Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner
Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote are two cartoon characters created by Chuck Jones, which occur in cartoons of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie productions Melodies. It follows from the special concept for the Road Runner cartoons that both characters almost exclusively occur together. Only the coyote was combined in a slightly modified form, along with other Looney Tunes characters. The first episodes emerged in 1949 ( Fast and Furry - ous ) and 1952 ( Beep Beep ). Jones ' cartoon was originally planned as a satire of the time very popular cat-and -mouse cartoons such as Tom and Jerry. After the pilot was not recognized as such, as a comedy, however, well received by the audience, the original concept was dropped.
Action
The main characters of the Road Runner short films are:
- Road Runner - a flightless and extremely fast running bird that easily to the real existing ways Cuckoo ( Geococcyx californianus, Greater Roadrunner English ) is ajar.
- Wile E. Coyote ( in Germany known as Charles the Coyote ) - an always hungry and persecuted by bad luck coyote. The name is a pun of wily ( German cunning, sly ) and coyote ( German Coyote ).
The plot of the short films is simple and always the same: The constantly searching for food Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner in a desert- like environment, which is modeled on the environment of the southwestern United States. The hunts also go through pipes or tunnels, which have neither system nor purpose. It ends at the deep gorge with the crash of the coyotes. Although the coyote is equipped with high-tech and sophisticated traps, probably added from the Looney Tunes ACME, it never manages to catch or kill the Road Runner. His sophisticated constructions go regularly backfires - often against all the laws of physics - and hurt the coyotes themselves from this exaggerated slapstick violence, the films reflect their wit. Although the coyote is the " villain " of the cartoons, he is by his a priori doomed attempts of the popular figure of the films. The Road Runner in itself does not elaborate character, but rather is installed as an accessory to the scene.
The two characters almost never speak, but share the audience ( and each other ) on highly held signs with each statement with. The only regular "words" consist beep beep (pronounced rather " meep meep ") of the Road Runners.
A similar motif is rabbit and wolf. Again, there is the wild chase of the wolf after the hare. But there are also other animals.
Concept
Chuck Jones said in several interviews and in his autobiography that the Road Runner cartoons on some rules ( Jones refers to it as disciplines to which is to keep the director ) are based.
Marketing
Because of its reputation, both figures were used as an advertising medium. Chrysler bought for $ 50,000 marketing rights from Warner Bros. to come up with pictures of the Road Runners and a horn that mimics the "Beep Beep" to equip the 1968 to 1980 built Plymouth Road Runner. The Road Runner was named for broadband Internet services over the cable network of Time Warner. Both characters appeared in several commercials such as Pepsi, Chevrolet or Energizer.
In addition, at least five video games were produced:
- Road Runner (initially in 1985 as an arcade game by Atari, later on Atari 2600, Commodore 64 (1987 ), ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and NES (1989))
- Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner (PAL Developments ) for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum (all 1991)
- Road Runner's Death Valley Rally for SNES
- Desert Speedtrap for Sega Game Gear and Sega Master System
- Desert Demolition for Sega Mega Drive
Episodes
The series primarily consists of 48 short films.
Initially, the fictional scientific name of the two opponents was displayed in each cartoon at the beginning or during a break in the chase. This changed from episode to episode. This was discontinued in late 1964 after the departure of Chuck Jones.