Adventures of the Road Runner

Adventures of the Road Runner is an 1962 animated film, directed by Chuck Jones and co-directed by Maurice Noble and Tom Ray. It was the intended pilot for a TV series starring Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner; however, the series was not picked up until four years later when Warner Bros. Television produced The Road Runner Show. As a result, Adventures of the Road Runner was released theatrically alongside the live-action film Lad: A Dog, and was subsequently split into three further shorts. The first, To Beep or Not to Beep, was released in 1963; the other two, Road Runner a Go-Go and Zip Zip Hooray!, were assembled by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1965 after they took over the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series.

The film revolves around Wile E. Coyote reviewing his past attempts at catching the Road Runner (in the form of stock footage from previous Coyote/Road Runner shorts), and making new, revised plans to catch him – which go just as wrong, if not more so than the first attempts. In a mostly unrelated story, as two children (one of them is Ralph Phillips) watch the Coyote on television, Ralph is talking about how much trouble he has concentrating on things and gets caught up in his daydreams (re-using footage from Jones' earlier short, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z in the process). The two stories briefly link up when the Coyote directly addresses the kids on why he wants to eat the Road Runner. This sequence features a television commercial for "The Acme Batman Suit! The only Batman suit worn by bats!", which is newly narrated stock footage from Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z (coincidentally, a few years after the cartoon's first showing, WB would acquire DC Comics – publishers of the Batman comics).

The short also contains what would most likely have been the series' opening sequence, closing sequence and theme song (titled Out on the Desert) of the hoped for series. When Jones later produced the Tom and Jerry series, the format of the Coyote reviewing his past adventures would be copied in the short Shutter Bugged Cat, which Tom Ray also directed.

Tastes of the Road-Runner

Infograph loosely inspired by the Adventures of the Road Runner

The Coyote described the different tastes of the Road-Runner to the two kids (and the audience) as thus:

1. Banana Front Head Feather
2. Asparagus Front-Center Head Feather
3. Papaya Back-Center Head Feather
4. Liquorice Back Head Feather
5. Vanilla Base Feather
6. Sponge cake Head and Beak
7. Celery Cheek and Upper Neck
8. Candied yam Upper Tail Feather
9. Caramel Middle Tail Feather
10. Salami Middle Neck
11. Tamale Neck Base
12. Chop suey Base Tail Feather
13. Noodle Stomach
14. Pork chop Thighs
15. Wisconsin Cheddar cheese Knee
16. Double martini (very dry) Leg
17. Bratwurst Leg Shin
18. Yorkshire pudding Back Toe
19. Pistachio Front Toes

4,000 Recipes for Road Runner

Wile E. also shared some recipes from a cook book he has to the audience.

External links

• Adventures of the Road Runner at the Internet Movie Database