The Wild Chase is a 1965 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt.
Plot[]
Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales compete in a race, while Wile E. Coyote and Sylvester team up to catch them to eat for dinner, with backfiring results.
- As the race starts, Wile E. chases after Road Runner only to run into a cloud of dust and fall off the cliff. Sylvester tries the same thing only to find Speedy on the other side of the cliff. Road Runner scares him off the cliff.
- As the racers are coming, Wile E. and Sylvester catapult rocks to flatten them, but this backfires when the rocks crash into each other and land on Sylvester and Wile E. instead.
- The duo places iron pellets under bird seed and leaves slices of cheese. While the racers eat, the two attach a grenade to a roller skate with a magnet but only the magnet part of the roller skate leaves, and when Wile E. checks, the grenade blows up in his face.
- Wile E. rolls a flat rock to flatten the racers, but the rock doesn't move. It stays and the edge of the cliff. Wile E. attempts to make it drop but it doesn't move. Sylvester comes and they jump on it. The rock finally drops the two of them off the cliff.
- The duo decide to blow up the bridge as the racers are coming, but as coyote is placing the dynamite, it explodes.
- Finally, they use a rocket car to chase Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner, but they drive past them and finish first to win the race, but nobody gets the trophy. They fly into the air as the rocket car explodes into fireworks.
Availability[]
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Notes[]
- This short reuses animation from "Zoom and Bored" (1957), "Wild About Hurry" (1959), and "Hopalong Casualty" (1960).
- This cartoon implies that the Road Runner cartoons originated from Texas (evident that the Road Runner is known as the "Texas Road Burner"). This is also supported in the two-dollar betting window scene where the Mexicans bet for Speedy Gonzales, while the Texan cowboys bet for the Road Runner.
- Sylvester doesn't speak in this cartoon.
- This is one of the only two cartoons where Speedy doesn't talk, except for "Arriba! Andale!" etc. as he zooms along. The other is "A Taste of Catnip".
- Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote would once again team up to catch Speedy and Road Runner in the Looney Tunes DC Comics.
- Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales usually use the same running sound effects in their respective cartoons, so a different sound effect was given to Speedy here to indicate which one is whom.
- This is the only Coyote and Road Runner cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.
- This is also the last cartoon to pair Speedy Gonzales with Sylvester, not counting Sylvester's cameo in "A Taste of Catnip".
- This is the last DePatie-Freleng cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, and to use his musical methods and techniques. For the rest of the cartoons in the era, he would be the producer until "Daffy's Diner".
- This is also the last theatrical Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng; he would later direct three televised shorts from 1979 to 1980, and two compilation films in 1981 and 1982.
- This was the final cartoon shown on the final airing of The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Hour.[2]
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
References[]
Speedy Gonzales Cartoons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1953 | Cat-Tails for Two | |||
1955 | Speedy Gonzales | |||
1957 | Tabasco Road • Gonzales' Tamales | |||
1958 | Tortilla Flaps | |||
1959 | Mexicali Shmoes • Here Today, Gone Tamale | |||
1960 | West of the Pesos | |||
1961 | Cannery Woe • The Pied Piper of Guadalupe | |||
1962 | Mexican Boarders | |||
1963 | Mexican Cat Dance • Chili Weather | |||
1964 | A Message to Gracias • Nuts and Volts • Pancho's Hideaway • Road to Andalay | |||
1965 | It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House • Cats and Bruises • The Wild Chase • Moby Duck • Assault and Peppered • Well Worn Daffy • Chili Corn Corny • Go Go Amigo | |||
1966 | The Astroduck • Mucho Locos • Mexican Mousepiece • Daffy Rents • A-Haunting We Will Go • Snow Excuse • A Squeak in the Deep • Feather Finger • Swing Ding Amigo • A Taste of Catnip | |||
1967 | Daffy's Diner • Quacker Tracker • The Music Mice-Tro • The Spy Swatter • Speedy Ghost to Town • Rodent to Stardom • Go Away Stowaway • Fiesta Fiasco | |||
1968 | Skyscraper Caper • See Ya Later Gladiator | |||
1979 | Fright Before Christmas | |||
1980 | The Chocolate Chase |