Chuck Jones: That's all Folks!

Well I certainly hope you enjoyed my month long tribute to Chuck Jones. Looking at his films for Warner Brothers this month certainly brought back a lot of fond memories. I'm certainly glad the Warner Brothers cartoons are still around for generations to enjoy, and hope there are kids today that find the kind of enjoyment in them that I did. Tune in tomorrow when I reveal May's Director Spotlight!

Old Joy!!! "The Rabbit of Seville"

Watch Bugs Bunny-The Rabbit Of Seville in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I could not finish my month long tribute to Chuck Jones without showing what is possibly my favorite cartoon of all time, "The Rabbit of Seville". I didn't really want to discuss the film in any such great detail but I simply wanted to have it here for yourself to enjoy, and that's really what it all comes down to.

As a child, these cartoons meant so much to me, they were on every Saturday morning, and also sometimes when I would get back from school. I remember distinctly watching some sort of Daffy Duck cartoon while my mother was yelling at me fearing it would rot my brain. As far as I know my brain never rotted, and I think I turned out pretty good.

There's a sense of nostalgia I feel for these cartoons, and a sense of fun just watching them. You can take away all I've said this past month about Chuck Jones and his enormous contribution to cinema as long as you just sit back and enjoy his films, which is why I think he made the films he did. A film like "Rabbit of Seville" much like a Marx Brothers movie, or a Charlie Chaplin movie, is something I don't like to analyze, it's more something I want to savour and digest. There isn't much to say other than it makes me feel good, I guess that's how a film gets to be your favorite, I never knew Chuck Jones or really know much about his life personally, but I hope he took satisfaction that he filled many people with humour and joy.

Movies I've seen Recently

It's been kinda slim pickins here as of late but I was able to see some nice if not all that memorable films as of late at my local movie house.

The Class:: The best movie I've seen so far this year, actually came out late 2008, but ended up winning the Palm D'Or at Cannes along with a Best foreign film nomination. Forget all you learned from watching those inspirational classroom movies about teachers who make a difference, this is about a classroom of kids who don't always pay attention, and a teacher who does the best he can while trying to keep his sanity. From what I know about the film, the teacher and kids are basically playing themselves as they all have the same names in real life, which makes it all the more harrowing. This film never seems to hit a wrong note, and the sub plots with each student range from heartbreaking, to humourous, to uplifting. This film earns inspiration by not being sentimental. 4 stars out of 4

The International:This film had everything going for it, a strong cast, a talented director, and an intriguing plot about banks financing foreign weapons. However somewhere down the line, and I'm not sure when, the film fell off the rails. For me it held together enough to keep me interested with wonderful Hitchcockian set pieces, but I felt this could really have been a great thriller had it gone through a couple more revisions. 3 stars out of 4

17 Again: I don't know how I keep ending up in Zach Efron movies, I guess it's my friends who drag me out to see him, had it not been for them, I probably would've skipped this film completely especially after the horror of "High School Musical 3". The premise of a young man becoming an older version of himself or vise versa should be put to sleep, however this film is better than most, and I must admit I was not expecting Disney's golden boy caught in some not so G-rated material. However because it is Zach, the film does play it safe, but it's luckily helped by a terrific supporting cast, and Zach's own boyish charm (I'll admit he's got something). 3 stars out of 4

A New Survey

1) Favorite Biopic
Lawrence of Arabia

2) Dyan Cannon or Tuesday Weld?
Tuesday Weld

3) Best example of science fiction futurism rendered silly by the event of time catching up to the prediction
"2001: A Space Odyssey". We are totally not near Jupiter yet.

4) Annette Funicello & Frankie Avalon or Troy Donahue & Sandra Dee?
Annette and Frankie

5) Favorite Raoul Walsh movie?
White Heat

6) Sophomore film which represents greatest improvement over the director’s debut
P.T. Anderson from "Hard Eight" to "Boogie Nights"

7) Ice Cube or Mos Def?
Mos Def

8) Favorite movie about the music industry
"Almost Famous"

9) Favorite Looney Tunes short (provide link if possible)
Pretty much any of the three from the "Rabbit Season" trilogy.

