The first major character that Jones created, Sniffles the Mouse, was an unmistakably cute character in the Disney vein; he first officially appeared in Naughty But Mice, Jones' sixth cartoon, released in 1939. In his book Chuck Reducks - Drawing from the Fun Side of Life, Jones is of the opinion that the character existed earlier, saying "The first cartoon I directed was The Night Watchman (1938), in which Sniffles the Mouse first appeared on-screen, as Tommy the Cat." In this cartoon, Tommy/Sniffles is a kitten who is bullied by a kitchen full of Damon Runyon-esque hoodlum mice. Tommy remembers the teachings of his tough-cat father, and after a series of humiliations, settles the score with the mice. Jones later said that "...for sheer horror nothing could equal the completion of my first film as director. I had forgotten that there was such a thing as an audience connected with film, and I was afraid that my first cartoon, The Night Watchman, would be so bad that the audience would hiss at the ushers."
Jones was always quick to credit Tex Avery with the emergence of the Bugs Bunny character as we know him today, in Avery's A Wild Hare from 1940. In Jones' previous Prest-O, Change-O (1939), we find an embryonic version of Bugs. In this cartoon the Two Curious Puppies escape a storm and hide in old house that contains a magical rabbit, himself escaped from a magician's hat. In his first book, Chuck Amuck, Jones admitted that this rabbit was "a crude creature... only a quarter completed," but that nevertheless, ""to my knowledge, a rabbit had never kissed a dog before..." For Jones, the rabbit still had two more stages to go through "before emerging as a highly interesting, surprising, and very funny baby" in A Wild Hare. The first was Porky's Hare Hunt (1938), directed by Ben 'Bugs' Hardaway and Cal Dalton, and the second stage was Jones' own Elmer's Candid Camera from 1940. In this outing, the ever-more-rascally rabbit is intent on ruining Elmer's photo-taking expedition in a National Park. Although it may have been a further step toward the final characterization of the famous bunny, Jones felt that the cartoon overall was poorly paced: "It is obvious when one views this cartoon, which I recommend only if you are dying to die of ennui, that my conception of timing and dialogue was formed by watching the action in the La Brea tar pits. It would be complimentary to call it sluggish." Of all of the classic Looney Tunes characters, Elmer Fudd went through perhaps the most convoluted evolution. In 1937 Tex Avery had introduced an odd little character named Egghead, whose voice and mannerisms were based on those of radio and film comedian Joe Penner. Egghead featured a classic doofus look, sporting a too-small derby and a high collar around his (what else?) egg-shaped head. After several Avery cartoons, Jones appropriated the character and renamed him for Elmer's Candid Camera. Voicing Elmer in a decidedly non-Penner manner was radio actor Arthur Q. Bryan, cast member of the Fibber McGee and Molly Show. Jones did not speak highly of his initial effort with Elmer, though, later saying, that "...difficult as it is to make an unassertive character like Elmer Fudd into a flat, complete schmuck, I managed." Avery must have liked the changes he saw, though, because he pushed Bugs and Elmer further toward the characters we know and love in A Wild Hare.
Sniffles the Mouse is mostly a supporting character in Sniffles and the Bookworm (1939); the cartoon is an offshoot of the "books come-to-life" gag cartoons made popular by Tex Avery in earlier Looney Tunes. Here, a spectacled bookworm befriends Sniffles and trips up a rampaging monster from the pages of Frankenstein. Perhaps the gentlest of the classic Looney Tunes characters, Sniffles stood out against the manic goings in the late-1930s cartoons of Jones' fellow directors Avery, Clampett and Freleng. Jones later acknowledged the disparity, saying "Sniffles the Mouse was timid and sweet, reflecting the man who was drawing him. The broader humor did not break through in my films until I directed Super-Rabbit (1943). I was only twenty-six years old at the time of Sniffles' debut, so you will have to forgive me." Jones needn't have apologized for Sniffles; the character was popular with audiences well into the 1940s, and even spawned toys and merchandise.
