Chuck Jones is a pastor of a congregation in Pomona, California. His presentation focused on the subject of idolatry. First, he looked to the Old Testament to describe six examples of idolatry. Next he moved on to look at how idolatry is used, in a somewhat wider sense, in the New Testament. Finally he spoke about “false saviors and other gospels” and how we our prone to wander into putting our trust in goodness, power, wisdom, wealth, a need for significance, etc.

These are classics of animation that still stand out from the crowd today and are worth viewing on multiple occasions:

Red Hot Riding Hood - Tex Avery - 1943

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One Froggy Evening - Chuck Jones - 1955

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From Chuck Jones' unauthorized remake of Lang's DIE NIBELUNGEN, and indeed the whole Ring Cycle, condensed into seven minutes for easy consumption, WHAT'S OPERA, DOC? "The only epic we ever made."

Once more I turn the dog-eared pages of Patrick McGilligan's Fritz Lang, The Nature of the Beast. In the early '70s, an elderly Fritz goes out to dinner with his young friend (or "friend"?) Howard Vernon ~

'The headwaiter scurried over, whispering to Howard Vernon, "Mr. Lang...Mr. Lang...isn't he connected with the cartoons?" Vernon whispered back, "No, that is Walter Lantz. This is Fritz Lang, the director." "Because," said the headwaiter, "I really wanted to tell him how much I love the Woody Woodpeckers." "Oh," said Vernon, "don't tell him that."'

But damnit, Lang WAS involved with the cartoons!

Here is a frame from DIE NIBELUNGEN, which features an animated dream sequence by another Walter, Walter Ruttman.

This is only the most obvious bit of Langian cartoonery. Later in the saga, Kriemhild commands her troupe of Huns to "throw fire" upon the Nibelungen.

But the firebrands must have been insufficiently fiery to satisfy the perfectionist Lang, for in this shot they appear to have been enhanced by the artist's hand. Certainly the flames have an altogether more "artistic" quality than those seen in most of the later shots.

I wouldn't be so sure of this if there wasn't abundant evidence of Lang's 'toon tendencies elsewhere in his oeuvre.

The traffic gliding along the elevated roadways of METROPOLIS is animated frame by frame. Filmed in Dynamation!

In WOMAN IN THE MOON, considerable use is made of animated charts plotting our Teutonic astronauts' course moonwards.

Now here's an explosion from THE TESTAMENT OF DOCTOR MABUSE:

It's a thrilling, bizarre, surprising moment -- a rolling metal drum full of petrol ignites and flies into the air, scratching the celluloid with slashing action lines that swirl about and bear the canister upwards out of frame.

America, America. Lang acclimatized himself to the American way of talking, and of viewing the world, by reading the funnies -- like Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, a model of film noir style and content, with some of the same intrigue and rapid plotting as Lang's earlier thrillers.

Flash-forward to Lang's seventh American film, HANGMEN ALSO DIE, written by "Bert" Brecht. Taxi driver and Czech underground freedom fighter, played by the glorious Lionel Stander, is taken to be tortured by the Nazis. He flings himself through a window, gaining a quick death and robbing his captors of the chance to find out what he knows.

Lang startled Stander by demanding he throw himself through a REAL window. ("Listen, all directors want to kill actors," ~ Wallace Beery) 

Stander, a man who very much knew his own mind, resisted defenestration.

Lang, just as stubborn, insisted that fake sugar glass Would Not Do. He compromised, surreally, on NO GLASS, forcing the special effects department to add little flying shards of cartoon window-pane in post-production:

...Connected with the cartoons...

...Connected with the cartoons...

Perhaps Lang, like Hitchcock, envied Walt Disney for his ability to "tear up his actors."

Well, here in Laurieland of you're one of those gifted artists from back in the day, you're "Tex Avery Class".

Bob Clampett (Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent), Friz Freling , and of course, the brilliant Chuck Jones were all "Tex Avery Class"...all from that gifted MGM and Warner Brothers stable of animators.

Hannah-Barbera, too.

Chuck Jones was devastatingly talented, but I love Tex Avery's style and sense of humor.

I saw this cartoon, "Bad Luck Blackie" first about 15 years ago and found it to be laugh out loud comical. I still do.

