Fast and Furry-ous
| Fast and Furry-ous | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card. | |
| Production company | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date | September 17, 1949 |
| Run time | 7:03 |
| Starring | Mel Blanc |
| Music composed by | Carl Stalling |
| Story by | Mike Maltese |
| Director(s) | Chuck Jones |
| Animation director(s) | Chuck Jones |
| Art director(s) | Chuck Jones |
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Fast and Furry-ous is the two hundred and sixty-first Looney Tunes theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on September 17, 1949. It was written by Michael Maltese, and directed by Chuck Jones.
In the middle of the American desert, a lone, hungry coyote attempts to capture and eat a roadrunner.
Detailed summary
In the middle of a desert, a burst of speed swoops quickly on the road with each sign accompanying the short's credits. That burst of speed is ultimately revealed to be a single roadrunner, introduced in freeze frame with the caption: "Road Runner (Accelleratii Incredibus)", before speeding up again to deliver his signature "beep, beep" sound. As the bird continues to dash on several roads, a hungry coyote looks over at a distance with binoculars. He licks his lips before he freezes with the caption: "Coyote (Carnivorous Vulgaris)"
After he licks his lips, he gets himself set up for a meal by tying a napkin around his neck and getting out a fork and knife. Ready to go, the coyote starts running down a series of curves down the cliffside and tries to catch up to the Road Runner. Once he catches up to the bird, Wile E. tries to slash at him the with his fork and knife. The Road Runner turns to the coyote, sticks his tongue at him, leaps in the air and beeps before zipping ahead and dashing off down the horizon roads. Wile E. slowly comes to a stops in his track, drops his utensils and lower his jaw. He then picks his jaw back up and begins to pace, but not long before he thinks of an idea that he decides to run off. Following this, Wile E. tries to catch the Road Runner through several attempts.
Attempt #1: The coyote first hides near to the road and tries to use a metal cloche to halt the ambushing Road Runner. But when the Road Runner approaches to his spot, he instantly stops close to the cloche. Wile E. is amazed that the bird had not crashed to it and lowers the cloche. After the Road Runner leaves, Wile E. throws his cloche in frustration. He tries to pursue but before he could leave, the Road Runner holds his cloche and Wile E. crashes to it, leaving him behind in rapid vibrations.
Attempt #2: Wile E. uses "One Genuine Boomerang" and tries to throw it off-screen, but is then hit by another boomerang from behind. Wile E. looks at the Road Runner to the right, who has seemingly brought in "Another Genuine Boomerang" with him before leaving. Wile E. prepares to follow but is hit by his own boomerang that has returned to him.
Attempt #3: The coyote paints two parallel white lines the road to make a fake crosswalk and sets up a sign saying, "slow school crossing." He disguises himself as a school girl and merrily skips along the road crossing, but is instantly hit by the speeding Road Runner, causing him to spin. The Road Runner comes back with his wig, holding a sign that says, "Road Runners can't read", before dashing off.
Attempt #4: As the Road Runner goes up the hill, Wile E. watches over him while being strapped to a rocket. He sets up the rocket launcher's direction and trajectory, lights up the fuse and prepares for take off. Just as seems like that the rocket was about to ignite, the rocket instead shoots upwards, causing Wile E. to crash through an overhanging cliff.
Attempt #5: After using a plumb bob to find a vertical reference line for a very, large boulder placed at the edge of a small cliff, Wile E. looks over what appears to be a blueprint of his next plan to catch the Road Runner: Toppling a boulder by pulling a keystone. The blueprint instructions read as follows:
- Pull out keystone
- Rock falls
- Road Runner (an arrow points to where the boulder will fall on)
- Road Runner! (Ha-ha!)
