A Wile E. Christmas

Christmas comes but once a year but a fall from a cliff comes every cartoon to Wile E. Coyote. Well, it seems that way.

Christmas and a cliff were combined in one of Mike Maltese’s gags in the first Roadrunner/Coyote cartoon, “Fast and Furry-ous” (released 1949). There’s a pan over a background by Pete Alvarado showing various items Wile E. has combined to try to catch the speeding bird. I can’t clip the whole background together so you all you get is about two-thirds of it below.



Rhe snow-making contraption works but the plan fails right away because the Roadrunner simply stops on the road. Wile E. skis past him along the path of snow made by ice from the fridge churned through a meat grinder. He skis over a cliff and along the path being made in mid-air. But the plan fails again. The ice runs out while the coyote is in the air and he drops in a shot from above that became a cliché.



After crashing at the floor of the canyon, the ice contraption starts up again. And that’s when Wile E. wishes us a Merry Xmas.



Lloyd Vaughan, Ben Washam, Ken Harris and Phil Monroe animated the cartoon for Chuck Jones.