than the 1965-1968 cartoons the glory days for the two characters were sadly long gone. 'Coyote Falls' is along with 'Chariots of Fur' and 'Little Bo Beep' one of the better "modern" Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons, and while it's nowhere near classic Chuck Jones level it is closer to that than to Rudy Larriva dud territory.There is not much wrong here with 'Coyote Falls'. It's not quite wild or looney enough perhaps, and at a meagre 3 minutes it's far too short when the cartoons in the series on average is between 6 and 7 minutes. It is proof though that the latter Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons shouldn't be completely dismissed, and yes it is infinitely superior to the feature film that succeeds it (didn't completely hate 'Cats and Dogs 2' but really cannot lie and say it was good either).In 'Coyote Falls', the CGI animation comes off surprisingly well and looks great. There was the worry as to whether the CGI would have depth and whether because of the different animation style that the cartoon will once again feel too different to the series' classic era. The animation however is vibrant and colourful, with very richly detailed backgrounds and nothing looking cheap or stiff (even the character designs). Refreshingly, the music is closer in spirit and in how it fits with the action to the lively and lusciously characterful work of Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn than the cheap canned, repetitive and discordant sounds of Bill Lava, really appreciated that it adhered to a more classical cartoon style rather than infuse it with modern popular music which can be repetitive and generic and would have made the feel far too different.'Coyote Falls' could have been more wild and looney, but it is still a highly entertaining cartoon and executes its humour very well. The gags and traps are not the most original or visually imaginative, but they are beautifully timed and very funny, plus they look good in the animation. Nothing tired or repetitive here. The story has its charm and moves quickly without feeling too rushed, it's formulaic (as was most of the series) but not painfully so. Roadrunner thankfully is closer to the amusing and reasonably cute character of the Jones cartoons rather than the badly drawn and incredibly annoying one seen in the Rudy Larriva shorts. Coyote, as has been said many times already, is the funnier and more interesting of the two, and he remains cunning, incredibly funny yet sympathetic for the audience which is what has always made him so appealing as a character.All in all, for a late/modern/contemporary Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon 'Coyote Falls' was surprisingly really good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

It is nice to see the Coyote and Roadrunner return to the screen with this 3-D CGI film. However, there are two serious problems with this worthwhile project. First, it was shown before a horrible full-length film which few would endure in order to see "Coyote Falls"! Currently, "Cats & Dogs 2" is in the IMDb's Bottom 100 list--hardly an auspicious place to display this film! Second, at only about three minutes, it's just too short--especially as the average non-CGI version of the duo was usually about 7-8 minutes. Still, it's a nice START and I sure hope to see more in the future--more Looney Tunes shorts and hopefully a lot longer than 3 minutes! What I did see, however, was very good--much like the 1950s-60s version updated with state of the art modern animation.

When I heard that Warner Bros. Animation were producing a trio of 3-minute Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote theatrical shorts in CGI, I pondered how many Looney Tunes fans would prefer the classic Chuck Jones versions over the Friz Freleng and Robert McKimsversion and the lackluster 2003 short film, "Whizzard of Ow". But when I watched "Coyote Falls" in front of "Cats and Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore", I became totally astounded in a positive fashion as I noticed its qualitative merits. Chuck Jones' classic feel of the Road Runner and Coyote animation has been successfully translated into the CG realm, thanks to a Chuck Jones-dedicated film director Matthew O' Callaghan bent on bringing any cartoony style into CGI. Also, there are musical cues of Carl Stalling, in which everyone can recognize them right when they grow up with the Looney Tunes. Even stereoscopic 3-D is used effectively on gags, timing and pacing, aside from depth of field.When it comes to Friz Freleng or Robert McKimson on directing the Road Runner and Coyote shorts from the mid-1960s, he ignored the original RR&C template by Jones and chose to go onto a different take: A central idea of the cartoon as an gag instead of the other way round and Coyote's occasional successes on capturing his feathered nemesis. The result: those shorts turned out to be unfavorable and forgettable. But when it comes to Matt O' Callaghan, he did a tremendous job on not only centering a gag without breaking the true and original RR&C premise, but more importantly bringing a 3-minute RR&C cartoon (not 6 or 7 minutes as usual!) to the rank of Jones' RR&C cartoons as we all know. (If you don't believe me, just check out "Daffy Duck for President" and "Porky and Daffy: the William Tell Overture" and see the differences.)There are still more Road Runner and Coyote shorts, coming to theaters and the 2010 revamp of "the Looney Tunes Show", so let's hope they can be good as or better than "Coyote Falls"!

It may be arguable that a 3 minute film does not merit a review: Coyote Falls puts the lie to this.The Road Runner cartoons are misnamed - the Road Runner itself is merely a maguffin, because the cartoons are about the Coyote, and his indefatigable pursuit of an unachievable goal, and his unshakable resolution never to give up in the sure and certain knowledge that, even if he came up with the perfect plan, his personal universe would change reality so as to foil him. This was the very highest of high concept and, coupled with Chuck Jones' sublime visual sensibilities, created a series of traditional hand-drawn animation single reelers which offered a seemingly endless series of sight gags, without dialogue, all of which were variations on a theme. When Jones packed them in, Warner Bros turned out a few more in widescreen and with a drastically different design sense and approach to music. They didn't work. And so things remained.Now we have this new 3 minute Road Runner / Coyote short, in which Jones' design models have been translated into 3D CGI. The film is essentially a number of variations on, and consequences of, a single "plan" by the coyote, lovingly rendered into a beautiful CGI version of Jones' Road Runner universe, and delivered with the Jones panache accompanied by musical cues in the Carl Stalling style.And it makes full use of cinematic 3D.Now, if only it wasn't just 3 minutes! Somewhere in heaven, Chuck Jones is smiling.