Release Date:

January 26, 1957

Main Character(s):

The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote

Summary:

The tenth chase between Wile E. Coyote (Eternalii Famishiis) and the Roadrunner (Tastyus Supersonicus).

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1436 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The title is a pun for “scrambled eggs”.

Carl Stalling scored this one. Starting with this cartoon, every remaining cartoon that Stalling scored (with the exception of the last one he did, 1958’s “To Itch His Own”), Milt Franklyn is credited alongside him due to his opening and closing themes being the ones used during the 1955-1964 period.

The coil spring gag was used in the 1979 compilation movie, “The Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Movie”.

Favorite Scene:

The dehydrated boulders gag.

What Happens in This One:

Wile E. is chasing the Roadrunner as usual before the Roadrunner puts on the extra burst of speed and makes a fast left at a four-way crossing. Watching this in confusion while still running, Wile E. ends up burrowing into the road and sees to his horror that he’s headed towards a warning sign, “Danger Bridge Out”. He slides off the end of the road and falls to the ground below. The impact has created a hole in the shape of Wile E. holding his fork and knife. Wile E. tosses out both cutlery before getting up and removing the napkin around his neck and walking out of the hole. Walking for a bit, he suddenly gets an idea, pointing back and forth a few times (animated by Abe Levitow).

Wile E. sticks out what is seemingly his own foot to trip the Roadrunner, but the Roadrunner runs past so quickly that it causes the foot to become twisted. Wile E. then steps out, revealing this was a fake foot. Putting it down on the road, he scratches his head while pondering before the fake foot suddenly becomes untwisted and causes Wile E. to get twisted up, with him dangling in the air headfirst while holding onto the foot (animated by Ben Washam).

Laying against a small rock on the ground, Wile E. scratches his back with the back of his hand before drawing something in the sand with his nail. He then suddenly gets another idea. The idea is swinging a lasso with a dynamite stick at the Roadrunner to catch him. The lasso instead wraps around Wile E., tying him up and rendering the dynamite stuck to his nose before it explodes (animated by Washam).

With roller skates on his feet and a sail and electric fan strapped to his back, Wile E. uses this combination to go after the Roadrunner. The road they’re on curves around the mountainside, with the Roadrunner going around the curve but Wile E. continuing forwards through the river the road curves away from and only the sail and fan being seen above the water. Wile E. and his contraption then plow through the ground before running smack into a cliff side. He climbs out of the ground dazed before collapsing front-first (animated by Ken Harris).

Wile E. is seen sitting on a rocket, waiting to light the fuse until the Roadrunner passes by. Once he lights the fuse, however, the rocket zooms off from under him, leaving Wile E. in mid-air with the fire from the rocket’s back also having burned off the fur on Wile E. from the neck down. The rocket then comes back and zooms over Wile E., burning off the fur on his entire backside. Wile E. then walks away with his bald back and bald front side in full view (animated by Richard Thompson).

The Roadrunner stops at the edge of a cliff and looks down to see a boulder suspended on another cliff edge from below as Wile E. is using this boulder to have it fall on the other end of a makeshift teeter board to propel him upward to the Roadrunner. The boulder instead falls on him (animated by Thompson).

Wile E. pushes an anvil tied to a balloon off a cliff and releases said anvil down onto the Roadrunner once he starts crossing a bridge. The Roadrunner stops a few inches in front of the anvil’s path, resulting in the anvil going through the bridge and creating an anvil-shaped hole before it lands on telephone wires below the bridge. The wires cause the anvil to bounce back up through the hole and high into the air as Wile E. nervously watches. The anvil then falls back down towards Wile E., who chatters his teeth in fear and scrunches himself up to brace for the hit, only for the anvil to miss and go through another part of the cliff, leaving the part Wile E. is on in mid-air. After the anvil lands with a clatter offscreen, Wile E. is relieved but his relief is short-lived when he realizes his piece of the cliff is defying gravity. Holding onto the piece, Wile E. falls along with it shortly (animated by Levitow).

Wile E. next pushes a very large coil spring all the way back against another cliff and holds himself and the spring still by putting his fingers on the ground. When the Roadrunner zooms by, Wile E. lets go for the spring to release, only for him to get stuck inside the undone spring (animated by Harris).

Walking to the edge of another cliff, Wile E. uses ACME Dehydrated Boulders, which appear as small pebbles before they become boulders when water is added. He takes one out puts it in his palm before squirting a small pipette of water onto the dehydrated boulder. Before Wile E. can drop it on the Roadrunner, it fully forms into a regular boulder and crushes Wile E. (animated by Harris).

Lastly, Wile E. has unboxed a “Junior Size Outboard Steam Roller” and is heard having finished building it. He starts it up and runs after it all the way in excitement. Once the Roadrunner sees it, he runs off, with the steam roller not too far behind. The Roadrunner then sees a handwritten sign that Wile E. presumably painted earlier, “In Case of Steam Roller Use Detour” pointing towards the road going right. The Roadrunner goes that way with the steam roller going down the road heading left. Wile E. goes down the right before the Roadrunner runs into an “Escape Tunnel”. Wile E. hops (animated by Harris up to here) over it, revealing that the “tunnel” is actually a cannon disguised as one. Panting tiredly but happily, Wile E. lights the cannon’s fuse before sitting down to catch his breath. Once the fuse is burned all the way, however, nothing happens, much to Wile E.’s confusion (animated by Levitow). He looks over the fake tunnel wall and into the cannon’s barrel and sees what is presumably a train heading out. Believing this is some sort of joke, Wile E. looks into the barrel again and is shot by the cannon firing. The Roadrunner sails away by riding on the cannonball and waves goodbye to Wile E. with one of his legs. A charred Wile E. walks away annoyed, before he is confronted by the steam roller coming towards him. With nowhere to run, Wile E. holds up a sign reading, “This Is the End” before he is hit by the steam roller (animated by Thompson).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½