The Solid Tin Coyote is a 1966 Looney Tunes short directed by Rudy Larriva.
Title[]
The title is a play on the 1933 Broadway play, The Solid Gold Cadillac, as well as the 1956 film adaptation.
Plot[]
Wile E. tries to capture Road Runner by covering the road with tar, but the bird simply runs directly over it. He stops himself from leaping into the tar in anticipation of Road Runner being stuck, and accidentally walks into the road where the tar is located to ascertain where his enemy has gone. Wile E. manages to free himself from the tar pit, but is now stuck in the bucket of tar. The coyote hops across the road, stuck in the bucket, until he finds himself facing a truck coming from that direction. Ultimately, he traps himself in the tar pit a second time, as said truck flattens him.
Hoping to get Road Runner to run into it, Wile E. places a mirror on a curve on the very edge of a mountain, but soon discovers that his reflection is mocking him. To figure out where the "reflection" is coming from, the coyote snakes around the mirror to the side and discovers nothing there. Puzzled, the coyote retracts his neck, and soon suffers gravity due to his location in thin air. But in the dump where he falls is an inspiration: Wile E. scavenges a wealth of spare parts and takes them away to construct something. Road Runner curiously peaks around the rock Wile is working behind. However, curiosity quickly turns to outright terror when Wile E. unveils his creation: a robotic coyote at least five times as tall as himself.
Using a remote control, Wile E. gives the robot commands, and electric bolts come out of the robot's ears before executing each command.
WALK: The robot does so, but will not stop or change direction to avoid smashing his creator. Therefore... STOP/HALT: However, the robot fails to stop, crushing Wile E. underfoot. LOWER HAND for Wile E. to climb on, then LIFT HAND for him to get a bird's eye-view of the landscape. HUNT: Robot gets "on his mark" and "set", hears Road Runner coming, and starts chasing him as he passes by, a rendition of "Charge" is played on a trumpet. Road Runner is petrified at the sight of his enemy on the robot, and Wile is soon in striking distance to issue STRIKE. The robot turns his hand around, the one Wile E. is standing on, and attempts to crush Road Runner, but misses each time and ends up flattening the coyote like a pancake due to his unfortunate location on the palm of this hand.
Standing between the robot's ears, Wile E. hears Road Runner coming and orders the robot to ATTACK, but the robot's electric bolts from its ears shock him into a sooty state.
Wile E. adds fangs to the robot's mouth, gives the order to HUNT, and the chase resumes as "Charge" is played again. This time, the robot succeeds in catching Road Runner. However, Wile E. fails to recognize the sensitive personality of his creation and enters the command to EAT, STUPID. The robot promptly opens up and tosses its creator inside, to a flurry of anguished howls, prompting Road Runner to escape. Crawling out of one of the robot's ears, and obviously irked, Wile E. flatly commands ONE MORE TRY, YOU IDIOT! "Charge" plays once more, and the robot starts running towards Road Runner, who is standing on the other side of a collapsed road. Horrified, Wile E. tries vainly to stop the robot with TURN, STOP, HALT, BACK, WHOA, REVERSE, and HEEL, but all commands go unanswered and both he and the robot fall into the chasm, leaving Wile E. in the same heap of junk where he started.
Availability[]
Road Runner
Looney Tunes Super Stars 3-Pack, Disc 3
Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature, Disc 3
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- This is one of the few shorts where the Road Runner is caught. But since the robot did that instead of Wile E. Coyote, this short does not break the rule prohibiting Wile E. from catching his prey.
- This is the only Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short in which the Road Runner gets frightened.
- Unlike most Road Runner shorts which focus on a series of rapid-fire gags, this cartoon is focused on only one long gag, the construction and use of the titular robotic coyote.
- The namesake robot reappears in Looney Tunes World of Mayhem as both a boss and an unlockable character, although it was redesigned a bit.
- The robot in the title card hardly resembles the actual robot in the short.
Gallery[]
