Adventures of the Road-Runner

Adventures of the Road-Runner is an animated film directed by Chuck Jones and co-directed by Maurice Noble and Tom Ray. It was the intended pilot for a television series starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, but was never picked up; instead it was later released theatrically in its entirety alongside with the full-length Warner Bros. live-action feature film Lad: A Dog.
The film was then split into three further shorts. The first one was "To Beep or Not to Beep", which was re-edited by its original director Chuck Jones and with its original music score by Milt Franklyn replaced by new re-orchestrated music by William Lava. The other two were assembled by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1965 after they took over the Looney Tunes series, albeit with no alterations in the audio and footage whatsoever unlike the former due to lower budgets and the firing of Chuck Jones. The remainder split-up shorts were titled "Roadrunner a Go-Go" and "Zip Zip Hooray!"
== Summary ==
Wile E. Coyote is reviewing his past attempts at catching Road Runner (in the form of stock footage from previous Coyote/Road Runner shorts), and making new, revised plans to catch him - which go just as wrong, if not more so than the first attempts.
In a mostly unrelated story, as two children (one of them Ralph Phillips) watch the Coyote on television, Ralph is talking about how much trouble he has concentrating on things and gets caught up in his daydreams (re-using footage from Jones' earlier short "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z") when his friend gave him a psychiatry session when Ralph constantly imitates Road Runner's sounds like "Beep-Beep! Zip-Bang!" After the session, Ralph declares he will never think of anything imaginative ever again before making the Road Runner sound once again when he rushes back to the TV. The other boy finally gives in to Ralph's imitations by saying that psychiatry isn't infallible and that Road Runner Phobia was one of the most difficult ones to break before making the Road Runner sound like Ralph was doing. 
The two stories briefly link up when the Coyote breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the kids on why he wants to eat Road Runner. This sequence features a television commercial for "The Acme Batman Outfit! The only Batman outfit worn by bats!", which is newly narrated stock footage from "Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z".
== Availability ==
Golden Collection box 2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc Two (unrestored)
Lt cbrr1.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
Lt 3fcbo.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of
== Notes ==
* The featurette contains what would most likely have been the series' opening sequence, closing sequence (including Road Runner speeding through the sleeping Coyote's digs and taking his entire bed with him), and theme song, titled "Out on the Desert". When Jones later produced the Tom and Jerry series, the format of the Coyote reviewing his past adventures would be copied in the short "Shutter Bugged Cat", which Tom Ray also directed.
* Clips from this film were later included in the ToonHeads special "The Lost Cartoons". 
* This short contains archive footage from both "Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z", "Zip 'n Snort" and "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z", as well as reused animation from "Hip Hip- Hurry!" and "Stop! Look! And Hasten!".
* This is the first Road Runner cartoon to contain dialogue, as opposed to the usual non-verbal nature of the series, except for some vocal effects. 
** While subsequent Road Runner cartoons would revert to the usual nonverbal format, except for a few exceptions such as "The Wild Chase" and "Little Go Beep", Wile E. would speak more often in the Road Runner cartoons produced for New Looney Tunes many years later.
* Wile E. Coyote has a chart on his wall at home labeled "Genius Chart". Positions 1-4 are occupied by Wile E. Coyote, 5 is Albert Einstein, 6 is Sir Isaac Newton, 7 is Galileo and 8 is Leonardo da Vinci.
* According to Jerry Beck, a second episode was in production when the series was rejected. To save on costs, the footage that was created for the second episode would be cut down into a new short, "Hare-Breadth Hurry".https://www.theextras.tv/podcasts/blog-post-ltcc3-040924 This would possibly indicate that there were plans for other Looney Tunes characters to star on the show, such as Bugs Bunny.
== Gallery ==
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits1.png
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits2.png
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits3.png
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits4.png
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits5.png
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits6.png
AdventuresofRoadRunnerCredits7.png
Zip'NSnortProductionBackground&AdventuresOfTheRoad-RunnerProductionCel.jpg|Production cel with a production background from "Zip 'n Snort"
AdventuresOfTheRoad-RunnerProdctionDrawing.jpg|Production drawing
Road Runner Show, Sequence F.jpg|Animator draft of Sequence F
== References ==
== External links ==
* Adventures of the Road-Runner Animation Breakdown of Sequence F on Patreon
Category:Road Runner Cartoons
Category:Wile E. Coyote Cartoons
Category:TV Shows
Category:Looney Tunes Films
Category:1962
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Cartoons directed by Maurice Noble
Category:Cartoons directed by Tom Ray
Category:Cartoons written by John Dunn
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons written by Chuck Jones
Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons designed by Maurice Noble
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard
Category:Cartoons animated by Richard Thompson
Category:Cartoons animated by Tom Ray
Category:Cartoons animated by Bob Bransford
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Nancy Wible
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons produced by David H. DePatie
Category:Cartoons that reuse footage from earlier cartoons