War and Pieces
| War and Pieces | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner) series | |
| Directed by |
Chuck Jones Maurice Noble (co-director) |
| Produced by |
David H. DePatie (uncredited) |
| Story by | John Dunn |
| Voices by |
Paul Julian (uncredited) |
| Music by | Bill Lava |
| Animation by |
Ken Harris Richard Thompson Bob Bransford Tom Ray |
| Layouts by | Dave Rose |
| Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 6, 1964 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 6 minutes |
| Language | English |
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
Wile E. Coyote attempts to hurl a hand grenade at Road Runner, but it rebounds off a saguaro, and explodes on the Coyote. He walks away, planning his next scheme.
Wile E. is at another cliff, attempting to use a bow to shoot himself at the Road Runner. The bow shoots him off too far, is left hanging onto the bow until it breaks, but lands feet first on a large rock just a bit down the bottom of the cliff. Wile E. walks off in relief, until the rock breaks and falls down to the ground, taking Wile E. with it.
Wile E. attempts to use a hydraulic press activated by an electric eye, when the Road Runner attempts to run through the light at the eye, the hydraulic presses can crush him after he passes. The Road Runner stops in front of the eye. The Coyote gets impatient and runs at the Road Runner, but the Road Runner walks through the eye, activating the hydraulic presses, flattening Wile. E.
Wile E. paints himself with ACME Invisible Paint. He hears the Road Runner beeping, umps onto the road, but the beeps were from a truck, which runs over the Coyote. Wile E. staggers off a cliff into a pond.
Wile E. uses as a look-through attraction called "Secrets of a Harem". The Road Runner looks through the holes of the shotgun while turning a handle, while Wile E. prepares to fire the shotgun. He looks at the Road Runner and thinking that he is turning it incorrectly, pushes him away and turns the handle himself, causing the shotgun to fire into his face.
Wile E. throws a grappling hook with a rope straight up at the cliff. The hook gets caught on something, and the Coyote climbs the rope. The hook is not caught on a cloud above, the hook lets go of the cloud and tears it open, causing lightning to strike Coyote, who slides down to the ground.
The Coyote rides a rocket up the cliff, but the rocket goes the wrong way and sends the Coyote into the ground. After barreling underground, he 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 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.
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]