After reviewing his blueprint, Wile E. then goes up to his telescope to see if the Road Runner is coming. Once he gets a clear view of the desert horizon, he sees him coming, so he gets into position and holds onto the end of the rope leading to the keystone and awaits for the Road Runner to come close. But by the time the Road Runner gets close enough and when Wile E. he pulls the string, the large boulder doesn't fall forward but instead falls backward and lands right on Wile E., trapping him underground.
Attempt #6: Wile E. starting painting a white line across the middle of the road's median and starts painting the line offroad. The fake line is then painted through the desert, over some hills and then leads directly to the wall of a large butte mesa. Then he gets some more paint cans out and paints a tunnel and road connecting to the fake median he painted. He hopes that if the Road Runner follows the fake median line, he'll run right for the fake tunnel and hit the wall directly upon impact.
After he is done painting the wall, Wile E. takes the paint and hides behind a rock just before he hears the Road Runner coming. The Road Runner manages to follow the fake median, but upon approaching the fake tunnel, the bird actually runs straight through the painting, as if it was real. Flabbergasted and confused as to how the Road Runner actually made it through, Wile E. decides to give it a shot himself. But when he tries to charge for the tunnel, he instead runs into his trap and bangs directly into the wall. The Road Runner comes back through the fake tunnel and mows over Wile E., beeping in the process.
Attempt #7: Trying a more sneakier method of catching the Road Runner, Wile E. covers a large stick of dynamite with dirt and wires it to a detonator, hoping that he will blast it when the Road Runner approaches through. When Wile E. hears the Road Runner coming and pushes the plunger down, instead of the dynamite blowing up, the detonator blows up Wile E. The Road Runner comes to a halt and hears where the explosion came from, he taunts Wile E. with his beeps before taking off.
Attempt #8: Wile E. orders an "Acme Super Outfit", consisting of blue uniform and red cape. He figures he could catch the Road Runner by flying in the air with this costume. But as soon as he attempts run for the cliff and jumps off at the edge, the costume fails to work as intended and Wile E. soon falls to the ground below off-screen.
Attempt #9: Wile E. orders the following unbranded products from Acme: a refrigerator, a meat grinder and an electric motor. With his tinkering skills, Wile E. makes an electric-powered, instant snow maker pack by using ice cubes to make snow in front of him. But to actually chase after the Road Runner, Wile E. also orders a pair of snow-skis and poles that will work on the instant snow he makes.
With his snow maker pack and skis on, Wile E. turns on his machine and after seeing the Road Runner running across the road, he prepares to plunge down the hill to chase after the Road Runner. On his way down, Wile E. uses his poles to pick up speed to catch up to the Road Runner. But before he could actually chase him, the Road Runner stops in his tracks and notices Wile E. approaches him and then passes him by.
Wile E. noticed that he has passed the Road Runner but also notices that he is heading straight for the cliff. Unable to stop his machine, Wile E. is then sent soaring off the cliff and flies across the canyon's gap in midair. But before he could reach the other side of the canyon's cliff, his snow maker machine runs out of ice and starts to sputter and slowly come to a stop. And with no more ice left to create snow and having not made it to the other side of the canyon, Wile E. falls into the canyon's ravine and makes a crash landing at the valley below. And with the fridge is on his back, it whams him into the ground. And as it turns out, there was some ice left in the machine after as it starts snowing on Wile E.'s head. In response, a snow-covered Wile E. holds out a sign saying: "Merry Xmas"
Attempt #10: After ordering a pair of Acme Fleet-Foot Inc.'s Jet-Propelled Tennis Shoes, Wile E. tests them out by running to a small mesa and back and then speeding across a plain and up a large plateau. Knowing they work brilliantly, he runs back to his original spot but before the Road Runner comes into view.
Realizing he has a chance, Wile E. tries to chase after him, but only ends up passing through a cloud of smoke as the Road Runner has stayed behind. When Wile E. notices that the Road Runner has fooled him into taking off, he sprints back and stops him, waiting for the bird to leave once more. The Road Runner takes off in a cloud of smoke once more, as does the coyote. But this time, Wile E. releases the bird's trick and stays behind, expecting the Road Runner to do the same thing as last time. However, when the smoke clears, Wile E. realizes he is not there and has taken off. Angry at being tricked again, Wile E. takes off and chases after the Road Runner.
