Guided Muscle

Guided Muscle is a 1955 Looney Tunes short directed by Charles M. Jones.
== Title ==
The title is a pun on "guided missile".
== Plot ==
Wile E. Coyote is cooking some food in a tin bucket over a fire. He adds pepper and a drop of a brown liquid, and Wile stirs the bucket and fishes out what is revealed to be a tin can. The Coyote then sits down on a rock and prepares to cut the can in half (as if it was a steak) before he realizes what he is eating, and then pushes the entire table setting off the rock table. "Coyote - Eatibus Almost Anythingus". With a Beep-beep, the Roadrunner speeds by and throws the coyote rolling across the ground. The camera cuts to the Road Runner, who is currently a blur of motion, and freezes the clip temporarily to add his fictitious Latin name "Velocitus Delectiblus". Wile licks his lips, then dashes after his nemesis. The Road Runner taunts Wile before speeding off at an impossible velocity, dusting up all the roads in the distance. Wile stops in mid-stride, then thinks of his new plan.
#The Coyote attaches a pointed blade to the end of his nose and plunges himself off a bow at the passing Road Runner, but instead spears through the trunk of a saguaro, which breaks out of the ground and falls over a cliff.
#Wile then loads himself into a slingshot and cuts the string as the Road Runner dashes ahead of him, but nothing happens. He ducks out of the slingshot and puts his head into it to peer at the "faulty" string, but then it activates and pitches the Coyote onto the stone ground ten feet away.
#The Coyote lies in wait for the Road Runner to come around a turn and lights a cannon fuse, but instead of firing the cannonball, the entire cannon, with Wile on board, is fired backwards into a mountain wall. When Wile steps out of the cannon, it fires another ball into his face.
#He then attempts to use a stone "wrecking ball" attached to a tree to hit the Roadrunner, but instead hits the trunk of the tree, which hammers him into the rock he is standing on.
#Next, Wile simply rolls the ball down a hill out into the road, but it pitches up a stone serac and right back on top of its owner.
#Wile covers a narrow canyon floor with Acme GREASE, but once again, a truck just happens to be approaching. He tries to run across the grease, but fails and is run over. The Road Runner easily glides over it, so he attempts to follow. However, each attempt moves him forward a negligible amount of distance until he finally collapses in the grease.
#The Road Runner is then seen zipping to one end of a cliff and beeping at the Coyote on the other end, who attempts to swing over the canyon but only smacks into a plateau just underneath him.
#Wile leaves out bird seed while he climbs to the top of the cliff and prepares his trap. The Road Runner zips up and munches down, while the Coyote lowers a dynamite stick on the end of a fishing line. Instead of blowing up the Road Runner, the flame travels up the line and back to the TNT box, which explodes on the Coyote.
#He then creates a tar-and-feather machine based on his readings of How To Tar And Feather A Road Runner: 10th printing, and successfully tests it on a small cactus. Wile hides in a thin crevice with the machine pointed towards the road that the Road Runner traverses. Unfortunately, the emitters spin around and attack their owner, and the Roadrunner, as if it were the simplest thing in the world (which it is), holds up a sign saying: ROAD-RUNNERS ALREADY HAVE FEATHERS!
#Wile prepares one final trap: a dynamite pit in the road. Just after he lights the fuse, the Road Runner stops short of him and beeps in his face, provoking a short chase that ends when he runs directly over his own exploding pit.
Fed up, the charred Coyote walks off-camera and returns with a stand-up sign that says: Wanted: One gullible Coyote. Apply to manager of this theater. Then he goes back and returns with the Looney Tunes "That's all Folks!" end title card.
== Availability ==
Asfgdfsgdhfgdfsdgv.jpg|Super 8
lt vs10 uk.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 10
51EZNNTQRZL.jpg|(1990) VHS Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner (1990)
ROAD RUNNER AND WILE E COYOTE THE SCRAPES OF WRATH.jpg|(1992) VHS Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote: The Scrapes of Wrath
ROAD RUNNER VS WILE E COYOTE.jpg|(1994) LaserDisc Road Runner Vs. Wile E. Coyote: If At First You Don't Succeed...
Rrltcollectionfhafuawf.jpg|(1996) VHS Looney Tunes Collection Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
lt collection faorrawec.jpg|(1996) VHS Looney Tunes Collection - Further Adventures of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
51Rir IkqCL.jpg|(1997) VHS Classic Bumper Collection
Lt wecarr 2003.jpg|(2003) VHS Wile E Coyote and Road Runner (2003)
Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales UK VHS.jpg|(2003) VHS Wile E Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales
Golden Collection box 2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc Two
lt cbrr1.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
lt cbrr1 vcd.jpg|(2005) VCD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
lt spotlight 7.jpg|(2009) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 7, Disc 1
lt bbot wc.jpg|(2011) DVD Wile E. Coyote
lt 3fcbo.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of
LTPC Volume 3 Cover.png|(2014) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two
LT Platinum Collection VOL 3 DVD Cover.png|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two
=== Streaming ===
Lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - )
Lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2024 - )
Lt itunes.jpg|iTunes ( - ) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* The last scene where Wile E. Coyote pulls the "That's All, Folks!" card had the "That's All Folks!" card replaced with a black screen when this short aired on CBS and ABC, since both of those networks edited out the original opening and closing cards, including any scenes and gags that were associated with them.
** From 1990 to 1992, Nickelodeon initially aired this cartoon with the end gag altered like ABC and CBS did, only Nickelodeon replaced the "That's All Folks!" card with a Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon bumper (or title screen if the cartoon was the last one of the installment),https://web.archive.org/web/20120718153130/http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/nick/https://www.facebook.com/GoldenAgeCartoons/videos/297913785204205/ When the channel started airing Looney Tunes cartoons with their original beginning and end titles, the scene was reinstated, although a green border was inexplicably added. See "Gallery" below for more details.
== Notes ==
* The first two gags of this cartoon were reused in The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie.
* The Cartoon Network and Boomerang airings of the short have the sound at PAL speed instead of NTSC.
* The introductory scene where Wile E. is cooking a can is used in the special Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet.
* This was the last cartoon that aired on the final installment of ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show.https://www.kevinmccorrytv.ca/bubutws.html
== Gallery ==
GuidedMuscleCredits1.png
GuidedMuscleCredits2.png
=== TV Title Cards ===
lt tbbats guided muscle.jpg|The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show
== External links ==
* "Guided Muscle" at the SFX Resource
== References ==
es:Guided Muscle
Category:Road Runner Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:1955
Category:Wile E. Coyote Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons animated by Abe Levitow
Category:Cartoons animated by Richard Thompson
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Philip DeGuard
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with no dialogue