10) Director most deserving of respect or upwardly mobile critical reassessment
Joe Dante

11) Ruth Gordon or Margaret Hamilton?
I love both of these women, but Ruth Gordon takes the cake for "Rosemary's Baby" and "Harold and Maude".

12) Best filmed adaptation of a play
"A Streetcar Named Desire" probably.

13) Buddy Ebsen or Edgar Buchanan?
I like Buddy Ebsen but I can't say I've seen much of Edgar Buchanan so I would have to say no comment.

14) Favorite Jean Renoir movie?
"Rules of the Game"

15) Favorite one-word movie title, and why
"Once" it's as powerfully simple and straight forward as the movie itself.

16) Ernest Thesiger or Basil Rathbone?
I would have to go with Ernest Thesiger for being "Dr. Pretorious" from "Bride of Frankenstein".

17) Summer movies—your highest and lowest expectations
Highest-New Woody Allen film
Lowest-The fact that my city will not be getting the new Woody Allen film

18) Whether or not you’re a parent, what would be your ideal pick as first movie to see with your own child (or niece/nephew)? Why?
Charlie Chaplin in either "City Lights", "The Kid", "The Gold Rush", "The Circus", or "Modern Times". I always thought Chaplin was the perfect character to show to children. He's childlike himself, he's a comic hero, his humour reaches everyone of all ages. The fact that he's from the silent era also makes him perfect to introduce your child to the film language.

19) L.Q. Jones or Strother Martin
I just looked up L.Q. Jones on IMDB and nothing came up, and since I've never heard of the name I would have to go with Strother Martin.

20) Movie most recently seen in theaters? On DVD/Blu-ray?
Theatres-"The International" DVD-"Destry Rides Again"

21) Do you see more movies theatrically or at home? Why?
At home since I have an extensive movie collection. Plus if I wanted to I could watch films with audio commentary and special features, you just get more for your buck!

22) Name an award-worthy comic performance that was completely ignored by Oscar and his pals.
Just one? Steve Martin in "All of Me"

23) Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens or Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart
I'd have to go with Pattinson and Stewart, since they look to have the most potential to go beyond they're superstar roles.

24) Name a great (or merely very good) movie that is too painful to watch a second time (Thanks to The Onion A.V. Club)
So far I have only been able to watch "Sansho the Baliff" once.

25) Beyonce Knowles or Jennifer Hudson?
Jennifer Hudson

26) Favorite Robert Mitchum movie?
I'm sorry I cannot just pick one, there must be a tie between "Out of the Past" and "Night of the Hunter".

27) Favorite movie featuring a ‘60s musical group that is not either the Beatles or the Monkees
Does "Woodstock" count?

28) Maria Ouspenskaya or Una O’Connor?
I can't say Maria Ouspenskaya stuck out for me, but again Una O'Connor was in "Bride of Frankenstein" and that's awesome to me.

29) Favorite Vincent Price movie?
"Laura" although that's not really his movie, so in that case I'll say "The Fly"

30) Name a movie currently flying under the radar that is deserving of rabid cult status."In Bruges"

31) Irene Ryan or Lucille Benson (or Bea Benaderet)?
Can't say I have an opinion on them.

32) Single line from a movie that never fails to make your laugh or otherwise cheer you up. (This may be obvious, but the line does not have to come from a comedy.)
Groucho in "Horse Feathers" "I'm the plumber, I'm here in case something goes wrong with her pipes. That's the first time I used that joke in 20 years."

33) Elliot Gould or Donald Sutherland?
Donald Sutherland

34) Best performance by a director in an acting role
I guess Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane" would be too obvious so I'll put some foreign flavour in here and say Francois Truffaut in "Day for Night"

35) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck movie?
Unfair to be able to pick just one, therefore I'll declare a three way tie and say "Double Indemnity", "Ball of Fire", and "The Lady Eve"

36) Outside of reading film criticism or other literature about the movies, what subject do you enjoy reading about or studying which you would say best enriches or illuminates your understanding and appreciation of life, a life that includes the movies? The subject I enjoy reading other than film would be philosophy. It has been a major subject in my life as of late. It's an interesting subject to discuss as you find out everyone has their own personal philosophy, and in that way, that helps me understand and appreciate film more.

