Cleveland Plain Dealer: Animator Chuck Jones is illustrated
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:11 pm
http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2 ... llust.html
Animator Chuck Jones is illustrated well in documentary
by Mark Dawidziak/Plain Dealer Television Critic Saturday March 21, 2009, 3:00 PM
Associated Press file
Chuck Jones at his drawing table in 1999.
Bugs Bunny is sly, resourceful and often heroic. Daffy Duck is greedy, vain and often petty.
They were cartoon characters with personalities that were clearly drawn. If want you some delightful answers about how that happened, catch "Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood," a sly, resourceful and often heroic documentary premiering at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, on Turner Classic Movies.
One of the master animators at the Warner Bros. cartoon shop known as Termite Terrace, Chuck Jones was nothing less than an American treasure. He had a strong hand in developing such enduring Looney Tunes stars as Bugs, Daffy and Elmer Fudd. He created Pepe Le Pew, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
TV PREVIEW
Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood
What: A documentary tribute to the animation master.
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday (repeating at 10:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.)
Where: Turner Classic Movies
He set Michigan J. Frog hopping on his singing and dancing career. He turned Marvin the Martian loose on this unsuspecting planet. And he was the animation genius who worked with children's author Dr. Seuss so the Grinch who stole Christmas and the Horton who heard a Who could jump from the printed page to the television screen.
At this point, you should get the point. An Acme safe doesn't need to fall on you, does it? Chuck Jones probably enriched your life with his ability to make cartoon figures seem so deeply and wonderfully human.
What sparked that gift? How did it evolve? "Memories of Childhood" provides many of the answers by focusing on the years before Jones took up residence in Termite Terrace.
The documentary is not so much a biography as it as joyful exploration of an artist's childhood. Jones, who died at 89 in February 2002, sat down at his drawing table for lengthy interviews in 1997 with filmmakers Peggy Stern and John Canemaker.
These interviews were fashioned into "Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood." And the greatest compliment you could pay this documentary is that it's the type of work Jones would have loved.
It's very touching, but it's also very clever, very crafty and very funny. Sharing the antic Jones sense of humor, Stern and Canemaker package these marvelous memories with witty splashes of animation and musical flourishes. A black-and-white sketch or colorful graphic represents a distinctive Jones memory, then animation brings these images and memories to life.
That's what makes this a fitting tribute to Jones. It uses the spirit of his techniques to literally illustrate how that technique developed.
Along the way, we learn how a grapefruit-loving pet cat influenced the characters he'd fashion as an adult. We see how young Chuck's love of Mark Twain shaped his humor in general and Wile E. Coyote in particular. We see the impact of silent-screen comedians Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
And, yes, we do see all this, because Jones, sitting at that drawing table, spontaneously begins to sketch whenever a boyhood memory takes hold. When he starts to talk about a favorite uncle, Jones draws a sketch and shows us this uncle.
These sketches, done more than 10 years ago, are what Canemaker used for the animation sequences he developed. Tell me Jones wouldn't have appreciated that.
Drawing from memory, Jones explains how it all went into magic fluid that filled his inkwell -- the cat, the uncle, Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin and trips to the ocean. And the memories are something special.
The real star of this documentary, therefore, is not Bugs, not Daffy, not any of the cartoon celebrities. You'd have to be daffy not to realize the real star is the charming, soft-spoken, down-to-earth Jones.
He used cartoons to comment on human nature, and perhaps this sprang from an amused understanding of his own personality. I had the privilege of interviewing Jones in the '80s, and I asked him if he identified with any of his characters.
He had a typically self-effacing response: "I go to bed every night dreaming that I'm Bugs Bunny, but every morning I wake up and realize I'm Daffy Duck." You get the idea from this documentary that he was more Bugs than Daffy.
Animator Chuck Jones is illustrated well in documentary
by Mark Dawidziak/Plain Dealer Television Critic Saturday March 21, 2009, 3:00 PM
Associated Press file
Chuck Jones at his drawing table in 1999.
Bugs Bunny is sly, resourceful and often heroic. Daffy Duck is greedy, vain and often petty.
They were cartoon characters with personalities that were clearly drawn. If want you some delightful answers about how that happened, catch "Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood," a sly, resourceful and often heroic documentary premiering at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, on Turner Classic Movies.
One of the master animators at the Warner Bros. cartoon shop known as Termite Terrace, Chuck Jones was nothing less than an American treasure. He had a strong hand in developing such enduring Looney Tunes stars as Bugs, Daffy and Elmer Fudd. He created Pepe Le Pew, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
TV PREVIEW
Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood
What: A documentary tribute to the animation master.
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday (repeating at 10:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.)
Where: Turner Classic Movies
He set Michigan J. Frog hopping on his singing and dancing career. He turned Marvin the Martian loose on this unsuspecting planet. And he was the animation genius who worked with children's author Dr. Seuss so the Grinch who stole Christmas and the Horton who heard a Who could jump from the printed page to the television screen.
At this point, you should get the point. An Acme safe doesn't need to fall on you, does it? Chuck Jones probably enriched your life with his ability to make cartoon figures seem so deeply and wonderfully human.
What sparked that gift? How did it evolve? "Memories of Childhood" provides many of the answers by focusing on the years before Jones took up residence in Termite Terrace.
The documentary is not so much a biography as it as joyful exploration of an artist's childhood. Jones, who died at 89 in February 2002, sat down at his drawing table for lengthy interviews in 1997 with filmmakers Peggy Stern and John Canemaker.
These interviews were fashioned into "Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood." And the greatest compliment you could pay this documentary is that it's the type of work Jones would have loved.
It's very touching, but it's also very clever, very crafty and very funny. Sharing the antic Jones sense of humor, Stern and Canemaker package these marvelous memories with witty splashes of animation and musical flourishes. A black-and-white sketch or colorful graphic represents a distinctive Jones memory, then animation brings these images and memories to life.
That's what makes this a fitting tribute to Jones. It uses the spirit of his techniques to literally illustrate how that technique developed.
Along the way, we learn how a grapefruit-loving pet cat influenced the characters he'd fashion as an adult. We see how young Chuck's love of Mark Twain shaped his humor in general and Wile E. Coyote in particular. We see the impact of silent-screen comedians Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
And, yes, we do see all this, because Jones, sitting at that drawing table, spontaneously begins to sketch whenever a boyhood memory takes hold. When he starts to talk about a favorite uncle, Jones draws a sketch and shows us this uncle.
These sketches, done more than 10 years ago, are what Canemaker used for the animation sequences he developed. Tell me Jones wouldn't have appreciated that.
Drawing from memory, Jones explains how it all went into magic fluid that filled his inkwell -- the cat, the uncle, Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin and trips to the ocean. And the memories are something special.
The real star of this documentary, therefore, is not Bugs, not Daffy, not any of the cartoon celebrities. You'd have to be daffy not to realize the real star is the charming, soft-spoken, down-to-earth Jones.
He used cartoons to comment on human nature, and perhaps this sprang from an amused understanding of his own personality. I had the privilege of interviewing Jones in the '80s, and I asked him if he identified with any of his characters.
He had a typically self-effacing response: "I go to bed every night dreaming that I'm Bugs Bunny, but every morning I wake up and realize I'm Daffy Duck." You get the idea from this documentary that he was more Bugs than Daffy.