It's from a time and a place where hand-drawn pain, violence and 1940's ethnocentric political incorrectness was just so damn funny!

Sorry if this offends, but it's still funny.

Get over it.

Oh yeah...watch how the dog runs at the very end of this cartoon. Notice the position of his two hind feet and back in a couple of frames. Additionally, notice the subtle nuances in facial expression, paw positions....every thing.

Sheer genius.

Then you realise you've sank to another level altogether when you're researching on these cartoon when there is a big test coming up the next day.

The amount of useless nuggets of information you can turn up with an hour or 2 online is amazing!

This is a site that has abstracts from Chuck Jones' (the chief director of the Road Runner Show) biography Chuck Amuck.

http://www.squidoo.com/wileecoyote/

The article lists the golden rules the producers stood by in the production of the Road Runner Show....

The one I love the most?

Rule 10. The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote

And it does... I've always thought of the Road Runner as a no personality, bimbo fairy.

So There!

My friend Gary over at Fleen retorted:

Chuck is not a vengeful god; the Coyote could have stopped his punishments any time he wanted to if he would only leave the Roadrunner alone. It is heresy to think you could do any better, Randall Munroe! What do you think modern birds (especially the ground-running types) evolved from? RAPTORS. They laugh at your collection of ACME goods.

I'm on board with Chuck being a benevolent animator. But I think he was on a higher literary plane. As we can see in the cartoons, nothing else was alive in that desert. Given the Coyote's innate drive for self-preservation, he had to pursue the Road Runner, even though he was going to go hungry either way. The Coyote was in his own private hell. Sartre himself could not have written better.

Se sabe quem é ou se leu o post agora, quer saber mais e tem TV à cabo, aproveite para assistir essa semana no Film & Arts:

Perfil – Animados – Chuck Jones

Um perfil do animador responsável por Pernalonga, Patolino e Papa-léguas, e que morreu em 2002, aos 89 anos. O programa mostra cenas dos desenhos de Jones e revela um pouco do homem por trás dos desenhos que estão conosco há tantas décadas. Inclui comentários de amigos e admiradores e gente que se envolveu com animação em tempos mais recentes, como John Lasseter, Matt Groening, Robin Williamns, Steven Spielberg e outros. Film & Arts, 18/10, 23h00.

Fonte: www.omelete.com.br/tv/news/base_para_news.asp?artigo=20159

Espero que o professor Francisco Ucha - colaborador, leitor e apreciador de desenhos animados e quadrinhos geniais - veja, grave e mostre para a turma de comunicação dele que a genialidade não envelhece, vira clássico.

'braços

Celso Bessa, ouvindo KMFDM - Adios.

[atualizado em 02 de fevereiro de 2007]

Assistam para mim aquele que é um dos grandes momentos de Chuck Jones - Pernalonga em O Barbeiro de Sevilha.

I don't know, Ted. I just don't know.

So, Ted's love for Looney Tunes stems from my own fondness for those lovable cartoons. It should be noted, however, that while nowadays the two have become synonymous with one another, Duck Amuck was actually produced under the Merrie Melodies wing, which was a sister company to Looney Tunes.

Hey...where...where are you all going?!?

(Also, in case you people forgot Sandy's attitudes on dating...)

Please observe the stereotypical representations of the Irish drunk (red hair) and Freudian therapy ("It all started when father wouldn't take me to the circus..."). Also, I think every character except the elephant has a cigarette in its mouth at some point.

Unrelated, the sky was ominous in my neighborhood last night:

"Have you ever considered living in Santa Fe?"

After I said, "Absolutely not," I gave her my Santa Fe spiel:

While I totally love visiting there - I like the people and it feels good there, there are 3 things that would keep me from living in Santa Fe:

NUMBER 1.  I don't like adobe.

Did you know the building code in Santa Fe requires it?

And it isn't just the adobe - it's the whole dry, desert feel of the thing. I am in love with my mountains, my streams, my lakes and yes - the Colorado snow! I like a more lush feel with my dry air. That sounds contradictory, but Colorado is high desert. What that means is I get the pines - evergreens - the ever-greenness of the trees no matter what the season and with or without the snow, but the air is dry and it doesn't grow the fungus and mold critters that make me sneeze my little watery-eyed head off when the humidity floods the air with moisture above about 20%.