Wile E. Coyote Vs. The Road Runner: A Cartoon Saga

With most Warner Brothers cartoons that people have grown up with, we are all brought to a truth that they all must end the same. Sylvester will never get his hands on Tweety, Elmer will never get Bugs, and that poor cat with the painted white stripe will never outrun Pepe Le Piu. But probably the one saga that stays in people's minds the most is the one that takes place in the dessert, with no dialogue and only an empty road with many cliffs. I'm speaking of course of the Coyote and the Road Runner who were created through the mind of Chuck Jones working once again with writer Michael Maltese.

The Coyote/Road Runner cartoons may be Jones' greatest contribution to the world of animation. Each of these cartoons work like a text book of animated physical gags and sound effects.

Each film is simple and follows its own set of rules. A hungry Coyote (some would say a tad obsessed) goes about several inventive ways to capture a fast and furious road runner who spends its time running up and down the trails of the dessert. Each plan the Coyote unleashes back fires. The only words uttered in each cartoon are "Beep,beep" which are sais by the road runner. The endless supply of gadgets the coyote uses to catch the road runner are all from the Acme Corporation. Each cartoon ends the same way, with the coyote defeated, and the road runner victorious, but of course they all end up doing it again another day.

What makes the coyote/road runner saga so memorable is the way Jones and Maltese create a cartoon world that follows a cartoon law of physics. The world seems to adapt more to the road runner's needs, and lesser to the coyote's. For instance, when the coyote paints a continuing road on hard canvas this cannot trick the road runner, for he can run right through it as if it were actual road, however when the coyote does it, he either runs into the canvas, or a vehicle comes from the painted road and runs him over.

The gags themselves are pulled off with sharp timing and unpredictability, it seemed Jones and Maltese had endless ways of putting the coyote through the ringer. The gags would work as either short, or long and drawn out. You never knew how each one would end, all you knew was the coyote was going to suffer for it. Some gags are set up near the beginning of the film but are not paid off till the very end. One such memorable gag comes from the cartoon "Stop, Look, and Hasten" concerning a pop-up metal wall that won't pop up when it's suppose to. The coyote jumps on it and looks around it, and you expect it to go off. Jones and Maltese take a cue from non other than Hitchcock here by knowing there's a bomb and leaving us in suspense when it will go off. Sure enough it does, and you can see when it does here....



Usually when someone talks of violence in cartoons, the coyote/road runner ones usually come up. The coyote is constantly puniished by his own devices. He has boulders falling on him, vehicles hitting him, blown up time and time again by bombs and or dynamite, and of course his greatest trademark is falling off those huge cliffs. However Jones never emphasizes the violence, he always stuck with character, and the violence is more thought of as being a humiliation for the coyote, which is why we can laugh. If we thought for a minute the coyote was actually hurt, that would take all the fun out of it.

The coyote/road runner cartoons always did what they set out to do, they were always fast, inventive, and economic. Jones himself said if he ever needed extra time to work on more ambitious cartoons such as "What's Opera Doc?" or "One Froggy Evening", he would usually dust off a road runner one quickly to give him more time.

These films remain a favorite in the great cartoon canon, the coyote and road runner are perhaps the most memorable of the animated foes, there's something about them that's just a little bit more subversive and edgy. Theirs is an on going chase, and they'll probably continue to do this dance for as long as cartoons exist.

A Wabbit, A Duck, and A Fudd!: The Wabbit Season Twilogy!

The great trilogies are hard to come by these days. There's a certain law that pertains to successful movie franchises that they must have up to at least three films in there series to satisfy hardcore fans. The first film is usually the only good one ("The Matrix") sometimes the second film can be just as good or in some cases can be debated to be the better movie ("The Empire Strikes Back", "The Godfather Part 2"). When the third film comes around, the creators are usually running on fumes, and in most cases you are sure to be disappointed.

Perhaps three films is asking too much, but there are a few exceptions. In its own small but no less important way, Chuck Jones along with writer Michael Maltese came up with the greatest trilogy of films of them all. Occasionally called "The Hunter Trilogy" or "The Rabbit Season Trilogy" or my favorite "Wabbit Season Twilogy" (or perhaps "Twiwogy", this series of films comprised of three of the Warner Brothers super stars: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd, created, or re-created the characters as we know them today, and perhaps best showed off the subtlety of Jones' work the best.

