CHUCK JONES
1912-2002

a note from Josh:

There's just a little less light in the world this weekend. Chuck Jones, the man responsible for giving two-dimensional cartoon characters more life, warmth, and humor than most 3-D actors can muster, passed away at the age of 89.

The word, "Genius" gets knocked around a lot, almost to the point where it has no meaning. But Chuck Jones was a genius. He could take five minutes of film, and fill it with brain-splitting comedy, lightning-quick dialogue, and even actual moments of pathos. Watch his cartoon, "Feed the Kitty," where a big, dumb bulldog thinks the kitten he adopted has been turned into a cookie. I've already explained too much. Just watch it, and try not to get a little misty.

Chuck Jones had a body of work as big as the 24th and 1/2 Century. Sure, there are his brilliant Warner Brothers cartoons, your, "One Froggy Evening," "What's Opera Doc," "Duck Amuck"...

"Duck Amuck." Man. A 4 and a half minute thesis on post-modernism that could make milk shoot out of your nose. And his work didn't stop with Warner Brothers. In the 1960's, Jones put out abstact shorts like, "The Dot and the Line," and, "The Bear that Wasn't," that challenged the public's very notions of animation. And, of course, they were very, very funny. Everything he touched turned to funny.

I can safely say that I wouldn't be doing what I do (whatever it is I do), if it wasn't for the countless hours of Chuck Jones's brilliance that I absorbed over the years.

Animation is a weird, flimsy thing these days. It pains me that kids grow up lumping Bugs Bunny together with Picachu. It doesn't seem right. Chuck Jones made cartoons art. And he made them live, breathe, sing, dance, and,,,

He made them good.

And he made us laugh.

I miss him already.

--Josh A. Cagan