Beep Prepared

Infobox Film
name = Beep Prepared


image_size =
caption =
director = Chuck Jones
producer =
writer = John W. Dunn
Chuck Jones
narrator =
starring = Mel Blanc
Paul Julian (uncredited)
music = Milt Franklyn
cinematography =
editing = Treg Brown
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
released = Start date|1961|11|11
runtime = 6 minutes
country =
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:152172
imdb_id = 0054674

"Beep Prepared" is a Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released in 1961. It features Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. Chuck Jones directed from a story by John Dunn.

Plot

As in all other cartoons featuring the pair, Wile E. Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner. It begins with the Coyote ("hungrii flea-baggius") assuming the "on your mark" stance used in track and field events. As soon as he goes into "get set" mode, he hears the familiar beeping sound and gets shocked into a backward move, suspended in mid-air atop a ravine. The Road Runner ("tid-bitius velocitus") issues the gunshot that causes the Coyote to drop (one of three overhead shots shown in the short).

The coyote's tools include a bow and arrow and a manhole cover suspended by rope and pulleys. Another tool is a rocket-powered Batman-type outfit that explodes on him and causes him to drop while his body is charred. Another trap involves iron pellets, a magnet, roller skates and, unfortunately for Wile E., a locomotive. After that failure, the coyote sets up a spring-loaded block of pavement. At sunset, he erects a pair of machine guns connected by taut rope, and ends up getting reduced in size when the guns blast him in the midsection. That night, the coyote buys 30 miles of railroad tracks and a rocket sled, but instead of going straight ahead, the rocket sled shoots up into the sky, past many stars and satellites until it explodes in outer space, where it forms into a Sagittarius-like constellation of Wile E. Coyote.

Censorship

*The beginning of the cartoon when shown on CBS and ABC cuts the part where Wile E. Coyote falls after the Roadrunner fires off the starter pistol because that's when the opening credits appear (original opening credits of the Looney Tunes cartoons were cut for time reasons on ABC and CBS and replaced with a simple card with the title of the cartoon being shown before the cartoon).
*ABC's version also cuts the gag where Wile E. sets up a machine gun trap and the Roadrunner breaks through the rope that trips the guns (which don't cause the guns to go off) and Wile E. pulls on the broken ropes and ends up getting shot in the midsection and cut down to size and an early gag where Wile E. Coyote is strapped into an elaborate rocket disguise that only succeeds in blowing him up and making him fall off the cliff.

Trivia

*"Beep Prepared" received an Academy Award nomination as Best Animated Short for 1961. It was the only Oscar-nominated Road Runner / Coyote cartoon.
*This episode features the use of a portable hole which the Road Runner lifts from the pavement and absconds therewith to a nearby suspension bridge with the Coyote giving chase. Stopping in the middle, the Road Runner lays the portable hole onto the road surface where the pursuing Coyote falls through with dust and debris following him in his wake. These scenes appear in break bumpers for the cartoon series.

*At the end of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, Bugs Bunny looks up to the constellation in the sky (which is still in the form of the Coyote-like Sagittarius from "Beep Prepared"). Then, we see the constellation fire its arrow at a Road Runner-shaped constellation. Then, the Coyote stars chase the Road Runner stars as the movie ends.

*This is the only Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon that features nightfall.