"The Whizzard of Ow" is a 2003 Looney Tunes cartoon starring our beloved comic desert duo, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. It is notable for being the first Road Runner cartoon made after the death of Chuck Jones, and is available as a special feature on the DVD release of Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
The short starts out with a pair of rival sorcerers battling each other in an epic duel, which abruptly ends when they accidentally zap each other into oblivion, leaving their intact possessions to fall towards the desert road and hit Wile E. Coyote, ruining his chance of eventually getting his predatory hands on the Road Runner. However, Wile E. uses those possessions as an advantage to concoct new magical schemes, which as usual... well, you get the point.
"The Whizzard of Ow" provides examples of:
- All Witches Have Cats: A male example, as the tall, skinny sorcerer has a black cat, which is eventually used in two of the Coyote's schemes (being turned into different animals) after he dies battling his rival.
- Anti-Humor: The Coyote and Road Runner are given the real scientific names of their species this time.
- Barely Missed Cushion: While Wile E. is flying towards a train, the freights are carrying marshmallows and pillows giving him temporarily relief, of course he ends up flying into the next freight, carrying 10,000 snakes.
- Binomium ridiculus: This time, it's averted. note ROAD RUNNER (Geococcyx californianus)COYOTE (Canis latrans)
- Black Magic: Some of Wile E.'s schemes fall into this territory.
- Butt-Monkey: Guess who...
- Cats Are Mean: The black cat claws at Wile E. twice; the first time when it lands on his face, and second when he turns it into a black panther.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: As the Coyote is plummeting straight to Earth on his broomstick, he tries to dial ACME about it, only for the recording to tell him that the operators are busy at the moment.
- Crystal Ball: Wile E. disguises a Cartoon Bomb as one in his fourth scheme, which involves the Road Runner seeing his future. The Road Runner sees in the ball that his nemesis will get blown up in the future... which then comes true when the disguised bomb falls off the table and rolls towards the Coyote.
- Evil Sorcerer: Two of them start the cartoon, engaging in a magical battle to the death... which makes good on the "death" part at the end.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: The two sorcerers at the beginning die after zapping each other with their magic.
- Flaming Meteor: Wile E., while flying into space on his broomstick, gets hit by two that cause him and his broomstick to plummet back to Earth, though he manages to get the broom to brake to safety before it hits the ground.
- Flying Broomstick: Wile E. orders one from ACME in his second roadrunner-hunting scheme. Needless to say, it does not go very well...
- Forced Transformation: The cat is transformed into a different animal by Wile E. twice; first as a panther, and second as a pegasus. Things take a turn for the worst however, as the pegasus-turned cat is suddenly subjected to several transformations, including a Magic Carpet, a monitor lizard, a lawnmower and finally, a great white shark, all courtesy of the Road Runner.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you pause the cartoon so you can read the spellbook, you find that most of the text is calling you an idiot for expecting there to be actual magic spells in a cartoon.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Just as Wile E. is relieved from landing his flying broomstick safely, his nemesis suddenly scares him off a cliff from behind and makes him another victim to gravity.
- Homing Boulders: For his fifth scheme, Wile E. practices levitation and tries to drop a boulder on the Road Runner, which refuses to fall no matter how many times he tries to get it to. After trying and failing to get it to budge, he storms off in annoyance when the boulder suddenly moves and crushes him.
- Iris Out: One that's shaped like a heart closes on the shot of the Road Runner and his girlfriend strolling off into the distance.
- Make My Monster Grow: Wile E. attempts to cast a spell on himself that will turn him into a giant. Unfortunately, said spell only affects his head, which then squashes his body under its weight.
- Mutual Kill: The two Sorcerers at the beginning.
- Near-Villain Victory: Whether he is a villain or not is up to the viewer's interpretation, but at the beginning of the short, Wile E. is much, much closer to catching the Road Runner than before, as seen with his hands now between the sides of the Road Runner's neck, and would've easily succeeded had it not been for the ACME Book of Magic falling on his head at the last moment.
- Panthera Awesome: Wile E.'s first scheme involves turning the black cat into a panther which he will then use to hunt the Road Runner. Unfortunately, it's subverted as the cat does not take kindly to its new form and slices its new master into ribbons.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The two Sorcerers', whose possessions wind up in Wile E. Coyote's hands.
- Polka-Dot Paint: Using "Acme Clear Paint" Wile E. was able to make a bomb clear and see through, like a crystal ball.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: "The Whizzard of Ow", the title of this short cartoon, is this trope to The Wizard of Oz.
- Reduced to Dust: The fate of the two Sorcerers, after they blast each other simultaneously.
- Reentry Scare: Wile E.'s phone burns up and disintegrates as he falls from space to Earth.
- The Reveal: As it turns out, the Road Runner is responsible for the cat's undesired transformations near the end of the cartoon.
- Right-Hand Cat: As mentioned above, the lanky sorcerer has one. After the two sorcerers end the battle and their lives, Wile E. then becomes the black cat's new owner.
- Spell Book: One that belongs to the stout sorcerer falls onto the Coyote before he can finally catch the Road Runner, though he soon uses it as a new opportunity to try to catch the bird.
- Threatening Shark: This is the black cat's final transformation, which then attacks the Coyote after both of them land in a pond.
- Transformation Ray: The Road Runner conjures up one with his newfound magic powers, which zaps a mailbox and turns it into a female roadrunner whom he then immediately starts dating.
- Vocal Dissonance: The Road Runner's beeps temporarily become deeper-pitched to the point of sounding like a truck honking, during a gag where the Coyote mistakes those beeps for a truck coming from a tunnel and flies up to the mesosphere. The Road Runner manages to remedy this by firmly tapping his neck twice.
- Wheel o' Feet: The Road Runner, as we all know. Wile E. is also seen running like this as he chases the Road Runner at the start of the cartoon.
- Wizard Duel: One that ends in a Mutual Kill kicks off the plot.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: At the beginning, Wile E. is so near to the Road Runner that he is about to clench his hands on the bird's neck. Unfortunately, he gets hit by the falling ACME Book of Magic before he can.
