Upcoming Animator Breakdown! (Patreon)

In The Adventures of the Road Runner (1962), while Ralph Phillips and his friend sit very close to the television set watching Wile E. Coyote chase after his usual conquest, he asks a question which other children must have wondered throughout watching the series: why exactly does the Coyote want to eat the Road Runner?

This film provides the answer from Wile E. Coyote himself in this sequence above, animated by Ken Harris. With the help of author/historian Kurtis Findlay (Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was), another animator draft from one of Jones’ films has now re-surfaced. 

As you’ll see on this page, it is labeled under the title “Road Runner Show #1”. This was intended as a television pilot for ABC, but the network did not accept the project. It was released as a theatrical featurette as The Adventures of Road Runner. This particular scene would later be re-used in a 1965 short Zip Zip! Hooray!, which was never released theatrically. The last few scenes of Wile E. with the cookbook would later be used in To Beep or Not to Beep, released a year after this film. 

Of course, this featurette will be featured as the next animator breakdown. This would be a great opportunity to subscribe to this Patreon page (on the $3+ level) if you would like to see this post, since this will only be available to Patrons. 

Keep an eye out!