You probably know the films if you see them today, but might be unfamiliar with the actual names. The first film entitled "Rabbit Fire", which was a nice description of the plot and the pace of dialogue you were about to see, has Daffy Duck trying to convince hunter Elmer that it is in fact Rabbt Season, when it is actually Duck season. When Bugs pops up, he usually tricks Daffy into telling Elmer it's Duck Season, which gets Daffy's beak blown off in a number of inventive ways.

In "Rabbit Seasoning", the plot pretty much remains the same only in a slightly different bit of word play. This time Bugs tricks Daffy into saying "Shoot Me!" Rather than "Shoot Him!"

Finally we have "Duck Rabbit Duck" which follows the same formula only this time in a winter setting.



It's true director Jones and writer Maltese did not stretch with these cartoons by making them more different than the other, in fact they probably didn't even think of creating a trilogy of films. It would be logical to think they just thought up enough gags to fit into three films.

What's important about these films is how they changed the three major characters mostly Bugs and Daffy. In the early 40s films, Daffy was for a brief period the major star. In the films of Tex Avery or Bob Clampett, he was indeed Daffy in every sense of the word, he would wreck havoc everywhere he went, and was often thought of as the hero. The character would soon evolve in later cartoons and become more and more sane, and his motives changed to a more greedy and manipulative nature, until Jones decided he would be the perfect foil to Bugs.

Bugs it could be said had a similar reforming. In his early cartoons, he was also a bit crazy and devilish, but as Bugs became more and more the star, his character changed into the more cool and calm comic hero who was always in charge of the situation.

Chuck Jones said Bug Bunny represented what we aspired to be, while Daffy Duck represented what we were underneath. I think Jones probably felt there was more of him in Daffy than there ever was in Bugs, which is why when we watch these cartoons, we might secretly want Daffy just to win that one time, just how we might want to see Wile E. Coyote catch that blasted Road Runner just once. Jones seemed to understand that the best comedy came from pain, and because of that Daffy receives the most laughs in these films as Bugs pretty much plays it straight.

For Jones, this was probably just an exercise in character, and it's all there in each one's subtle expressions. Just with an eye flick, we can tell how annoyed Daffy is, or with a great stone face worthy of Keaton, we can tell when Bugs has the drop on him. Chuck Jones cartoons are probably the ones where I notice facial expressions the most, they're almost made to seem life like.

After these three films, the never ending feud between Bugs and Daffy never changed, and director Joe Dante even expanded on it more in his underrated homage to Warner Brothers cartoons "Looney Tunes: Back in Action".

This trilogy is one of the few that have actually stood the test of time, there's nothing desssspicaple about that.


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Comedy and Violence:More thoughts on "Observe and Report"

It has now been roughly 24 hours since I got back from seeing the new Seth Rogen comedy "Observe and Report" and the more I think about it, the more I'm intrigued by it. "Observe and Report" is the kind of movie that dares to be different and walk on the wild side, something very few mainstream movies try to do. It doesn't play safe and for a comedy that's rare. I found myself being uncomfortable many times in the movie, wondering if I should be laughing at certain points, and in the end I disagreed with many things that it glorified. To be perfectly honest I'm not sure that I enjoyed the whole movie experience and I was hesitant about recommending it. However I admit that once I left the film, it stuck with me, I couldn't just shake the feeling I had from it.

I suppose it might be easier to go from the beginning and tell you more about the film. "Observe and Report" is the story of Ronnie Bernhardt(Rogen) a mall security guard with serious bi-polar issues. The film opens at the mall where a flasher is seen terrorizing people in the parking lot. The pervert is not captured, and Ronnie along with his team of misfits decide to make this sicko their top priority. Soon the flasher strikes again and this time he flashes Brandi (Anna Faris) the sexy, busty, make-up girl who works at the mall, and who Ronnie has a crush on. A police inspector (Ray Liotta) is brought in to take control and nab the perpetrator which Ronnie resents. We find out later that Ronnie secretly has always wanted to become a cop himself but never really believed in himself enough to do it.

Through the film, Ronnie's bi-polar disorder worsens as he gains more confidence in his abilities and takes himself off his medication. He becomes more and more delusional believing himself to be the ultimate bad-ass and taking extreme measures to keep the peace. This leads to some of the most violent scenes that have probably ever been put in a comedy.

