Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
(Redirected from Road Runner)
"Now we're going to watch one of my favorite cartoons about a pathetic Coyote who spends his life in the futile pursuit of a sadistic roadrunner, who mocks him and laughs at him as he's repeatedly crushed and maimed! I hope you enjoy it!"
George Newman, Weird Al's character in UHF

An extremely popular series of Looney Tunes short subjects made by Chuck Jones during The Golden Age of Animation, the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts are centered on the titular duo as the smart but obsessive coyote does everything within his power (and uses everything within the ACME catalog) to capture the Road Runner for dinner. Despite the penchant for formula and sporadic entries in the original theatrical lineup, the shorts have remained extremely popular to this day, lasting for 40 shorts in the classic era, with new shorts being created recently for theaters!

They have recently[when?] made a comeback via CGI in The Looney Tunes Show.


Filmography:

1949

  • Fast and Furry-ous

1952

  • Beep, Beep
  • Going! Going! Gosh!

1953

  • Zipping Along

1954

  • Stop! Look! And Hasten!

1955

  • Ready, Set, Zoom!
  • Guided Muscle

1956

  • Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z
  • There They Go-Go-Go!

1957

  • Scrambled Aches
  • Zoom and Bored

1958

  • Whoa, Be-Gone!
  • Hook, Line and Stinker
  • Hip Hip Hurry!

1959

  • Hot-Rod and Reel!
  • Wild About Hurry

1960

  • Fastest With The Mostest
  • Hopalong Casualty

1961

  • Zip 'N Snort
  • Lickety-Splat
  • Beep Prepared

1962

  • Adventures of the Road-Runner: A TV pilot intended for a proposed series of Road-Runner cartoons.
  • Zoom at the Top

1963

  • To Beep or Not to Beep

1964

  • War and Pieces

1965

  • Zip Zip Hooray!: Recycles footage from the Adventures of Road Runner TV pilot.
  • Road Runner a Go-Go: Also recycles footage from the Adventures of Road Runner pilot.
  • The Wild Chase: (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
  • Rushing Roulette: (Robert McKimson)
  • Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner: 1st of the "Larriva Eleven".
  • Tired and Feathered
  • Boulder Wham!
  • Just Plane Beep
  • Hairied and Hurried
  • Highway Runnery
  • Chaser on the Rocks

1966

  • Shot and Bothered
  • Out and Out Rout
  • The Solid Tin Coyote
  • Clippety Clobbered: Last of the "Larriva Eleven".
  • Sugar and Spies (McKimson): Last of the original theatrical Road Runners.

1979

  • Freeze Frame

1980

  • Soup or Sonic

1994

  • Chariots of Fur

2000

  • Little Go Beep

2003

2010

  • Coyote Falls
  • Fur of Flying
  • Rabid Rider

2011

  • Untitled upcoming[when?] film


Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner is the Trope Namer for:
Tropes used in Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner include:

"Y'know, it's amazin' the trouble this joker goes to to get a square meal."

  • Super Speed: The Road Runner.
  • Talking with Signs
  • Team Rocket Wins: Yes, the Coyote catches the Road Runner at one point...but he's too small at that point to even eat the bird. He even lampshades it by asking the audience what he should do now.
    • There are plenty of YouTube videos where Wile E. actually does eat the Road Runner.
    • He also catches Road Runner in "The Solid Tin Coyote", Doesn't work out
  • Technicolor Eyes: In the shorts by Matthew O'Callaghan, Wile E.'s are Red Eyes, Take Warning, and the Road Runner's are turquoise.
  • Those Wily Coyotes: Wile E. Coyote, of course.
  • Three Dimensional Episode: "Coyote Falls", "Fur of Flying", and "Rabid Rider".
  • The Voiceless: Both of them. Wile E. does speak during four of his five appearances with Bugs Bunny, and again when explaining to two young boys why he wants to eat the road runner.
    • If you were to count the Road Runner's "BEEP BEEP" as a voice, he would fall under The Unintelligible.
  • Truth in Television: In Just Plane Beep when coyote shoots the propeller of his biplane off trying to hit the road runner. That was a real problem in WWI before the interrupter gear was invented, and one solution (as was also shown) was to put armor plating on the propeller.
  • Villain Protagonist: Wile E. Coyote is trying to eat the Road Runner, and is therefore ostensibly the bad guy. But he's just so adorably persistent in how he goes about it that you can't help but root for him.
    • Chuck Jones in fact had it as written lore that all sympathy must be with the Coyote.
  • Written Sound Effect: "Chariots of Fur" (Chuck Jones's last Road Runner short) uses these quite a bit, but only once does it do something creative with them -- when the Coyote disguises himself as a cactus and tries to garb the Road Runner, but the Road Runner avoids him, the Coyote accidentally wraps his arms around himself in the process, and the smoke trail the Road Runner left behind turns into a "!!YEE-OOWW!!"
  • Wrong Parachute Gag: Wile E. tries to be Crazy Prepared by wearing a parachute in case he falls off a cliff. He opens it and out comes... canning samples.