CineTV Contest #21- Favorite Movie Animal Character: Wile E. Coyote

BACKGROUND

Most children in the U.S. in the 50s and 60s eras grew up with cartoons. I especially loved ROAD RUNNER. It's said that Chuck Jones, a highly respected animation director, based the cartoon on a Mark Twain book called Roughing It.

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In Twain's book, he referenced the fact that starving Coyotes would chase road runners. Now, a road runner is a type of bird that rarely flies to any height. Instead, it's survival tactics is to run at speeds up to 40 m.p.h.

The predator coyote, in chasing the roadrunner, surely would have had some type of tactics of it own to try to outmaneuver its prey.

This is the background in which Jones created the television cartoon series Road Runner. It was a hilarious series in which each week, the Coyote would devise numerous ways to catch the roadrunner.

But what I love about the series was the fact that neither animal could speak during the entire series. The Coyote used signs to display his feelings or the outcome of events. The only verbal word allowed by the studio was by the roadrunner: "beep, beep". It sounded more like "meep, meep."

To get to my point of the series, the coyote's name was "Wile E. Coyote." His middle name was "Ethelbert". It was rarely mentioned. His first name was a pun as Jones intended his name to be version of wily to indicate that the animal was shrewd and cunning.

And indeed he was; except, Coyote didn't utilize his animal instincts. Instead, he used various contraptions sold by the company, ACME Corporation. Each week, I watched as Coyote used the various complex gadgets he ordered to set traps for the Roadrunner. Of course, he was never successful. He didn't realize the gadgets were defective. But watching all his attempts fail on a large scale that resulted in only injury to himself was hilarious.

CURRENT

To date, no movie has been made of the Roadrunner and Coyote together. I understand one is scheduled for the end of 2022 or possibly next year.

**However, in 1952, ** Wile E. Coyote did star in a movie with another beloved cartoon character, Bugs Bunny. In the movie, "OPERATION RABBIT", we actually get to hear the Coyote speak. It was a shock to me hearing the foreign accent in his voice. The Coyote described himself as a "genius", an intellectual who possessed superior cunning.