Along with some violence, the film is also full of some very sad and I would say depressing moments, mostly done by Ronnie's alcoholic mother (Celia Weston) who is anything but a functional parent to her loving son. She is often shown passing out, after trying to act tender towards Ronnie. We also learn that Ronnie's father has left him and his mother makes no secret that she thinks he is to blame for that.

We no doubt get the sense as to what triggers Ronnie's violent outbursts throughout the film and part of this film's twisted sense of humour is seeing what's going to happen when he finally blows his top.

CAUTION SPOILER'S AHEAD

The part of the film that I find struggling with comes at the climax, where the flasher returns to the mall, and Ronnie who at this point has lost his job after a huge police standout, decides the only way to redeem himself is to apprehend this pervert. A chase ensues throughout the mall, keeping nothing to the imagination as the flasher's frontal features are seen flapping proudly throughout. The scene doesn't end nicely for the flasher as Ronnie gets the drop on him and shoots him point blank in the shoulder with blood splattering everywhere. Ronnie is soon reinstated to his post as mall security guard, and is regarded as a local hero, he even gets the girl. The final shot is of Ronnie with his gun at target practice, where we get the sense that this guy is still dangerous.

My problem with this resolution is how much Ronnie is regarded as the good guy. Yes he caught the flasher, but still he's a delusional man who caused harm throughout the film to people who weren't necessarily all that guilty, yet we are suppose to reward him because this is a comedy?

The film shares many comparisons to the Scorsese masterpiece "Taxi Driver" which was also about a delusional loner who turned to violence as the ultimate answer. In that film I felt it never took sides with the loner, we are always aware that he was a dangerous man who after his violent rampage was still capable of snapping again. The character of Ronnie as he is depicted by Seth Rogen tries to gain our sympathies by at times acting lovable and sad, but he is just as dangerous. The moralist in me can't let this go, and the film leaves on a purely nihilistic point of view that I think might send out the wrong message, however when it often comes to moral issues in film I always try to remain objective and let other people decide for themselves. Kim Morgan over at Sunset Gun made one point about the film that I happen to agree with and that it's getting people talking no matter what you think of it. It's true, and for a comedy that's rare.

This may seem like I'm going back on my recommendation of "Observe and Report", quite the contrary. I urge people to go see it and make up their own minds about it. You may despise it, or you may admire it, for me I guess it's a little bit of both, one thing that's for certain is I can't ignore it, and that's just what makes this movie worth seeing.

Movies I've seen Recently

It's been a slow few weeks movie theatre going-wise, due to some economic reasons, I've been staying away from the movie theatre for the most part. However I've been able to steal up a little time at my local movie houses, so here is what I've seen.

I Love You Man: It's strange how some movies have a certain effect on you, and some seem to move you in very unexpected ways, which is why it is such a delight to go to the movies in the first place. I have to say all I was looking for from "I Love you Man" was a good hearty laugh to chase my blues away. I got that, but what I also got was a film that I could relate to. Paul Rudd plays a fuddy duddy type who's about to get married but it is pointed out to him that he has no male friends to be his best man. He starts on a quest to find a guy who could fit the bill, and he soon finds lovable slacker Jason Segal. I found myself really liking these guys and I'm not ashamed to say their relationship moved me. Paul Rudd deserves an Oscar nomination for his pitch perfect comedic performance but he'll probably be snubbed. The film is full of great observational humour, but it also has a goofy heart at its center. This is probably the best film I've seen so far this year. 4 stars out of 4

Monsters Vs. Aliens:A visually stunning film, though that's about it. What could've been a terrific send up of classic 50s Sci-Fi films, turns out to be a self-consciously too hip for it's own good cartoon. After missing my chance with "Coraline" (which is bar far the superior film) I decided not to miss this movie in 3-D. After all the hype behind this movie and 3-D technology, I was underwhelmed by it's somewhat pedestrian approach. The 3-D in this film reduces the technology to the way it was done in the 50's as a cheap trick. Things are thrown at us, but it fails to do what it promised and move the technology forward to more innovative and useful ways to telling the story. The voice actors do a fine job with a somewhat bland script that depends more on cheap laughs rather than character development. This was a missed opportunity all the way. 2 stars out of 4