So, my shorthand for all of that is:  I don't like adobe.

NUMBER 2.  I don't like Georgia O'Keefe.

Again, O'Keefe is a fine painter. I'm sure she is a fine person - I just don't want her paintings on my walls or in my local coffee shops. I'm perfectly happy to see her work once in a blue moon or when I visit Santa Fe. Nor am I a big Chuck Jones fan.

Another decorating note, I'll lump under this one is that I don't much care for American Indian decor. Yes, I know. I still have those Mexian blankets that I use on the bed, but not because I really love them - it's because they are warm! I basically don't care for dead animals, bones and furs all over the place. (Glancing quickly around my new home to see what my roommate has. Okay, no skulls - this works. I love how my roommate decorates.)

And last, but not least:

NUMBER 3.  

IF green sauce is the default on my Mexican food - I'M IN THE WRONG STATE!!!

*ahem*

said the Texas Girl from Fort Worth.

That said, I'm looking forward to spending a weekend in Santa Fe with my friend, Joy.

Love,

Stacy

Chuck Jones is one of the animation directors who gave us the golden age of Warner Bros. animated short films. His textural line has inspired me ever since I watched Road Runner cartoons before reluctantly wandering off to school in the mornings. If you're not sure who I'm talking about, Mr Jones was the guy who invented Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd and on and on. To see what the man thought about drama and the art of animation watch this clip from the Charlie Rose TV show. He's 82 in this interview and gives a demonstration of cartooning that is humbling to watch. He makes a comment that you cannot name yourself an Animator, your peers gift you with that title. For me he speaks of a history of craft and effort that we are all a part of. We should perhaps not be too quick to title ourselves with anything but the most humble of monikers. In my case, my dad is "Mister Retry", I'm just Retry.

Watch the Interview (I've had some problems with the link, Jones starts halfway through. )

(via Drawn!)

Wet Paint is not your typical Saturday morning cartoons and all that, yes, but this is so flippin' neat. Chuck Jones, the creator of Looney Toons, draws Wile. E. Coyote in an interview with Charlie Rose. You've seen the mad caaayowt a millions times, but this is like watching Einstein write E = MC squared on a cocktail napkin. A treat.

Today's Chad is one that I love. I was laughing while I drew it. It kinda sorta brings up the question of sex between Chad and Peach. I am just not sure how to handle that because I know that sexual tension is a good thing to keep folks interested. A'course, I have to make sure that the characters are worthy of the readers attention. That's tough. Fortunately, I subscribe to the Chuck Jones school which is, don't worry about the audience, do what you think is funny.

Well, tomrrow is the first day of the break. And I bet you all think I am going to spend it drawing feverishly. WRONG! I am going to spend it hanging out with the Shelly Bean. Shelly is a friend of mine who really needs to be a character because she is one. I have never met anyone so dedicated to being a victim than she is. I keep trying to change her and I keep hitting the 4' brick wall that she is. I need to give up and just enjoy her the way she is. She really is funny and she has alot of love in her heart. She also helps me see the side of life that doesn't have Yuppies, Chipotle, and Starbucks on every corner. It's a good reality check for me.

Sunday is the next Sunday Comix meeting and this time I get to hang out afterwards! WOOHOO! Plus, Max is assured of a ride home!

Using just his wits and impeccable luck, he managed to fend off hungry hunters, vengeful rednecks, ravaging Tazmanian devils, and even the devil himself.

Chuck Jones, the legendary Warner Brothers animation director who gave us the best Looney Tunes, never needed fancy computer-generated landscapes or extravagant cell-shaded character models, either. There's something to be said for the simplicity and minimalism of Jones' watercolor matte backgrounds and Escher-ish settings; very few modern cartoons with much larger budgets have achieved the same atmosphere.

Rather than focusing on the style (though there was plenty -- it was just understated), Jones and WB dallied instead on giving us relatable wise-guy heroes and surly-yet-sympathetic antagonists.

My favorite of the later by far was Yosemite Sam, who throughout his tenure as Bugs' anvil-dropping nemesis went by a dozen different aliases as the setting dictated.

Director Friz Freleng (his first name was Isadore, typically truncated in the credits to I. Freleng) said Sam was based on his own irritable and rash characteristics. The mustachioed villain was intended to be a leaner, meaner, more cunning version of Elmer Fudd, but he still never managed to hand Bugs Almighty his comeuppance.

