Freeze Frame is a 1979 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot[]
Wile E. (Grotesques appetitus) chases Road Runner (Semper food-ellus) through the desert for a while before looking in a book about roadrunners to find out the bird's weakness and is flabbergasted to learn that roadrunners hate cold and snow and can be easily caught in snow drifts. He orders an ACME Little Giant Snow-Cloud Seeder, which is supposed to make instant snow. However, every time he uses the machine, it causes a large pile of snow to drop on him no matter where he stands, and he eventually discards the useless device. The device does get in one final shot, causing another pile to fall on the edge of the outcropping. This added weight becomes too much to handle, as the edge breaks off and, with the Coyote trapped inside, falls.
Wile E. paces around, trying to figure out another way to use Road Runner's hatred of snow to his advantage. He then gets the idea to switch around two signs reading "Snow Summit" and "Desert Crossing" so that Road Runner will instead take the path to the snowy mountains.
Road Runner, sure enough, takes the wrong path and ends up getting himself stuck on a frozen lake. Wile E. puts on some ice skates and skates a circle around the bird, but it causes the entire lake around the circle to break apart, dropping Wile E. into the water below. As Road Runner revs up his ice floe like a boat, the now-frozen Wile E. walks out of the water.
The Coyote purchases a pair of Acme Jet-Propelled Skis and uses them to chase Road Runner, but he ends up hitting a tree. He then buys a dog sled and a dozen sled dogs to pull it, but when he tries to open the crate containing the dogs, they mercilessly attack him. After managing to shut them back in the crate, Wile E. looks at the camera with a terrified face zooming it in on him a couple times before he faints. He looks at the invoice and reads an important note at the bottom: "Sled dogs love coyotes - especially for supper!" He breaks into a fit of laughter before passing out. He next buys an Acme Rocking Horse to sled downhill while twirling an Acme Road Runner Lasso, but he ends up getting himself tied up in the lasso and stuck on some railroad tracks; the rocking horse comes to life and gallops away before the train can hit him. Wile E. weakly holds up a sign with one word, "Mommy", just before he's hit. Finally, Wile E. tries rolling a giant snowball in hopes of dropping it on Road Runner from a cliff, but as expected, he falls off the cliff himself, with the giant snowball coming down after him. Wile E. climbs out from under the snowball, now wearing a Santa-like snow beard, and rings a bell while holding up a sign that reads "Merry Xmas" and "Happy New Year".
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- This short was originally part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales.
- This is the first Looney Tunes short to be made since "Bugged by a Bee" in 1969.
- This is the first Looney Tunes cartoon to be directed by Chuck Jones since 1964; he would return to work for Warner Bros. starting here, up until 1997, when he eventually retired.
- The title card theme is from "War and Pieces".
- This marks the first appearances of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner since 1966, and the first time Latin Names are used to introduce the duo since "War and Pieces" in 1964.
Gallery[]
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