The Whizzard of Ow (2003)

The Whizzard of Ow Review

The Whizzard of Ow is a 2003 animated short film from the Looney Tunes series.

Wile E. Coyote is chasing the Road Runner and comes across the Acme Book of Magic. With the power to levitate heavy boulders, fly on broomsticks, and transfigure anything to suit his need, he might have a chance to get the bird after all. But naturally this all crashes down for the coyote in many painful ways. The gags in this short are surprisingly strong for a 2003 movie. Some of them are actually terrific with the first half operating at full speed to deliver genuinely hilarious results that felt both fresh and unexpected.

The only issue here was that third act. I did not quite care for the ending with the Road Runner using magic on Wile. The final moment with the bird getting a date was funny, but otherwise that third act did not quite fit with the rest of the short tonally. The animation is overly garish and not particularly pleasing, but the sound and score are quite good and the overall magic-oriented premise was original and different enough that the movie largely worked.

The Whizzard of Ow is weakly animated, but the magic-oriented premise was fresh and it did lead to some solid gags.

My Rating – 3.9