Fast and Furry-ous
Encyclopedia
Fast and Furry-ous is a 1949 Warner Bros.
Looney Tunes
cartoon, released on September 17, 1949, directed by Chuck Jones
and written by Michael Maltese
. It was later reissued as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies
cartoon in the beginning opening, with the original Looney Tunes ending sequence (this version can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1
and Looney Tunes Premiere Collection
DVD release of the short). As a result, the Looney Tunes theme (The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
) plays over the Merrie Melodies title card.
This was the debut for Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. It was also their only cartoon made in the 1940s. It set the template for the series, in which Wile E. Coyote (here given the ersatz Latin name Carnivorous Vulgaris) tries to catch Roadrunner (Accelleratii Incredibus) through many traps, plans and products, although in this first cartoon not all of the products are yet made by the Acme Corporation
.
The title is a play on the old expression "fast and furious".
pointed out that what keeps Wile E. going is his perception that the gadgets typically almost work.
The End.
opera The Bartered Bride
, specifically Dance of the Comedians. It also makes use of the popular songs "Winter", "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover
" and "In My Merry Oldsmobile
".
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoon, released on September 17, 1949, directed by Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
and written by Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese
Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...
. It was later reissued as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
cartoon in the beginning opening, with the original Looney Tunes ending sequence (this version can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on October 28, 2003. It contains 56 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements...
and Looney Tunes Premiere Collection
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on October 28, 2003. It contains 56 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements...
DVD release of the short). As a result, the Looney Tunes theme (The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin. It is best known as the theme tune for the Looney Tunes cartoon series produced by Warner Bros...
) plays over the Merrie Melodies title card.
This was the debut for Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. It was also their only cartoon made in the 1940s. It set the template for the series, in which Wile E. Coyote (here given the ersatz Latin name Carnivorous Vulgaris) tries to catch Roadrunner (Accelleratii Incredibus) through many traps, plans and products, although in this first cartoon not all of the products are yet made by the Acme Corporation
Acme Corporation
The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail catastrophically at the worst possible times...
.
The title is a play on the old expression "fast and furious".
Running gags
A major running gag throughout the cartoon series is the fact that Wile E. Coyote (an ironic pun on "Wily") is continually defeated by his own gadgets, often obtained through a fictitious mail-order company called "ACME". The name of the company is ironic because of its meaning the best or the highest in quality. A commentator in the Looney Tunes Golden CollectionLooney Tunes Golden Collection
The Looney Tunes Golden Collection was an annual series of six four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Bros.' home video unit Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts...
pointed out that what keeps Wile E. going is his perception that the gadgets typically almost work.
Plot
- Introduction: The title sign is shown first, and the card is blown away when the Road Runner whips by. The pair whip past the camera to change the credits. The camera zooms to the Road Runner and the scene freezes to show the Latin name he keeps for the first three cartoons: Accelleratii Incredibus. He continues in strides, then moves into superspeed and briefly pulls up the road. Wile E., on a cliff, watches with binoculars as the Road Runner tears across the roads. He licks his lips as his name is shown: Carnivorous Vulgaris. The coyote puts on a napkin, grabs a knife and fork, and rushes down the mountain and onto the road behind the Road Runner. However, the moment he tries to stab the Road Runner, the bird dashes off. Wile E. stops and drops his utensils (and his mouth), then paces as he thinks of a new scheme.
- As the Road Runner approaches, Wile E. is hiding between large rocks with a steel trash can lid. He holds it out and the Road Runner stops just short, causing the Coyote to wonder why he didn't hit it. Wile moves the lid and glances at the Road Runner, who promptly sticks his tongue out and speeds away. Wile drops the lid and gets ready to follow after him, but the Road Runner returns as quickly as he left and holds out the lid, which the Coyote runs into. The Road Runner runs off again.
- Wile E. takes delivery of a boomerang and throws it over his hiding place, but is quickly hit by another boomerang, thrown by the Road Runner directly behind him. Wile E. brims with rage and moves to attack his opponent, but before he can move, he is hit by his own boomerang.
