Zoom and Bored

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Zoom and Bored

Lobby card.
Production company Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date September 14, 1957
Run time 6:20
Starring Paul Julian
Mel Blanc (both uncredited)
Producer(s) Edward Selzer
Music composition Carl Stalling
Milt Franklyn
Story Mike Maltese
Animation Abe Levitow
Richard Thompson
Ken Harris
Corny Cole (uncredited)
Director(s) Chuck Jones
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Title card

Zoom and Bored is the four hundred and twenty-ninth Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on September 14, 1957. It was written by Michael Maltese, and directed by Chuck Jones.

After getting tricked off a cliff by the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote tries various tricks from a pitfall trap to launching a giant harpoon.

Detailed summary

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner begin to chase, freezing mid-frame for the credits and Latin names to be shown (COYOTE: famishus-vulgarus and ROAD RUNNER: birdibus-zippibus). From here, the Road Runner speeds off and leaves Wile E. to fall on the ground. Wile E. recovers quickly and while trying to chase after the bird, he finds himself enclosed in a cloud of dust left by the Road Runner. Upon stopping his tracks, the Road Runner alerts Wile E. to his surroundings, prompting the coyote to investigate from below. The dust cloud subsides, revealing Wile E. standing mid-air from above a cliff from where the Road Runner is standing. The poor coyote falls, leaving the Road Runner some room to leave thereafter. Eventually, a determined Wile E. climbs back up to a very high escarpment and surveys the surroundings for the Road Runner, who happens to be standing right behind him. The Road Runner beeps at Wile E., causing him to jump off and fall again by accident. Wile E. begrudgingly dusts off after his descent, only to jump above a low-slung rock plateau by another one of the Road Runner's beeps.

Wile E., having studied the instructions shown in The Art of Roadrunner-Trapping, digs a pit in hopes of making a camouflage hole trap for the Road Runner. However, he never gets through the first step, as the jackhammer he uses vibrates enough to pull the coyote into the hole. When the power cord stretches far enough to get unplugged from an electrical pole, Wile E. climbs out from the hole and finds himself vibrating sporadically. Wile E. attempts to tear the book in half, but one of the vibrations does the job for him.

Still trying to stop the Road Runner in his tracks, Wile E. builds a brick wall on the mountain roads and waits, with one last leftover vibration from the jackhammer incident. He then hears the Road Runner braking in front of the hole. But when his ears recover from the screeching halt and the dust cloud settles, Wile E. pauses to investigate the other side of the wall, only to find nothing but his rear end. Wile E. becomes amused when his rear mimics his movements and decides to go after it, but loops himself back into his position. Wile E. determines that the rear is his own duplicate and sets of a stick a dynamite to blow it up. But after the dynamite's explosion, Wile E. realizes that he had harmed himself and launches away from the road, once again falling off to a cliff.

Wile E. leaves some bird seeds for the Road Runner while he prepares to release a jar of bees from a distance, in hopes that they go after the supersonic bird. But when he opens the jar, instead of attacking the Road Runner next to them, the bees go after and sting Wile E. The coyote yelps with each subsequent sting from the bees.

Wile E. prepares a second bird seed trap, this time hoping to squash the Road Runner with an anvil. However, when Wile E. tries to cross over a wooden plank, it splits in half, causing the coyote to fall over while the Road Runner sidesteps from the incoming collision. The Road Runner continues eating the seeds shortly after the planks cover the coyote's hole to make a bridge.

Already done with making simple traps, Wile E. instead sets his eyes on using a highly complex contraption consisting of a chute and some bombs, which should blow up the Road Runner when they get to the bottom. But without a single warning, the bombs soon explode as soon as the coyote lights one of them up.

The coyote prepares a giant catapult with a boulder in the road. But when he tries to use it on a passing Road Runner, the boulder is too heavy for it to be handled, causing it to flatten him.

Finally, Wile E. uses a large harpoon gun in hopes of piercing the Road Runner. But upon firing, the rope catches onto one of his legs and drags Wile E. through a cactus and several rocks. Wile E. eventually unties the rope from his leg, but upon seeing that he is in a pickle, he holds onto the rope after getting close to being fallen over from a high altitude. The ever-suffering coyote gets humiliated by multiple obstacles; going through a metal pipe that passes through a road, smashing directly to an oncoming truck that leaves an imprint of his body, and getting bumped by a train once the harpoon impales a rock face. Soon after, the coyote is left exhausted and horrified once he land close to yet another cliff. The Road Runner arrives right behind Wile E., but instead of scaring him like before, he shows a soft side and holds up a sign saying: "I just don't have the heart." He dashes back the way he came, and the sign spins to "'Bye!"

Memorable quotes

Road Runner: (holds up sign) "I just don't have the heart." (dashes away and flips sign) "'Bye!"

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Road Runner Paul Julian
Wile E. Coyote Mel Blanc (vocal effects)


Organizations

Locations

Objects

  • The Art of Roadrunner Trapping
  • Jackhammer
  • Brick wall
  • Dynamite stick
  • Bird seed can
  • Bottle of Acme Bumble Bees
  • Bowl of bird seed
  • Wooden plank
  • Anvil
  • Wooden chute
  • Bomb
  • Trebuchet catapult
  • Acme Harpoon Gun

Vehicles

  • Truck
  • Train

Production

Second lobby card.

Development

Normally, the Warner Bros. animated shorts were made under a five-week production cycle, according to producer Edward Selzer. However, Chuck Jones' production unit secretively used the extra time used for the Bugs Bunny short What's Opera, Doc? for seven weeks; they had to doctor their time cartoons to make it appear as if they had been working on this cartoon, two weeks before production of What's Opera, Doc? actually started.

Filming

The short was copyrighted in 1957 (MCMLVII).

Music

The main title and closing themes are an arrangement of "Merrily We Roll Along," which were arranged by Milt Franklyn. The score was composed by Carl W. Stalling and Franklyn.

The song "Dance of the Comedians," from the Bedřich Smetana opera The Bartered Bride, is used as part of the short's climax.

Crew credits

Release

Dates are in order of release:

  • United States: September 14, 1957

Behind the scenes

  • The title is a play on the phrase "room and board." You're welcome.
  • The MPAA certificate number is 18346.
  • The lobby cards refer to this short as a Looney Tunes cartoon.

Errors

  • When Wile E.'s tail gets caught on fire, he is left without pain-reacting vocal audio while soaring off a cliff.

Connections

Home availability

References

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