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About Chuck Jones ... — Description
“No one except Tex Avery had as perfect a sense of timing as did Friz Freleng.”

"He always came out ahead, or figured out a way to escape. I identified more with the others. Probably my favorite was Daffy Duck. He was the closest to a self-portrait, though there's obviously something of me in all the characters."

"Most of us know when we should stop, and so does Daffy, but his where to stop is way beyond ours, and he repeatedly lands himself in trouble by going too far.”

“The Coyote is victimized by his own ineptitude. I never understood how to use tools, and that’s really the Coyotes problem. He’s not at war with the gods, but with the miniscule things of every day life. It is out of mounting frustration that the comedy develops.”

"My father thereupon mounted the hustings and escorted me to my room to contemplate in cakeless solitude the meaning of a word new to me: "selfish." To me then, and to Daffy Duck now, "selfish" means "honest but antisocial"; "unselfish" means "socially acceptable but often dishonest." We all want the whole cake, but, unlike Daffy and at least one six-year-old boy, the coward in the rest of us keeps the Daffy Duck, the small boy in us, under control."

During The Golden Age of Animation, Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) began working as a cel washer for Ub Iwerks before working his way up the corporate ladder, being mentored by the likes of Tex Avery and Friz Freleng and animating for Bob Clampett. In 1938, he finally received a shot at directing a cartoon (When Tashlin was at Disney). His early work mirrored Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies in content and tone but slower, heavy on childlike fantasy and lacking in comedy such as Sniffles the mouse (despite a certain flair for the self-reference like Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur or the Happy Rabbit in Elmer’s Candid Camera.). Because of these issues spite of them getting positive audience response, Leon S. intended to demote Jones to an animator position . Friz Freleng then defended Jones and said "Come on, Leon, give the kid a chance. He'll make you proud someday.", which led him to keep that position.

In 1942 , THIS was the year where Chuck would indeed improve his directing and adopt the more humorous and zany style of his contemporaries at Warner ( Even Sniffles would become funnier and more of a motor-mouth ). But that year's masterpiece would be "the Dover Boys" which used shape-heavy designs with minimal movement (which would be his comfort zone ) and introduced us to Dan Backslide "coward, bully, cad, and thief" (who is actually animator Ken Harris ). Warner Bros. studio executives were rather pissy about this short, and attempted to fire him BUT a replacement for Jones could not be easily found, so he was kept aboard.

Eventually in the 50's (Naysayers can rot in hell ! Yeah I know it seems cool these days to hate on that period but ... it's not. It is just fucking retarded .And I will make a case as to why the 50's are just as great as the 40's ... Just you wait !) he hit one hell of a fucking stride ! Chuck's best work provided not only NEW characters but also gave an additional aspect to the primary stars . He could parody any genre and do it amazingly well. He could do shorts based heavily on slapstick and sight gags and he could do shorts based heavily on dialogue, expression and personality. And most importantly he could blend it all together into a cohesive whole.
I am aware of every director's flaws as persons (and seriously ? This is what shocks cartoon fans ?! I know far worse than that !) , and I know that Chuck had a big ego... BUT he knew how to use it well ! His unit was just as important as him to his success : main writer Mike Maltese, layout artist/background designer/co-director Maurice Noble, animator and co-director Abe Levitow, and animators Ken Harris and Ben Washam.

Let us go for a few contributions as usual :
- Along with Mr Maltese , he gave us the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (SUPER GENIUS),stuff that relied on expertly timed facial expressions and slapstick that works in a lot of other countries .
- Pepe LePew may be shunned by a load of cartoon snobs, but where I live you have no idea how great an impression he leaves on whoever watches him (God bless Ted Pierce for this !) . C'est un grand !
- He created a huge stable of underrated characters : Claude Cat, Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot, Michigan J. Frog, Hubie and Bertie, and The Three Bears.
- He took the embryological Rover from Clampett's "Porky's Pooch" and improved him giving us Charlie the Dog .
- He gave us Marvin the Martian , the most dangerous yet most soft-spoken antagonist .
- His take on Bugs insisted on the "live & let live "demeanor & his more introverted personna . Quite ironic that one of the boldest rodents is also one of the least glutton for adventure . Yeah sure , it is popular to demean the smugness of the rabbit but I wouldn't push it [link] (The Rabbit of Seville is just perfection.), and Jones's is not a perfect guy, far from it actually (a little clue: )...
- As for Daffy now , he is constantly bashed around nowadays for being , and I quote, "mean...a dumbed down version of the 40's ...a stupid asshole..". Well my take on the whole Daffy war is this: What if the problem was not with Daffy at all ? What if the problem was with those stuck-up, holier-than-thou, conceited , moralizing wusses who whine constantly about it ? Because to me, they tend to be far worse than the duck actually , both in behavior and character . If berating a hunter after getting shot repeatedly is not daffy enough for you , then your perception of the mallard has to be quite limited. Chuck Jones was right, he's extremely easy to relate to, because chances are you're like him in some way or you know somebody that's like him (guess where my position is ... XD ), and his fall guy routine is what made him far more popular than Bugs where I live (And That includes Friz's jealousy trilogy !But that is a topic for another day ). He accentuated the childlike aspects of Daffy and made him a really versatile actor and comedian in his cartoons as much as the saint father of all anti-heroes ! For my money , this was his absolute best actor !

His time at Warner Bros. ended rather abruptly when it was discovered he had violated his exclusive contract for the UPA film Gay Purr-ee.

Post-Warner Brothers, he went to MGM and took over the Tom And Jerry franchise for a time (s a MASSIVE improvement over the Gene Deitch stuff, they may not be as great as the Hanna-Barbera ones but they still have a lot that are well-worth the screening ), while also creating a few memorable shorts based on childrens books. He also found himself teaming up with Dr. Seuss, and with the help of the voice of Boris Karloff, giving us ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' and an expression you may never forget !

Anyhow , Allahi yarhmek Chuck and happy 100th anniversary !