But at least you knew that whereas Fudd was... well... a fuddy duddy, easily fooled and manipulated, Sam was much less of a push-over. Bugs versus Fudd was always the San Francisco 49ers versus the Cleveland Browns. But Bugs versus Sam was the 49ers versus the Dallas Cowboys.

That's what made these three videos, my favorite Bugs and Sam match-ups, so much fun to watch. No matter how many times the 50-odd-year-old episodes ran, I always thought maybe -- just maybe -- Sam would get his day in the sun.

Sahara Hare

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While searching for the ever-elusive Miami Beach, Bugs instead finds himself in northern Africa. When he tries to take a swim in an oasis, he becomes embroiled in a property rights dispute with Sam.

Let's pony up to the truth here (or camel up to it). Censors, sensibility, and sensitivity would never let this piece air today. We're too afraid of depictions of anything Arab (even though this is Africa) to let children watch this.

That aside, this short gave birth to one of the most memorable catchphrases in the Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies cannon: "Whoooooaaaaa, camel!" I was born in the 80s and had fun watching it about 35-40 years after this cartoon was made -- but my little brother and I to this day quote "whoooooaaaaa, camel!"

All of these episodes have the same ploy-and-counter-ploy feel as the Road Runner cartoons, with Sam as the stand-in Wile E. Coyote. But while this has the quick-talking and self-assured Bugs to anchor it, Sam's failure lacks the long-suffering resignation resignation we see every time Coyote plunges to the canyon floor.

Don't worry. Someday I'll post about those shorts, too.

Roman Legion-Hare

The Roman Emporer Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar Germanicus, 37-68 A.D.) demands gladitorial entertainment and sends Sam to find a suitable victim. Guess who he finds.

Jones and Freleng always had a way of making historical contexts interesting. Here, they have problems with dating -- construction of the Colosseum didn't even start until 72 A.D., and didn't finish until 80 A.D.

Nero does fiddle at the end of the short as his lions turn on him (as the old legend goes, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned"), but as historians have often remarked, the instrument is entirely anachronistic. Fiddles weren't even invented for another 1,000 years after his death. Maybe Nero harped while Rome burned -- that would make far more sense.

Especially obvious here is Jones' attention to shadowing, which other cartoons simply didn't do. It added an element of depth and integrity to the pictures. Pay special attention to the sun-lit walls in the prison cells.

That's where the absolute best bit happens: Bugs casually walks through a lions' den, then as Sam tries to tip-toe through, Bugs lowers an alarm clock into the midst of the sleeping cats. Another anachronism? Sure. Hilarious? You better believe it, buddy.

Knighty Knight Bugs

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This short actually won an Academy Award in 1959 for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) and was even released on the big screen.

Court Jester Bugs is sent to recover (the absent) Prince Valiant's Singing Sword, the sister blade of King Arthur's Excalibur. The sword was stolen by the Black Knight (Sam) and is guarded by the sneeze-a-rific Gerry the Dragon.

In a brilliant call-back to Sahara Hare, we get, "Whoooooaaaa, dragon!"

When CBS used to air this one, it would censor the scene where Bugs smashes Sam on the head with a mallet. The resulting edit wouldn't make any sense; we saw Sam cinch up a rope trying to storm the castle, then without explanation we saw he slide back down the rope in his boxers.

Bring Looney Tunes back

It's time for Bugs and Sam and the rest of the gang to return to television. Sure, the cartoons are nearly 60 years old, but they hold up remarkably well. While I've seen them hundreds of times, young viewers haven't.

I remember ABC would have the Bugs Bunny and Friends hour every Saturday morning. Nickolodeon used to air them every night, then Cartoon Network took up the cause. No longer. I miss them, and I would watch diligently. The least I'm asking for is a regular slot on TV Land.

Mickey Mouse? Or Bugs Bunny?

Which side are you on?

One or the other. No wavering.

Okay... true... in 2007, they're just two sides of the same lunchbox. Or multi-billion dollar industry. Or something.

But back in the 1930s? And the '40s? And the '50s?

There was Walt Disney. Anthropomorphic sweetness and light.

