Release Date:

September 14, 1957

Main Character(s):

The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote

Summary:

The eleventh chase between Wile E. Coyote (Famishus Vulgaris) and the Roadrunner (Birdibus Zippibus).

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1467 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This one always springs to mind whenever I think of Jones’ first rule he established for the Roadrunner cartoons with that being the Roadrunner not being allowed to harm Wile E. except by startling him from behind with a “Meep! Meep!” The Roadrunner does that quite a bit in this cartoon.

Carl Stalling scored this one.

This cartoon was the one Jones and crew skimped on in order to spend more time on the production of “What’s Opera Doc” (this is also Jones’ first cartoon after that masterpiece). However, this one doesn’t feel rushed in the slightest and is actually one of the best Roadrunner cartoons due to the usage of several iconic gags.

The title is a pun for “room and board”, although the spelling of the latter word here (“bored”) is rather questionable because there is no such thing as a boring Warner cartoon, in my opinion.

The entire opening scene (barring the chase during the credits and Wile E. resuming running after falling onto the road) up to the end of the jackhammer gag was used in the 1979 compilation movie, “The Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Movie”.

Favorite Scene:

The superb climax with the Ahab Harpoon Gun (this scene is also a tour-de-force for Treg Brown, whose wild sound effects are on full display here).

What Happens in This One:

Immediately after the opening rings fade out, Wile E. is already seen chasing the Roadrunner down the road, periodically freeze framing to show the title card, credits, director credit, and faux-Latin names (with the latter two having the same freeze frame). Wile E. then falls chest-first onto the road from the Roadrunner dashing off, before he gets up and continues running after him (animated by Abe Levtiow).

Soon, Wile E. runs into a large cloud of dust left by the Roadrunner, with only his ears sticking out. The Roadrunner comes up to him and startles him with a “Meep! Meep!” Briefly angry, Wile E. gives a look of shocked confusion upon realizing something and feels below him to find that he’s standing in mid-air, with the cloud having previously obscured the view below him. He falls once the cloud fully disappears, with the Roadrunner being revealed to have stood on the edge of a cliff before he runs off. Wile E. climbs back up via the cliff side and after getting back to the top, pants as he looks down at the long drop below. The Roadrunner appears from behind and again startles him with a “Meep! Meep!”, sending him off the cliff and falling again. After landing somewhere offscreen, Wile E. walks back into view, brushing himself off in a disgruntled manner. The Roadrunner appears one more time with this “Meep! Meep!” causing Wile E. to jump headfirst into a low rock ledge from above (animated by Levitow).

Having consulted “The Art of Roadrunner Trapping” in a book with the instructions, “1. Dig Hole in Road. 2. Camouflage Hole. 3. Wait Patiently. 4. Eat Roadrunner”, Wile E. goes into the middle of the road with a jackhammer, which becomes so powerful, it causes Wile E. to shake violently as he holds onto it and descends down into the hole the jackhammer creates. The cord for the jackhammer then unplugs, so Wile E. keeps shaking every few seconds. Wile E. walks back to the book, still periodically shaking. Once he grabs the book, he uses his next body shake to tear the book to shreds (animated by Ken Harris).

Wile E. has finished constructing a brick wall on the road beside a mountain and while walking away with the tools he used, gets one more body shake from the effects of his jackhammer incident. He waits behind the wall as the Roadrunner presumably skids to a stop in front of it. Once Wile E. peeks around the corner, however, he ends up seeing his own behind on the other side of the wall, with this “doppelganger” doing the exact same gestures as him from the other side, even when he runs to the other side. Sporting a large smirking smile, Wile E. goes into a work shed and comes back with a dynamite stick. He rolls it up to the “clone”’s behind with the explosion charring the “clone”’s behind and legs and lighting its tail on fire. Wile E. walks fully back to the side he planned to have the Roadrunner stop in front of, but finds out he blew up his own rear end, causing him to leap off the mountain in pain (animated by Richard Thompson).

Next, Wile E. pours some bird seed on the road under a cactus that has a bottle he tied to it. When Wile E. runs far into the distance with the string he’s planning to use to open the bottle, it turns out said bottle is “One Fifth ACME Bumblebees”. Wile E. releases the bees once the Roadrunner stops to peck up the birdseed, but the bees go straight for Wile E. and chase him, with Wile E. letting out screams of pain while running whenever the bees sting him (animated by Thompson).

Trying again with birdseed as bait, Wile E. has set up a bowl of it with a handwritten sign, “More Free Bird Seed”. From above, he has constructed a bridge made out of a wooden plank between two cliffs, so he can drop an anvil on the Roadrunner from up there. The anvil’s weight only causes the plank to break in half and Wile E. to go falling down with the anvil. The Roadrunner steps aside to get out of the way as the impact of Wile E. landing creates an anvil-shaped hole and both halves of the plank land right on top of said hole. The Roadrunner then stands atop these boards to finish pecking up his snack (animated by Thompson).

Wile E. has constructed a very long wooden chute, with the sole purpose of using it to roll a bomb down towards the Roadrunner. The whole thing is immediately destroyed the second Wile E.’s match touches the bomb’s fuse, also charring him and leaving him standing awkwardly (animated by Thompson).

Wile E. next attempts to use a catapult to hurl a boulder at the Roadrunner, only for the boulder to fall out of the catapult’s sling and land on Wile E. instead (animated by Harris).

Lastly, Wile E. fires an Ahab Harpoon Gun at the Roadrunner, but doesn’t realize until too late that his left ankle has been tied in the rope attached to the gun, so he goes flying along with the harpoon. He gets dragged over a cactus, under rocks, and across the desert floor as he begins to untie the rope. Once he finishes doing so, he realizes he’s in mid-air due to having flown off a cliff, so he grabs hold of the rope. The harpoon goes into a tube on the side of another cliff, with Wile E. going through it and continuing his wild ride by being dragged across the road. He then gets hit by an oncoming truck, creating a Wile E.-shaped hole in the back doors. The harpoon continues flying over the road, where it gets stuck into another cliff side. Wile E., still hanging onto the rope, ends up swinging into a train tunnel and gets hit by an oncoming train, causing him to swing all the way back up to the top of this cliff. Traumatized from the whole thing, Wile E. starts whimpering and panting just as the Roadrunner comes up from behind him. Just when it looks like he’s about to startle him again, the Roadrunner holds up a sign, “I Just Don’t Have the Heart”, and then runs off in the opposite direction, with the sign flipping around to say, “Bye!” (animated by Levitow)

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