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There are reasons why the classic cartoons are so good. The full animation is one thing; you get a flowing look that even computer animation can't match. And the quality of the art was supreme. In those days, a lot of the studios used well-trained artists for the grunt animation work, including many highly skilled refugees from Europe who'd work cheap. The talent pool was amazing.
But here's the main reason: while the cartoon operations were run by hard-assed studio execs who were just interested in a profit, the directors and artists were making those cartoons for themselves. Nobody at the studio paid much attention to what was in the cartoons as long as they came out on time and budget. So the directors and cartoonists -- the Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett types (and oh god, Tex Avery) just went crazy. That freedom of creativity just isn't there in the modern animation studios. You never knew what those guys would do next. And the humor was on several levels; the kids could enjoy the run-chase stuff, but there was also sly humor for the adults.
Chuck Jones did a lot of the most ambitious Warner's cartoons of the '50s because he figured out a dodge to fool his bosses. They had (I think) about six weeks to do each eight-minute cartoon. But Chuck could do a Roadrunner cartoon in four or five. So he'd do a couple of roadrunners in a row and add the extra couple of weeks to some more ambitious project he was developing. On paper, though, they all took six weeks.
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