Chuck Jones, cool.
 

We had an event at the library this week. Well, is it an event if only 4 people show up? We couldn't get the paper to cover it and hence, no attendance. Apparently the last time we did one of these in partnership with the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, (which is actually in Orange, a block away from the library) people showed up.

I got to attend as the AV person. Chuck Jones' daughter Linda Jones Clough gave the presentation. She showed two cartoons that I'd never seen before.

First, The Night Watchman. I couldn't find a video online, bummer. It's Chuck's directorial debut. Not great, but a piece of history nonetheless. Linda brought some actual production cels from this to show. Amazing.

Then she showed Go Fly a Kit, a fantastic piece of classic mid-century Chuck Jones awesomeness. I'm so glad I found this on youtube so you guys can see it!

She also brought a recording from her personal collection. Chuck had spoken to a group of Disney animators in 1992. He complemented them on Aladdin, saying that he was jealous of such a funny full length feature. He also said that he saw what they were working on with Lion King and that it, too, looked fantastic, and like they were having a great time making it.

He talked about how drawing things head on was nearly impossible. When talking about drawing someone's knee head on, he mentioned "I couldn't draw the son of a bitch". Here we are in a public setting, with a kid there - it was pretty funny. But it didn't stop there.

Seems that when Snow White came out all the animators went to see it, of course. The guys asked Friz Freleng (director of many WB shorts) if he wanted to make a full-length animated feature. Friz said, "I need a full-length animated feature like I need two assh0les." Chuck said he and the guys thought Friz needed two of them since he had "so much of the stuff". Oh man, I wished I could have seen the face of our prim library director (or at least the kid and him mom), but I was in the front next to the projector. Heh.

At one point Linda couldn't think of the name of a film and I called it out - Spirited Away. At one point an audience member asked what Chuck thought of computer animation, and true to form, she said he always thought it didn't matter what tools you use, it's all about character and story. She says he mentored Lasseter and was a Pixar fan.

I wished more people showed up, but it was neat anyway. Too bad it was a weekday, I would have invited everyone.

Awesome.
Thanks for the links, CP.
I hadn't seen Go Fly a Kit before. It's wonderful.
:)

Chuck Jones was a freakin' genius. He had a gift for slapstick comedy.

Some of my all-time favorites of his:
Robin Hood Daffy
What's Opera, Doc?
Transylvania 6-5000
Duck Amuck


And, on a side note, Mel Blanc was a freakin' genius, too. His voices always make me laugh. Even when he's doing some random person's voice. The first line of Go Fly a Kit made me laugh out loud.
"What the heck's that cat doing up there?!"
:D

That would have been great to attend. When I was in elementary school, long, long ago, Chuck Jones came to our school and gave a presentation.

Chuck Jones is kinda hit and miss for me. I really don't like what he did with Bugs in the 60s. But things like Go Fly a Kite (one of my favs) and Duck Amuck are awesome.

Maybe he's hit and miss, but I do think he's genius. This was an awesome read. I would very much like to visit the Chuck Jones center. Thanks for writing this up and posting the links.

I agree with GC, Chuck Jones was a genius, a SOOPER-GEN-EE-OUS.
I love so many of his cartoons. I wish I had been there CP, great report!

Oh, definitely genius. There's just a certain side to his style that makes me cringe. Not all, but there's a definitely a whole class of Chuck Jones cartoons that bug me. The story content I usually like, but there's something about the animation style and sound design that hits me wrong. His Cat in the Hat and Phantom Tollbooth are kinda prime examples.

But his Grinch. Oooooh, his Grinch.

I understand about the bleh artistic style in certain CJ cartoons. For me, it's the eyelashes and sketchy-ness, I think.

Chuck Jones set a bar in Cartoon animation that has only been touched by Tex Avery. I doubt we'll ever see anything close to that ever again.

Sady because of our PC culture, those cartoons are so edited down they are unwatchable now. Most of the collections are unedited from what I can tell, but... sad non the less.

Wish I would've know about it. I would have tried to go.

Chuck Amuck is one of my favorite books on animation. I had the pleasure of meeting CJ when he was doing a book signing in San Francisco. I apologised because my little cousin had smudged chocolate on the inside cover. Chuck laughed and said, "I think its a compliment. I should sign it twice!"

Jones came and spoke at my college (OCC) a long time ago. He brought several films and showed them on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen. It was unbelievably eye-popping and the cartoons packed such a whallop!

Some of the ones I remember being especially affected by were:

Duck Dodgers in the 24th and Half Century
Feed the Kitty
What's Opera, Doc?
One Froggy Evening

Chuck Amuck is a great book and contains many of the hilarious stories he told us that night. His humor and storytelling abilities were excellent in person and on the screen.

I guess this has turned into a mini Chuck Jones Tribute. I love his work to this day.

I remember seeing Go Fly A Kit as a little boy on television. This brought back great memories, CP !!

BTW: This is my favourite.

That's a great one.

Notice the credit is Charles M. Jones. Another tidbit I learned is that in the earlier days, Leon Schlessinger made everyone go by their full names to "seem professional." Pretty funny considering the product. Chuck grated at this and so did Friz, whose real name is Isadore. The compromise was to put I. Freleng on those earlier cartoons. Later on they were able to go by their nicknames.

Regarding "bleh", I feel that his truly later stuff crossed over into this oddly cutesy realm that made it almost grotesque. Go Fly A Kit is during his high point of what I'd consider truly cute, not overly so.