Jones introduced one of his greatest characters in 1945: Pepe Le Pew. It was a brave leap to assume that humor could be had by, and sympathy generated for, a character that emitted a foul odor. Chuck later explained the key to Pepe's appeal when he wrote, "Pepe cannot know that he smells. He is clearly shocked to be informed about his odor in For Scent-imental Reasons, so shocked that he pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot himself ('I missed, fortunately for you')." Scent-imental Over You was only the second Pepe appearance, and the familiar formula was not yet in place. In this cartoon, Pepe's unfortunate target is a little hairless girl dog on Park Avenue, who is trying on a fur coat unfortunately for her, the coat is a skunk fur. Pepe gives chase around Central Park. The bizarre role-reversal ending is an indication that Jones has not yet hit upon the ideal storyline for his newest character. He and writer Michael Maltese would soon introduce an unlucky female cat (later named Penelope) who became the permanent target of Pepe's affections. All of these elements came together by the fourth Pepe outing, For Scent-imental Reasons (1949); that cartoon won Jones his first Oscar®. Jones noted that producer Eddie Selzer had objected to the idea of Pepe Le Pew when Jones was developing his first cartoon with the character, Odor-able Kitty (1945); Selzer bluntly stated that there was nothing funny about a skunk with a French accent. "But when For Scent-imental Reasons won an Academy Award, Eddie Selzer contentedly collected the credit and the Oscar, which he took home."
In Haredevil Hare (1948), Chuck Jones (and writer Maltese) introduced a wonderfully pompous new character, one who would prove to be as memorable a foil to Bugs Bunny as Yosemite Sam or Elmer had been. Bugs is shot to the Moon in a rocket test and encounters Commander X-2, a short, mouthless alien with a Napoleon complex. Later renamed Marvin Martian by Jones, this fellow is determined to destroy the Earth with his Aludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Isn't that lovely? Along for the fun is his space dog, K-9. Although Marvin only appeared in five theatrical cartoons, he has long been one of the most instantly recognizable of the classic Looney Tunes characters.
When Warner Bros. slashed their budgets for cartoons in the early 1960s, Jones left for MGM, where he picked up the Tom & Jerry series from directors Hanna and Barbera, who had gone into television production. Toward the end of his run at MGM, Jones co-produced and co-directed (with designer Maurice Noble) the unique one-shot cartoon The Dot and the Line (1965 aka The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics). This cartoon was based on, and closely adhered to, a book by Norton Juster which told the story of a straight line in love with a dot; the line is in competition with a more exciting squiggle, however, for the affections of the dot. Jones and Noble had already had some practice in giving expression to geometric shapes at Warner Bros. they had created the memorable High Note (1960), about the doings of a staff full of musical notes.
In his book, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, Leonard Maltin describes some of the technical challenges that Jones faced with this cartoon. "At one point a hairy line was needed, and this led to a variety of experiments. Finally Jones inked his line on Japanese rice paper, let it bleed, and photocopied the result onto cels." The Dot and the Line, narrated by Robert Morley, was a great success it won the Oscar® for best Cartoon, and it was picked up for showings in schools for many years.
Following The Dot and the Line, Jones created the timeless animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), the first of many TV specials he would helm. Jones turned to television because the theatrical short subject was essentially dead. 1967, in fact, saw the release of the last of the Tom & Jerry cartoons, as well as the very last theatrical cartoon produced by MGM: The Bear That Wasn't. Ironically, The Bear That Wasn't was an adaptation of a 1946 children's book by Frank Tashlin, whose Warner Bros. cartoon unit Jones had taken over back in 1938.
