Release Date:

September 19, 1953

Main Character(s):

The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote

Summary:

The fourth chase between Wile E. Coyote (Road-Runnerus Digestus) and the Roadrunner (Velocitus Tremenjus).

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1270 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This is one of only 4 Warner cartoons to be a Z-title (and rather fittingly, they’re all Roadrunner cartoons). The others include “Zoom and Bored” (1957), “Zip N Snort” (1961), and “Zoom at the Top” (1962).

This is the first Roadrunner cartoon to have layouts by Maurice Noble, whose stylized desert settings helped make these cartoons unique.

The “Human Cannonball” and wrecking ball gags were used in the 1979 compilation movie, “The Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Movie”.

During the freeze frame showing Wile E.’s Latin name, said freeze frame is on a “smear” of Wile E.’s head, looking around, giving audiences a clear view of “smear animation”.

This is the first cartoon where Wile E. uses birdseed and therefore, the first cartoon where the Roadrunner is shown eating birdseed.

With this being a dialogue-less cartoon (as usual for Roadrunner cartoons), Milt Franklyn is credited for orchestrations.

This is also the first time Jones broke one of his own “rules” for the Roadrunner cartoons, specifically the one that states that the Roadrunner should not harm Wile E. except for coming up from behind him and startling him with “Meep! Meep!” Near the start of the cartoon, the Roadrunner repeatedly runs over Wile E. at a four-way intersection.

A 90-second cutdown of this cartoon was available on a Movie Viewer Super 8mm device in 1979.

The mousetrap gag would be reused by Freleng in “Speedy Gonzales” (1955).

Favorite Scene:

Wile E. pours some “Ace Steel Shot” into the box of birdseed and attempts to use a large magnet to catch the Roadrunner after he pecks them all up, only to catch a huge TNT barrel, whose explosion twists the magnet into a pretzel-shape.

What Happens in This One:

The Roadrunner is first seen running alongside a speeding train before the road and railroad head their separate ways and the Roadrunner zooms around the desert. Watching him is Wile E., who licks his lips in hunger and then goes down to a four-way intersection to ambush the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner comes up from behind him and knocks him down. When Wile E. looks that way, the Roadrunner comes back from the other way and hits him. He stands in another direction and is hit by the Roadrunner from the behind once more. Every time Wile E. tries to get back up, he is promptly run over by the Roadrunner, before he no longer bothers to get back up and can only give the audience an exasperated thinking face as the Roadrunner continues running over him back and forth (animated by Ben Washam).

Wile E. attempts to throw a grenade at the Roadrunner, but mistakenly throws the pin instead and doesn’t realize it’s the grenade that he has in his mouth until it’s too late (animated by Ken Harris).

Seen from behind a brick wall, Wile E. is startled by the Roadrunner appearing next to him and letting out a “Meep! Meep!” The Roadrunner then runs off, leaving behind a Roadrunner-shaped cloud of dust that also does a “Meep! Meep!” at a bewildered Wile E. (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Wile E. places several mousetraps all over the road, with a hilarious trumpet blurt being heard every time he lays one down. The Roadrunner dashes through them so rapidly that they all fly onto Wile E. Covered in mousetraps, Wile E. does nothing for a few seconds, before leaping up and screaming in pain (animated by Vaughan).

Using an “ACME Giant Kite Kit” and a huge bomb, Wile E. attempts to fly with the kite to drop the bomb on the Roadrunner, but upon jumping off the cliff, he plummets instead of soaring where the aftermath of the offscreen explosion is shown with a charred Wile E. having landed on his behind on the ground with the destroyed kite (animated by Harris).

Wile E. chops down what is apparently a tree for it to fall on the Roadrunner. After the Roadrunner zooms by, Wile E. finds out that what he chopped isn’t a tree, but instead a telephone pole, which causes all of the other poles to fall as well and the one behind him to pound him into the ground (animated by Washam).

Wile E. next pours some Ace Steel Shot into a box of ACME Bird Seed and pours a handful of the mixture on the road. Not finding anything strange, the Roadrunner pecks it all up and runs off. Wile E. comes out with a giant magnet pointing towards him, but only catches a huge keg of TNT. The explosion causes the magnet to become twisted into a pretzel-shape and also shown to have caused Wile E. to fly backward into a cliff side with a Wile E.-shaped hole (animated by Vaughan).

Reading a book called “Hypnotism Self-Taught”, Wile E. is shown studying a chapter showing “How to Induce a Person to Jump Off a Cliff”. He tests it on a fly, who walks off the cliff it’s standing on, complete with its arms sticking out. Wile E. attempts to do it on the Roadrunner, but the Roadrunner combats the hypnotism attempt with a mirror, resulting in Wile E. hypnotizing himself and doing the same arm sticking out walk off another cliff (animated by Harris).

The Roadrunner looks down from the edge of a precipice to see Wile E. having made a makeshift teeter-board and attempting to propel himself upward by throwing a large rock on the other end. The rock only falls back onto his head (animated by Harris).

Having prepared a row of rifles to all fire at the Roadrunner once he pulls a cord, Wile E. only succeeds in getting the rifles to fire at himself (animated by Washam).

The Roadrunner begins to cross a bridge held by ropes that Wile E. attempts to cut with a knife. Once he does, the ledge Wile E. is standing on falls, leaving the bridge defying gravity and being suspended without the support of this ledge (animated by Washam).

Dressed up in a stunt outfit, Wile E. attempts to fire himself from a large cannon as a “Human Cannon Ball”. The cannon only flies backwards after firing and leaves a charred Wile E. falling to the ground (animated by Harris).

Having made two wooden supports suspended between two ledges, Wile E. attempts to swing a wrecking ball down towards the Roadrunner, but only swings back in a complete circle towards him, and not only hits him on the head, but also removes the part of the support he was standing on (animated by Harris).

Lastly, he has stacked numerous boxes and barrels of TNT behind a fake store-like entrance advertising “Free Birdseed!” with numerous arrows pointing towards the door and with other advertisements such as “No Charge!”, “Come On In!”, “Free!”, and “Special Today!” Wile E. puts the handle of an ACME Detonator up against the door so it will cause the explosives to go off when the door is opened. Wile E. climbs out over the wall and sneaks off, only for a truck to suddenly approach. With nowhere else to run, Wile E. ends up opening the door to his own trap, causing all of the explosives to blow up on him and leave him completely charred. The truck then runs him over. A dazed Wile E. gets up, sticks out his tongue like the Roadrunner and does an imitation of his “Meep! Meep!” before collapsing (animated by Vaughan).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½