War and Pieces

War and Pieces is a 1964 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical animated short. It was directed by Chuck Jones, and features Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner. It was the last Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Chuck Jones until 1980's Soup or Sonic.

The title is a pun on the Leo Tolstoy novel War and Peace.

Summary

Introduction: Wile E. Coyote (Caninus Nervous Rex) is pursuing the Road Runner (Burn-Em Upus Asphaltus) as usual. Wile E. attempts to hurl a hand grenade at the Road Runner, but the grenade rebounds off a saguaro, and straight to the Coyote. The grenade explodes on him (POW!), and the injured, blackened Coyote is left in the air. He then takes notice of his smoking tail, and quickly puts it out with a bit of saliva from his tongue. He then steps down, dejected, and walks away, planning his next scheme.

1. As the Road Runner watches from a cliff, Wile E. is at another cliff, attempting to use a bow to shoot himself straight at the Road Runner. However, the bow shoots him off too far, ripping his pants off. The Coyote (shown wearing a pair of polka-dotted boxer shorts) is left hanging onto the bow until it breaks, but he lands feet first on a large rock just a bit down the bottom of the cliff. Wile E. begins to walk off in relief, until the rock breaks and falls down to the ground, taking a waving Wile E. with it.

2. Next, Wile E. attempts to use a hydraulic press activated by an electric eye, so, when the Road Runner attempts to run through the light at the eye, the hydraulic presses can crush him after he passes. Wile E. prepares to watch the Road Runner be smashed as he is about to pass the electric eye, but the Road Runner stops and stands still in front of the eye. The Coyote gets impatient, and eventually, attempts to run at the Road Runner, but the Road Runner walks through the eye, activating the hydraulic presses, flattening Wile. E.

3. Now, Wile E. resorts to the Acme Corporation, which sends a bucket of ACME Invisible Paint to him. Wile E. paints every part of his body invisible, and walks toward the road. He hears the Road Runner beeping, and jumps onto the road, preparing to catch him, but the beeps were actually from a passing truck, which runs over the Coyote as soon as he jumps onto the road. A dazed Wile E. staggers toward a cliff, and falls straight down through the clouds with vanish-stamping, then into a pond. The splash causes Wile E. to be visible again, and he lies down on the sea floor, injured. A fish swims by and looks at him, but the Coyote scares it away by showing a "GET LOST!" sign at the fish.

4. Next, Wile E. brings out a shotgun, disguised as a look-through attraction called "Secrets of a Harem". The Road Runner appears and looks through the holes of the shotgun while turning a handle, which Wile E. prepares to fire the shotgun. However, he looks at the Road Runner turning the handle, and, thinking that he's doing it incorrectly, pushes him away and turns the handle himself, causing the shotgun to fire straight onto his face. He punctuates the aftermath with a snort.

5. Later, as the Road Runner watches from a cliff, Wile E., who is standing at the bottom, throws a grappling hook with a rope straight up at the cliff. The hook gets caught on something, and the Coyote, content, climbs up the rope. However, as he reaches the Road Runner, the Road Runner reveals that the hook is not caught on the cliff, but on a cloud above. The hook lets go of the cloud and tears it open, causing lightning to strike on the poor Coyote, who slides back down to the ground immediately after being struck, but the lightning strike leaves his charred body limp as it folds up on the ground.

6. Finally, the Coyote rides a rocket straight up to the cliff, where the Road Runner has returned. However, the rocket ends up going the wrong way and sends the Coyote into the ground. After barreling underground, he eventually ends up in China, where he meets a Chinese Road Runner on roller skates. The Coyote attempts to catch him, but the Chinese Road Runner stops him with a gong. The perplexed Coyote falls back down the hole toward the desert. He flies up the hole and falls face first to the ground. The Chinese Road Runner pops his head out of the hole and ends the cartoon with a "Beep-beep!" noise, and the Chinese characters that appear as he beeps turn into "The End" (with a small note underneath reading "Ancient Chinese Proverb").

Edited versions

• The ABC version of this cartoon cuts the sequence where Wile E. Coyote disguises a double-barrel shotgun as a peep show (called "Secrets of a Harem") and ends up getting shot. Also cut was an early scene where a hand grenade ricochets back to Wile and blows him up.
• The Merrie Melodies Show on Fox showed the "Secrets of a Harem" sequence, but replaces the part where Wile gets shot with a frozen scene of the Road Runner looking down from a cliff.^[1]

References

External links

• War and Pieces at the Internet Movie Database
• War and Pieces at the Big Cartoon DataBase