Wile E. Coyote | |
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Looney Tunes character | |
First appearance | Fast and Furry-ous (September 17, 1949) |
Created by | Chuck Jones |
Voiced by | Silent (1949–1952) Mel Blanc (1952–1986, only in Wile E. and Bugs Bunny shorts, and Adventures of the Road Runner) Joe Alaskey (1991–2006, 2011) Maurice LaMarche (1994–2008) Dee Bradley Baker (2003) Daran Norris (2014) J. P. Karliak (Wabbit - A Looney Tunes Production) |
Information | |
Aliases | The Coyote |
Species | Coyote |
Gender | Male |
Nationality | American |
Road Runner | |
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Looney Tunes character | |
First appearance | Fast and Furry-ous (September 17, 1949) |
Created by |
Chuck Jones Michael Maltese |
Voiced by |
Paul Julian (1949–1994) Mel Blanc (1968–1986) Frank Welker (1990–1995, 2014) Dee Bradley Baker (2003–2006) Joe Alaskey (2011) |
Information | |
Species | Greater roadrunner |
Gender | Male |
Nationality | American |
Wile E. Coyote (also known simply as "The Coyote") and the Road Runner are a duo of characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. In the cartoons, the Coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner, a fast-running ground bird, but is never successful. Instead of his species' animal instincts, the Coyote uses absurdly complex contraptions (sometimes in the manner of Rube Goldberg) and elaborate plans to pursue his prey, resulting in his devices comically backfiring with the Coyote often getting injured in slapstick fashion.
The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese. The characters star in a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts (the first 16 of which were written by Maltese) and occasional made-for-television cartoons. It was originally meant to parody chase cartoons like Tom and Jerry, but became popular in its own right.
The Coyote appears separately as an occasional antagonist of Bugs Bunny in five shorts from 1952 to 1963: Operation: Rabbit, To Hare Is Human, Rabbit's Feat, Compressed Hare, and Hare-Breadth Hurry. While he is generally silent in the Coyote-Road Runner shorts, he speaks with a refined accent in these solo outings (except for Hare-Breadth Hurry), beginning with 1952's Operation: Rabbit, introducing himself as "Wile E. Coyote — Genius", voiced with an upper-class accent by Mel Blanc. The Road Runner vocalizes only with a signature sound, "Beep, Beep", recorded by Paul Julian, and the occasional "popping-cork" tongue noise.