Run, Run Sweet Road Runner is a 1965 Merrie Melodies short directed by Rudy Larriva.
Title[]
The title is a pun on the 1964 film Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
Plot[]
Wile E. Coyote is waiting behind a rock for Road Runner to zoom by. He starts to chase him to the edge of a cliff, and then Road Runner holds up a sign that says "HOLD IT". There are hopscotch marks right at the end of the cliff, which is covered by a cloud. After Road Runner does hopscotch, it is Coyote's turn, but the cloud drifts away and the edge of the cliff breaks and he plummets to the bottom of the canyon. Battered and bruised, Coyote looks up at the top of the cliff. Road Runner says "Beep beep" and then zooms off.
Wile E. sharpens the spikes on a metal grate. He covers it up with a sheet and raises it up using a pulley. He then climbs down from the top of a rock, and hammers signs into the ground. One says "FREE BIRD SEED—200 YARDS", another says "BIRD SEED LIKE MOTHER USED TO SERVE—100 YARDS" and a third says "EAT IN THE SHADE, 20 DEGREES COOLER". Coyote pours bird-seed into a little bowl with a sign that says FREE BIRD SEED that is under the large sharp spiked grate and disguises it as a shade canopy. He watches from the top of his rock with a pair of binoculars as Road Runner runs to the bird seed, gobbles it up in two seconds, and runs off. Coyote gets a stunned look on his face and climbs down to fill the bowl with more bird seed. Unfortunately, the hot sun creates a glare on the lenses of the binoculars he left on top of the rock and it burns the rope holding up the shade canopy. As the Coyote pours more seed into the bowl, he hears creaking, stands up to listen, and slowly looks up in distress just as the canopy falls right on top of him. The sheet from the spiked metal grate makes him look like a banana, and he starts to "peel." He then gets an idea to create a female road runner.
Near an ACME LIGHTNING ROD box, Coyote sticks the rod in the ground and puts the female road runner's "body" on the middle of the stick. He then sticks on blue plumage and a beak and paints eyes on it. Coyote sticks the female "road runner" on the road and uses a road runner "call," hides behind a rock and holds an axe while he waits for Road Runner to run by to chop him with the axe. He hears the call and runs right by the female "Road Runner" as he plants a kiss on it. Coyote misses and chops the ground, and this results in the head from the female roadrunner flying off and hitting Coyote on the head.
Coyote later walks behind a cliff and emerges wearing Indian tribal clothes. He looks up at the sky and starts doing a rain dance. It soon starts to rain and Coyote looks up with delight. He does another dance and this time, a bolt of lightning zaps the female road runner, just as Coyote runs out of the way. He then uses the Road Runner call and the real Road Runner is seen running towards Coyote's spot. Wile E. hides behind the cliff and then the Road Runner stops when he sees the female Road Runner. He tiptoes towards her and leans in close to her. Wile E. then frenetically beats his drum, then unfurls an umbrella, and there is another lightning bolt, but unfortunately it misses the Road runner and his "girlfriend" and hits Coyote's umbrella. Burnt to a crisp, he stands there, still holding his burnt umbrella.
Availability[]
Bugs and Road Runner: Runaway Rabbit
(1997 dubbed version) (only in PAL regions, Latin America and Japan)
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 7) (1997 dubbed version)
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- This was the first of the eleven Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts subcontracted to Format Films, as well as the first one that would be directed by Rudy Larriva.
- Of those eleven, this is the only short which composer William Lava was able to properly score, as the rest after this one used a set of stock musical cues, due to extremely low budgets.
- This is the first Road Runner short with no animation directed by Chuck Jones at all.
- This cartoon seldom airs on American television due to Wile E. doing a stereotypical Indian rain dance in the final gag.
- Despite this, MeTV and MeTV Toons have aired the short uncut, although the short is unrestored.[1]
- This is currently the only Road Runner cartoon that has not been officially restored.
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
References[]