- The coyote now paints white lines on the gravel and brings out a SLOW: School Crossing sign. Wile imitates a schoolgirl and prances in front of the sign, but the Road Runner blasts by, resulting in Wile holding onto the sign with his arms and swinging around it. The Road Runner returns with the wig and a sign that says "ROAD RUNNERS CAN'T READ" before leaving the scene.
- The Road Runner is now spiraling up another mountain, while Wile is preparing a rocket-launcher contraption. Instead of launching towards the Road Runner, however, the rocket launches straight up into an outcropping, lodging the coyote inside.
- The miffed coyote now intends to squash the passing Road Runner with a massively huge boulder. When Wile pulls the string out from under the boulder, its massive unsprung weight causes the boulder to reverse its center of gravity in mid-fall and squash its owner.
- Having had enough of directly trying to defeat the Road Runner, Wile draws a curve in the right lane of the desert's main road, and continues it across into a rock face. He then paints a lifesize painting of a tunnel on the face, hoping for the Road Runner to smash into it; instead, the bird runs directly through it. Annoyed, Wile tries to follow, but flattens himself against the rock. Wile gears up for a second attempt, but the Road Runner runs back out and knocks the coyote down again.
- Wile leaves a stick of TNT covered in dirt in the middle of the road and connects a detonator to it, but when he pushes down on the switch, the detonator explodes directly on the coyote.
- Now, the coyote resorts to his best friend, the Acme CorporationAcme CorporationThe Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail catastrophically at the worst possible times...
. He dons an ACME Super Outfit, hoping this will give him the ability to fly. He does manage to defy gravity...briefly. - Wile now puts together a meat grinder, a refrigerator, and an electric motor in order to move by electricity, and skis downhill towards the road, narrowly missing the Road Runner. The coyote continues across the desert floor and off the edge of another cliff. Wile's expression changes slowly as the power begins to run out of the refrigerator, and then he falls to the ground once again. Ice from the refrigerator is ground onto Wile's head, who holds up a "MERRY XMAS" sign.
- Having tried most everything, Wile now puts on a pair of Fleet Foot's jet-propelled tennis shoes, and discovers he can now move at the speed of the Road Runner. Happy with himself, Wile returns to his attack base, but then the Road Runner turns up directly in front and beeps. A chase ensues, but when the dust clears, it is revealed that the Road Runner didn't even move! Wile turns around and returns to the Road Runner, infuriated. Both of them start on the "dragstrip" a second time and it is Wile who accidentally initiates the false start. Wile's eyes pop out and he initiates the chase again. Both rivals come to a circular elevated roadway, where they circle around and around, constantly changing directions, until they meet in the center stretch. The chase continues down the road until the tennis shoes tucker out. Having failed, Wile has barely recovered when he sees a sign displaying "SHORT CUT" and follows it, looking to intercept the Road Runner.
- Wile hides behind a billboard, and hearing the beeps, steps out into the middle of the road with an axe. Before he can swing, what was really a large bus flattens the coyote. The Road Runner fans himself from the back seat.
The End.
Etymology
- The title is a pun on "Fast and Furious".
- This is the only Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon made in the 1940s.
Music
This short uses music from the Bedřich SmetanaBedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
opera The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...
, specifically Dance of the Comedians. It also makes use of the popular songs "Winter", "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover
I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover
"I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover" is a song from 1927, written by Mort Dixon with music by Harry M. Woods. It was a hit for Art Mooney & His Orchestra in 1948 and was largely popularized by him. In modern times the song is perhaps most associated with Merrie Melodies cartoons, as it appeared in...
" and "In My Merry Oldsmobile
In My Merry Oldsmobile
"In My Merry Oldsmobile" is a popular song from 1905, with music by Gus Edwards and lyrics by Vincent P. Bryan.The song's chorus is one of the most enduring automobile-oriented songs...
".