Chuck Jones: Extremes and Inbetweens - A Life in Animation Movie

Chuck Jones: Extremes and Inbetweens - A Life in Animation was originally telecast as a PBS "Great Performances" episode on November 22, 2000. Warner Bros. animator Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones created many cartoon characters, including Pepe Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote, and the Road Runner. A key member of the team that developed Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, Jones also directed more than 50 Bugs Bunny cartoons. In her paean to Jones, writer-producer-director Margaret Selby features a running interview with the 88-year-old Jones, as well as interviews with famous fans, including Hollywood luminaries Whoopi Goldberg, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Ron Howard, Toy Story director John Lasseter, Steven Spielberg, and Robin Williams. Highlights include clips from such classic Jones cartoons including Rabbit of Seville, What's Opera, Doc?, One Froggy Evening, Duck Amuck, the original television version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Academy Award-winner The Dot and the Line.

Let's face it, every single person under the age of sixty, particularly those of us who grew up in the television age, probably learned more from Chuck Jones than we did from our parents. Jones's recent passing closes a chapter on the Golden Age of animation, and so to that end, the dean of cartoon makers gets his due in Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens. Fortunately for the fans, even in his advanced years Jones retained his razor-sharp wit and memory, which serves, through interviews, to provide intricate details in the creation and/or further development of some of the world's most recognizable characters. Walt Disney may have been more grandiose, but the Warner Brothers cartoons that Jones and his colleagues created are, in this reviewer's humble opinion, broader, funnier, and more appealing. This film goes in-depth into classic cartoons that everyone can more or less recite from memory, or at least quote extensively, including What's Opera, Doc? and Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century. There's also the ten commandments of Road Runner cartoons (example: the coyote can only be foiled by his own incompetence) and a detailed explanation of how much of Chuck Jones can be found in Daffy Duck. Numerous celebrities and animators provide commentary, including Steven Spielberg, Matt Groening, and Robin Williams. Also not to be missed is Jones's acceptance speech when presented with his Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. To paraphrase what has become the cliché, "That's not all, folks."