Chuck Jones: Looney Tunes Titon

Legendary Warner Brothers Bugs Cartoon Director Created Road Runner

Aug 3, 2008

He created The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe LePew, He directed Bugs, Daffy, and the Grinch. Quite a resume.

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones (1912-2002) could be called the Hitchcock of animation. Like Hitchcock, Jones was psychologically minded and always insisted that the characters in his cartoons be logically motivated. But where Hitchcock dealt in wrongly accused men and knowing blonde women, in Jones' work, Daffy Duck would be wrongly accused of lying about rabbit season, and the cool blonde would be Bugs Bunny in drag.

Jones' best work derives from anti-heroes who are either deluded or egotistical. (Jones once said he wished he had Bugs' self-assurance, but he was really more like Daffy Duck.) Following are five of Jones' most delightful cartoon creations -- and happily, all of them are available on DVD.

This cartoon was inspired by the well-intended but messy results of Jones' young daughter serving him a sub-par Father's Day breakfast. Here, Papa Bear (Billy Bletcher, who voiced the Wolf in Disney's Three Little Pigs) is inundated by the best efforts of his overgrown son Junior (Stan Freberg) and his clueless wife (Bea Benederet, best known as The Flintstones' Betty Rubble). The bust-a-gut musical finale is one of Jones' unsung gems. (Available on the DVD set Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 2.)

One day at Warner Bros., Jones was doodling a drawing of a bull, only to have his producer, Eddie Selzer, look over his shoulder and pronounce that bulls aren't funny. That makes this one of the best films ever produced out of spite. Bugs goes to Mexico by mistake (again missing "that left turn at Albuquerque") and duels a bull who soon lives to regret it. (Available on the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection.)

Jones set out to prove that Daffy Duck can be proven a neurotic mess even on a blank screen. When Daffy is tortured by an on-seen animator who refuses to cater to his whims, animation history ensues. The cartoon's punchline came only when Jones found himself desperate for an ending -- but it's a riot. (Golden Collection)

Just when it seemed that the Looney Tunes staff had wrung every possible variation on Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs, Jones turned the conflict into an opera. The "Kill the wabbit!" refrain still resonates with post-baby-boomers (Tina Fey got a joke out of it on "30 Rock"), and the cartoon's ending is so exquisitely done, you don't know whether to laugh or cry (at least until Bugs' punch line). (Vol. 2)

Forget killing rabbits or ducks out of season -- the Grinch wants to kill an entire holiday! Jones collaborated with Seuss himself on this superb TV special whose gags and surprising emotion still resonate far more than Jim Carrey's live-action 2000 version. (Available on Warner Home Video.)

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