Observe and Report: A comedy that doesn't play it safe, and that's what I liked about it. This will probably be one of the most polarizing films of the year, but the fact that it's a comedy is somewhat surprising. The story involves a mall security guard who suffers from bi-polar issues and dreams of one day becoming a cop. When a flasher is seen terrorizing the mall parking lot, Ronnie the guard (Seth Rogen) makes it his mission to find this pervert before he can harm anyone else. The film takes some very surprising twists and turns particularly for a comedy, and sometimes you may be confused weather you are supposed to laugh or cry. However the film captures a dark and disturbing tone that I felt could not be ignored, it's not always pleasant, but I was fascinated nonetheless. Still I'm unsure about the way Ronnie is handled at the end of the film as sort of a hero who should be rewarded. Perhaps those are my own prejudices clouding my judgement, but perhaps "Taxi Driver" was thought of the same way in its day. How long has it been for a comedy to raise these kind of issues? 4 stars out of 4

Favorite Movie Moments

1. The Three Colors Trilogy: Blue: When we see the reflection of a naked man through the eye of Juliette Binoche

2. The Three Colors Trilogy: White:: Karol and Mikolaj share a slide across a frozen pond after Mikolaj has a new outlook on life. He goes to Karol and says "Anything is possible" and gives out a joyous yell.

3. The Three Colors Trilogy: Red: The Judge tells Valentine "You might've been the woman I never met."

4. Tokyo Story: The final scene between Noriko and the Grandfather

5. Only Angels have Wings: When Geoff can't bare to go through The Kid's personal belongings.

6. The Circus: The ending where the circus leaves town and The Tramp decides to go on his own.

7. Ball of Fire: When Professor Oddly who is the one widower of the group of scientists, talks about his love for his former wife, and he becomes touch when the rest of the group begin singing a song that reminds him of her.

8. Wabbit Seasoning : Daffy catches Bugs on some "pronoun trouble"

9. The Third Man: The first appearance of Orson Welles.

10. The Kid: Chaplin races over rooftops and beats down policemen to rescue his adopted son from the orphanage.

Initial Thoughts on Chuck Jones and Warner Brothers Cartoons

I often ask myself where my love of film stems from. At an early age I was already watching classic movies that usually starred my favorite actor Jimmy Stewart. At 13 I saw "Jurassic Park" five times in a movie theatre and at that moment wanted to see everything directed by Steven Spielberg. But even before all that my film education started every Saturday morning with a little program called "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show". There were other cartoons on every Saturday morning, but Bugs Bunny was not to be missed, I would watch it regularly and even as I grew older, perhaps too old for Saturday morning cartoons, I would still watch Bugs.

The thing people tend to forget, and something I didn't know until later on in life was that all those Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd etc... were never made for kids. They were adult cartoons shown for adult audiences before the beginning of a feature film. Showing cartoons in a movie theatre was common practice back in the 30s and 40s just as annoying commercials are shown to us today.

Warner Brothers cartoons had the cream of the crop as far as creative personnel went. I could easily discuss the early cartoons composed by Tex Avery, Bob Clampett or Frank Tashlin who stretched animation to the far reaches of surrealism. Their films I would say became the most influential regarding the Warner Brother's style. It took directors such as Friz Freling, Robert McKimmson, and of course Chuck Jones to refine that style into the more character oriented cartoons of later years. While all these directors did brilliant work, it was always Jones who stuck out the most for me. Even as a kid I knew the name Chuck Jones, he was always the one who's name came at the beginning of every road runner cartoon (this was probably even before I knew what a director was).

Jones was thought of as the intellectual of the group, he was an artist who had ambitions of studying in Paris, and never thought of becoming an animator. Jones' early films were always less crude and slower paced than that of Clampett's and Avery's. Producer Leon Schlesinger told Jones he had to pick up the pace a bit and add more humour, to which Jones eventually did.

After Avery and Clampett left the studio, their innovative style layed the groundwork for the rest of the directors to refine. The cartoons became more character based rather than gag-dependent, and this was something Jones excelled at in his best cartoons. Jones would be mainly responsible for creating the characters and relationships we see today in Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd, no more so than in his famous "Rabbit Seasoning" trilogy which was a series of cartoons where Daffy would always try to trick Elmer into thinking it was Rabbit Season rather than Duck season, but of course Bugs would always get the last laugh. This series of cartoons depended greatly on character reactions and word play, rather than someone being blown up with a stick of dynamite.