The chase leads them to a cloverleaf interchange, a complex path of curves, and occasionally stopping by to look at each other, depending on the routes they've taken. At one point, Wile E. notices the Road Runner on a lower route and then on a high route at a lower point. And then at one point, Wile E. stops and gets confused but not before the Road Runner mows him down once again. Angry at being mowed over, Wile E. chases off after the bird again. The two end up running all over the interchange before meeting again on the same road before getting off the interchange and resuming the chase on the main road.
However, as Wile E. continues to chase the Road Runner, his shoes run out of fuel and Wile E. sputters and spins to a stop as the shoes have run out of fuel.
And as Wile E. watches the Road Runner get away, he looks up and spots a shortcut sign to the left and decides to get ahead of the Road Runner for one final attempt.
Attempt #11: In his final attempt, after taking said shortcut, Wile E. hides behind a tall billboard and prepares use an axe to chop the Road Runner in half. Wile E. awaits for the Road Runner to come. And when he hears him coming, Wile E. jumps out from behind the billboard, and raises his axe in the air, ready cleave the bird. But as it turns out, Wile E. mistook a bus's beeps for the Road Runner's and realizes that it's too late for him to move out of the way as the bus speedily approaches him and flattens him down on the road.
Wile E., feeling all worn out and emerging slowly from the road, looks at the bus to see the Road Runner riding on the back end of the bus. The Road Runner thinking, "This is ONLY way to travel," beeps at the audience and pulls down a curtain that reads two words: THE END.
Memorable quotes
Characters
In order of appearance: | ||||||||||
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Organizations
Locations
- Earth
- United States
- Desert
- United States
Objects
- Metal cloche
- One Genuine Boomerang
- Another Genuine Boomerang
- Crosswalk paint
- Fake school crosswalk sign
- Rocket
- Rocket launcher gizmo
- Median-color paint and Fake tunnel paint
- Dynamite and a Detonator
- Acme Super Outfit
- Instant snow maker machine (refrigerator, electric motor, and meat grinder)
- A pair of skis and poles
- Fleet-Feet Jet-Propelled Tennis Shoes
- Axe
Vehicles
- Bus
Production
Development
Filming
Music
The music was composed by Carl W. Stalling.
The short uses music from the Bedřich Smetana opera The Bartered Bride, specifically the Dance of the Comedians piece. It would be used in later Wile E./Road Runner shorts of both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, including Beep, Beep, Going! Going! Gosh!, Ready.. Set.. Zoom!, Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z, Zoom and Bored, Hot-Rod and Reel!, Chariots of Fur and Little Go Beep.
Release
Dates are in order of release:
- United States: September 17, 1949 in theatres
Behind the scenes
- The title is a play on the expression "fast and furious." You're welcome.
- The running gag of mock species names, or Latin names, for Wile E. and the Road Runner make a debut in this short. Their species names from the short (Carnivorous Vulgaris and Accelleratii Incredibus) would be later used in the 1952 shorts, Beep, Beep and Going! Going! Gosh!
- In the short, Wile E. is only referred to simply as the "Coyote."
- Near the end, Chuck Jones' name is alluded with a billboard sign advertising Jones Motel.
- Wile E. used 12 attempts to try and catch the Road Runner.
Errors
Everlasting influence
- The coyote would later be christened as "Wile E. Coyote" in Operation: Rabbit.
- The Acme Super Outfit scene would be used in The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie.
- Two stages, one "regular" and one "remix" that are named after this short, would be used in Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor.
- Wile E. in his Super Outfit would be used as a playable character in Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem.
Critical reception
In other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
Home availability
- In the United States:
