Whoa, Be-Gone!

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Whoa, Be-Gone!
series = Merrie Melodies (Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote)


caption =
director = Chuck Jones
story_artist = Michael Maltese
animator =
musician = Milt Franklyn
producer = Eddie Selzer
voice_actor = Paul Julian
studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = April 12, 1958
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 6 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0052390

"Whoa, Be-Gone!" is a 1958 Warner Bros. cartoon in the "Merrie Melodies" series featuring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

Plot

The Road Runner is chased down a roadway by Wile E. Coyote on a rocket, and the rocket's exhaust repeatedly runs into the camera during the chase, allowing the title cards to be shown. The chase begins in full force, and the coyote gains on the Road Runner, leans off the rocket slightly, and prepares to sink his utensils into the Road Runner. Then the cartoon pauses for Wile ("Famishius Vulgaris Ingenuisi") and then for the Road Runner ("Birdius High-Ballius"). The chase continues down the road as Wile prepares to make his move, but before he can deliver the final blow, he hits his head on a tunnel arch as the Road Runner goes through it. The Road Runner and the rocket come out the other end; the bird escapes and the rocket returns back toward its owner. Wile recovers from the jar and climbs down, but must soon return upwards when he sees the rocket coming at him. He sighs with relief and dismounts the arch, but soon (ironically) is hit by an ACME truck. Wile falls unconscious.

Wile is pacing around a mountaintop when he runs directly into the Road Runner, who beeps and causes Wile's head to retract after being scared into a rock ceiling. The coyote chases after the bird through a cloud of dust, but only manages to throw himself into thin air. The Road Runner alerts the coyote, who promptly suffers gravity to his annoyance. He manages to climb back up the mountain again, but no sooner does he do so than the Road Runner, on another plateau, beeps again. The coyote uses a see-saw and rock to attempt to launch himself towards the Road Runner, but the rock breaks through the cliff's edge, and the coyote slides from the top of the board down and through the hole. Gravity again. He falls into almost the same spot as the first time, creating a cross of coyote imprints in the ground.

The coyote patches up a trampoline on the desert ground and then proceeds to man a sniper rifle. He hears the Road Runner's beep, but doesn't see him approaching. He turns around to find the bird is actually perched 20 feet "behind" him. So he turns the rifle around, but there's no space on the other side. Wile falls off the cliff again, and then directly busts through his trampoline.

The coyote has now ordered a giant rubber band and ties it around two rocks, hoping to trap the Road Runner. However, it is so elastic that it pulls the two rocks together while Wile is still in between them.

Now, Wile lights a bunch of fireworks inside a barrel and bungee-swings the barrel out into open space above the road which the Road Runner is about to pass. But the very edge of the rock that Wile is standing on breaks off, forcing Wile to Tarzan himself directly below the barrel. As the rope begins to snap, Wile climbs up to escape the calamity, but fails to make it off in time. He falls to the ground and is smashed by the barrel. Now, the coyote has to escape his own security measure - a nailed-shut lid. Wile manages to take off all the nails and climb out of the barrel, then hide and wait for the explosion. However, he forgot to check the lid - the fireworks are on the lid, which Wile is still wearing! Boom.

Instead, Wile builds a high wire structure and dons a wheel-head. He labors hard to get himself balanced upside-down on top of the wire (even after the Road Runner is long gone), and when he finally is able to let go of the rock, the wire snaps and sends Wile headfirst into the ground. Then, the wire drapes over a power line while one end falls into the hole made by the coyote. Wile is electrocuted and as he emerges, his body turns orange.

The coyote now attaches TNT to the bottom of a high bridge as he waits on the ground with the controller. The Road Runner moves towards the intended target, but stops short of the bridge. The bridge detonates and the concrete falls directly upon the poor coyote.

Wile's last plan is to use Tornado Seeds to trap the Road Runner when he tries to eat them. Wile tests them by placing one next to a small cactus and shooting the requisite blast of water at it. The seed morphs into a tornado and sucks up the cacti as planned.

Therefore, Wile drops a handful of seeds into the road just before the Road Runner turns up. Wile fires his pistol, but it malfuctions and all the water comes out the bottom - and lands on the jar of tornado seeds. The remaining seeds form a huge tornado that sucks up the coyote and takes him on the spin of his life, culminating in a journey into an army mine field. Wile suffers explosion after explosion as the Road Runner pulls down a "That's all, folks" curtain.

Censors

*On ABC, two scenes were cut [http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsu-z.html] :
**Wile E. getting electrocuted by the wire on which he was trying to balance his wheel-head. The scene faded to black right before the wire lands on the power lines, thus ending the scene just after Wile E. hits the ground (on a March 11, 2000 afternoon airing of "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" on ABC, this cartoon aired with this--and the next part--unedited [http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/bugstweety/] ).
**Wile E. trying to drop a barrel rimmed with dynamite upon the Road Runner, only to have the barrel crash on top of him. The edit made it appear that the barrel exploded before it fell on Wile E.
*CBS airings of this short cut the ending gag where the Roadrunner pulls down the "That's All, Folks!" title card like a window shade as Wile E. gets caught in a tornado plowing through a minefield. The ABC version left this scene intact, but replaced the "That's All Folks" card with a blank screen.

ee also

*Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1950-1959)