In Jones' "Duck Amuck", he plays with animated convention as he puts Daffy Duck through the ringer when a sadistic animator doesn't play by the rules.

For Jones also nothing was sacred to parody including opera which he demonstrated with what many call his masterpiece "What's Opera Doc?" and my personal favorite the underrated "The Rabbit of Seville". In both these cases, Jones uses Opera as a backdrop for the usual Elmer vs. Bugs plots.



When I look at a Chuck Jones cartoon today, there's always something a little more subversive and sophisticated in his work that I think holds up better today than some of the others, which might be why he is probably the best known of the bunch. Jones seemed to be preoccupied the most with character. After watching a documentary recently on Jones, he was giving an animation lesson and showed how he would go about drawing Bugs Bunny. "Here's the fun part" he would say as he got to the eyes and facial expression. Jones was known for subtle eyebrow lifts or little snickers on the mouth to depict the character's mood.

Animation is something that can be taken for granted, we are more apt to go to live action films and praise those people involved with creating such unique stories and actors for giving such sympathetic characters. With animation it's easier to suspend our belief, but wouldn't it be more difficult to be asked to sympathize with a rabbit, or a duck, or a pig? That's just what animators are asked to do even to this day. Chuck Jones created worlds that toyed with the rules of reality and helped create an animated language that people still are using today. He's as innovative with comedy as Buster Keaton, and shows a wit in his films not unlike those in Marx Brothers movies. If it weren't for Chuck Jones and the other genius animators at Warner Brothers, the whole aspect of film might've been lost on me.

Happy Easter from Jeremy and the Movies

I bet you're wondering when will I be getting around to my fantastic Chuck Jones tribute. Fear not, as soon as the Easter weekend is over with, you will get some much needed Chuck from me as well as some other of the usual features. In the mean time let me wish you all a Happy and safe Easter.

Passchendaele wins big

Last night the 29th Annual Genie Awards (The Canadian Oscars) were awarded to the best of Canadian cinema. Much as the Oscars sometimes do, the Genies decided to go for spectacle over substance, which might explain why the overblown war epic "Passchendaele" was awarded best picture. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might recall a few months ago I wrote a piece on my thoughts of the film.

I haven't seen most of the nominated films, however I did see one other nominee "Amal" which was a small fable of an Indian driver who's kindness to a dying millionaire causes him to inherit his entire fortune. The film was well made and stood out as much stronger to me than "Passhendaele". Gone from the list of nominees was Guy Maddin's masterpiece "My Winnipeg" which was instead nominated for Best Documentary but lost perhaps because it can't be clearly thought of as a documentary. In fact "Up the Yangzte" which was one of the most powerful documentaries I saw all year won the award.

Despite my thoughts on "Passchedaele" it was clear by honoring the film, the Genies were trying to honor the importance of Canadian culture in their films. I cannot judge them too harshly as I myself have not seen most of the films nominated. One thing the Genies does is point us Canadians towards films we should be more familiar with.

A Taste of Chuck: Duck Amuck

April's Real Director Spotlight: Chuck Jones

For those of you who were Alan Smithee fans: APRIL FOOLS!!! My real spotlight this month shines upon that animated genius Chuck Jones. I've been a fan of animation ever since I was a kid, and while I hold those classic Disney films close to my heart, I think I hold those wacky Warner Brothers cartoons even closer. While it's true Jones never did make a full length feature, he along with some other talented filmmakers made some of the most memorable and comedic moments in film history. So won't you join me this month in celebrating the work of this one of a kind filmmaker.

April's Director Spotlight: Alan Smithee

Perhaps the most misunderstood man in Hollywood is Alan Smithee. Along with being misunderstood, he is also the most notorious man ever to work as a filmmaker. His films are often misjudged and are given poor reviews right from the start. No one seems to take his work seriously anymore, he has become a parody unto himself. Not even Ed Wood received such maligned reviews in his lifetime. So join me this month as we dissect, discuss, and pay tribute to this misunderstood genius.