Chuck Jones: That's not all, folks!

    jones_chuck.jpg     Chuck Jones (September 21, 1912 - February 22, 2002) was one of the great figures of Hollywood's Golden Age, creating perfect films, all about six minutes long. They were called Looney Tones, or Merrie Melodies, or cartoons, but when the three on this page were placed in the National Movie Registry, they were also called masterpieces.      

My Great Movies entry on Three Cartoons by Chuck Jones.

 
 

Watch Duck Amuck-Daffy Duck LooneyTunes in Animation  |  View More /a>
 
 


 
 

 
 


The official Chuck Jones Website.
 
 

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13 Comments

Dan Pallotta | September 21, 2010 6:49 PM | Reply

Thanks for the smiles. I'm not sure "Duck Amuck" is as much a masterpiece as the other two, but it's wonderful to see them in any venue.

john in denver | September 21, 2010 7:41 PM | Reply

I recall my favorite Chuck Jones line.

"Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most demanding and exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter."

Kat | September 21, 2010 7:52 PM | Reply

Oh that takes me back :)
Donald Duck was priceless, even if I only understood what he was saying half the time. He might actually be why I had such a great imagination as a child.
Bugs Bunny makes it into my top 3 favourite cartoons ever. The other two are Tom & Jerry and the one with Tweetie, I can't remember what its called but it's the one with the line, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!"
But I'm not sure of what the middle one is, could someone please fill me in? I watched cartoons in the mid-late 1990's, maybe early 2000's, and I don't remember that being played.

sourpersimmons | September 22, 2010 7:21 AM | Reply

I like the fact you were careful about posting unedited versions.

Kelly Eddington | September 22, 2010 7:52 AM | Reply

Oh yes. These three are indeed perfection, and I remember shivering in gleeful anticipation when any of them came on during Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid. The scene compositions, backgrounds and color combinations in "What's Opera, Doc?" are just staggeringly original.

Dirty Sanchez | September 22, 2010 11:30 AM | Reply

hey kat,
Donald Duck was Disney
Daffy Duck was Warner Bros.

You have your cartoons mixed up.

Monica | September 22, 2010 12:24 PM | Reply

I remember watching "One Froggy Evening" on Saturday morning cartoons as a kid and not liking it. It always made me so mad - at the frog for being such a jerk, and the man for being such a chump. I could never figure out why my dad always laughed at it. And seeing Bugs "dead" at the end of "What's Opera Doc?" really scared me.

Now in my mid 30s, I see both cartoons much differently, but those first impressions still color how I feel about them.

natalie | September 22, 2010 9:40 PM | Reply

some of my favorites!

I remember when looney toons/merry melodies would play often growing up... when cartoon network first came on the scene, they'd play a good bit of looney toons and even had a chuck jones hour. but, not so much any more and I don't know why. Kids LOVE this stuff! Sometimes we luck out and catch the looney toons marathon on cartoon network.

Watched the froggy and the opera ones with my two boys. My 9yo saw Chuck Jones and said "mom, he did ricki ticky tavy"... Another favorite!

Kat | September 22, 2010 9:50 PM | Reply

@Dirty Sanchez: my bad, you're right, totally forgot that there were two of those ducks. Then Daffy Duck would be in the top 3, he was (in my humble opinion), the better duck.

scott | October 14, 2010 12:03 PM | Reply

Pretty heavy stuff for a 7 year old, which I must have been when I first saw these.

Now, Elmer Fudd is more hilarious as I cant help but hear him doing Schwarzenegger. Ol Arnie would make a wonderful Elmer Fudd, with the accent. No?

Ron Johnson | January 1, 2011 1:15 AM | Reply

During the 1970s and 1980s, I use to attend the Midwest Film Conference held in the NW Suburbs of Chicago. Mostly librarians and film teachers attended the event. A popular individual involved in the art and business of film was invited to attend. One year, Chuck Jones was the honored speaker. This year, my 11 year old son attended and was able to meet and talk briefly and receive an autograph from Mr. Jones. Marc was thrilled and couldn't stop talking about the experience for years. To this day, Marc relives the experience and can even draw cartoons in the style of Chuck Jones.

Ebert: Mr. Jones died in 2002. Could that have been someone else?

Steve Bailey | February 22, 2011 7:56 PM | Reply

I've dined out on this story for 25 years, so I might as well share it here. I lived in L.A. for a year in the 1980's and wrote for a small entertainment publication there. About a month before I left L.A., I decided I might as well try to interview one of my heroes: Chuck Jones. I called Linda Jones Enterprises (the company then being run by his daughter to handle his work) expected to be turned away. Instead, Linda herself answered and said he was out of town but to try back in a couple of days. When I did, I got a wonderful 40-minute telephone interview with Mr. Jones. At the end of the interview, I pushed my luck and asked if he could do a drawing of one of the Looney Tunes characters for our publication. Three days later, my publisher received a FedEx package containing a penned drawing of Bugs Bunny reading our publication. I still cherish it and the memory of that wonderful phone conversation.

Greg Howard | February 25, 2011 11:28 PM | Reply

Roger,

Reading Ron Johnson's post it occurred to me even before I read your comment that Ron's sentence "This year, my 11 year old son..." was meant to read "That year, my 11 year old son..."

Or maybe not. But that's the way I read it.

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