And there was Warner Brothers. Misanthropic nastiness and bite.

I'll stick with the latter, thanks. Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Porky Pig. Elmer Fudd.

My kind of people.

Not to mention the looney geniuses behind the toons:

• Mel Blanc, the man of a thousand voices, including those of Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Yosemite Sam, Pepé Le Pew, Sylvester the Cat and Foghorn Leghorn.

• Carl Stalling, who composed most of the turn-on-a-dime musical backgrounds to Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series.

And of course, the animators who each brought a distinctive touch to the proceedings. Among them:

• Fritz Freleng, the creator of many of the Warner Brothers' characters still found on lunchboxes decades later.

• Tex Avery, the much-imitated pioneer of surreal slapstick animation

• Chuck Jones, a master of literate wordplay and brilliant comic timing

• and Bob Clampett, whose hilarious cartoons - more than the others - pushed the boundaries of both propriety and the laws of physics.

"An Itch in Time" is a Clampett classic from 1943, starring Elmer Fudd, his dog and "A. Flea". It includes two instances of Clampett testing the limits of the Hays Code, which governed the censorship of films at the time.

The final image - a feline suicide - was cut out of all televised versions of the cartoon, although it is readily available now in the era of DVDs and YouTube.

An earlier scene - featuring the flea-tortured dog dragging his hindquarters along the floor in pain, then stopping in mid-drag to look at the audience and say ""Hey, I'd better cut this out, I may get to like it!" - was apparently inserted by Clampett in the expectation that it would never survive the censor's scissors. But it did.

The highlight of the cartoon, though, is A. Flea's Clampett-penned theme song - "There's food around the corner!" - which will stick in your head all day like a pesky parasite once you watch the film below.

To underline Clampett's proto-punk sensibility, the tune was later covered by Green Day.

I think I'm going to run downstairs to grab a bottle of water, and a pint of icecream, and sulk while walking around the unfinished painting. In the meantime--

Artists I'm Feeling Right Now:

• Keith Cottingham.
• Jimmie Durham.
• Phillip Guston.
• Raymond Saunders.

Video Isht:

Tex Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood".

Chuck Jones' "Now Hear This", which was nominated in 1963 for an Oscar for best Short Subject, Cartoon.

And lastly Jones' adaptation of Norton Juster's "Dot and Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics". This from the man who also brought you The Phantom Tollbooth, which still remains a favorite of mine as well. It's no wonder then, that I dated a math major. No, not that one. Well that-- and I know how to work my way around an abacus.

PS.

I can't get over how perfectly on-point and brilliant that album cover is.

I don't just love Santa Fe. I've ended up there about four times now. Seems like anytime I say I don't care for a city, I get to visit it: New York, LA, Las Vegas, New Orleans and well, differently, Santa Fe. I've been to them all.

Maybe if I could convincingly say I don't like Seattle, I could finally visit the Pacific Northwest. Maybe if I could lie and say I'd hate New England in the Fall, I could get there before winter just once. (I've been there twice long after the leaves have dropped.)

Anyway, I don't much like the Santa Fe culture. I don't like adobe. I don't like silver. I don't like Georgia O'Keefe. And if green sauce is the default on your Mexican food, you’re in the wrong state.

So how did I end up making all these trips there?

Oh, the first time it was a meditation retreat with my husband. (That's how I ended up in New York, too. Manhattan to be precise.) The second time a boyfriend wanted to take a short trip and he wanted to see the Chuck Jones Museum. Oh, you don't know who Chuck Jones is? Yes, you do. You just don't realize it.

He is the cartoonist who created Bugs Bunny, the Roadrunner, Yosimete Sam and all those Warner Brother cartoon characters. That’s Chuck Jones. Yawn! www.chuckjones.com if you're that interested.

So, now, one of my favorite people, my roommate, Joy, moves to her home in Santa Fe and I go visit. I actually kind of liked it this time. I found the Whole Foods, the coffee shop and the Indian restaurant, and I felt like I was home enough for a while.

I also notice that having done a whole lot of asking "Is it true?" and "Who would you be without your story?" that Santa Fe isn't so bad. I still don't want to live there. It dries my skin and everytime someone gives me directions they say, "It's the adobe building . . . "

Still, I don't just love Santa Fe... or Seattle.  :)