Tashlin had a varied and active career following his initial exit from Warners after a brief stint as a gag-man at Disney Studios, he took over Columbia's cartoon unit, where he created The Fox and the Crow series. Tashlin returned to Warner Brothers in 1942 and directed some of the most highly regarded Looney Tunes of the 1940s. Also in the 1940s, Tashlin wrote several books on cartooning, as well as a pen-and-ink illustrated children's book, The Bear That Wasn't. The book, which became a bestseller, was a parable about individuality it is told from the point-of-view of a bear that, after a long hibernation, wakes to find that a factory has been constructed around his den. He wanders through the structure trying to remind everyone that he is a bear while being told by every dull-witted low, mid, and high-level executive that "You're a silly man that needs a shave and wears a fur coat." For all his success in the 1940s, Tashlin's real desire was to become a live-action director; he left cartoons for good and became a gag-man for Harpo Marx and Eddie Bracken, which led to a screenwriting stint. Following work on The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), Bob Hope gave Tashlin his first chance to direct with Son of Paleface (1952), and he went on to helm such comedies as The Girl Can't Help It (1956), Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and no less than seven features with Jerry Lewis. Tashlin had several offers over the years to animate The Bear That Wasn't, but turned them all down until Jones came to him in 1965. As Tashlin told interviewer Michael Barrier in 1971, "I had seen the thing Chuck had made called The Dot and the Line, where they had taken a book and faithfully put the book on the screen. And that's all I wanted." Ultimately, Tashlin was less than happy with the end result:
I never went near it, 'cause I figured that was in the best hands. Why worry about it, [Jones] was gonna take the book and put it on the screen, and he was a very capable man. I went to see it in a theater, and the thing started, and I guess it wasn't into a minute and a half where they had done a thing that destroyed the whole picture, and that's why it never got anywhere. ...I almost cried. I never talked to Chuck about it, I've never talked to him since. It was a terrible thing. This bear, he goes to sleep under a factory, when he wakes up they try to convince him he's a [man], as you well know, and he keeps insisting he's a bear, and that's the point of it. Up front in the beginning of this thing, when they are telling him he is a man and he is insisting he's a bear, they put a cigarette in his mouth. Now, the picture was destroyed there, because by the acceptance of a cigarette - you never saw where he got it - by putting a cigarette in his mouth, he was already a man. You know what I mean? Psychologically, the picture was ruined.
As with The Dot and the Line and many of the later Tom & Jerry cartoons, The Bear That Wasn't was essentially co-directed by long-time Jones designer Maurice Noble. The MGM contract allowed for only one director's credit however. In a 1991 interview Noble modestly dismisses his contributions, saying "I would go in and check the animators, maybe sit in on a recording session. I was just all over the place, kind of pulling things together, ironing out a lot of spots while Chuck was going ahead with the next picture. I really don't recall a role as co-director. Someone called me the catalyst." Clearly, in both of the one-shot MGM theatricals, Noble played a key role in the fresh, modern look of the visuals. The characters, though whether human, bear, or squiggle bore the unmistakable stamp of Chuck Jones.
The Night Watchman (1938)
Producer: Leon Schlesinger
Director: Chuck Jones
Screenplay: Tedd Pierce
Original Music: Carl W. Stalling
Voices: Mel Blanc (Tough Mice), Bernice Hansen (Tommy Cat).
C-7m.
Prest-O, Change-O (1939)
Producer: Leon Schlesinger
Director: Chuck Jones
Screenplay: Rich Hogan
Original Music: Carl W. Stalling
C-7m.
Sniffles and the Bookworm (1939)
Producer: Leon Schlesinger
Director: Chuck Jones
Screenplay: Rich Hogan
Original Music: Carl W. Stalling
Voices: Gay Seabrook (Sniffles)
C-7m.
Elmer's Candid Camera (1940)
Producer: Leon Schlesinger
Director: Chuck Jones
Screenplay: Rich Hogan
Original Music: Carl W. Stalling
Voices: Mel Blanc (Rabbit), Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd)
C-8m.
Scent-imental Over You (1947)
Producer: Edward Selzer
Director: Chuck Jones
Screenplay: Michael Maltese
Original Music: Carl W. Stalling
Voices: Mel Blanc (Pepe Le Pew)
C-7m.
Haredevil Hare (1948)
Director: Chuck Jones
Screenplay: Michael Maltese
Original Music: Carl W. Stalling
Voices: Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Radio Jingle Singer)
C-7m.
The Dot and the Line (1965)
Producer: Chuck Jones, Les Goldman
Director: Chuck Jones
Story: Norton Juster
Music: Eugene Poddany
Production Design: Maurice Noble
Animation: Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Tom Ray, Phil Roman, Richard Thompson, Don Towsley
Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard, Don Morgan.
Narration: Robert Morley. C-10m.
The Bear That Wasn't (1967)
Producer: Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin
Director: Chuck Jones
Story: Frank Tashlin, additional story by Irv Spector
Music: Dean Elliott
Production Design: Maurice Noble
Animation: Ben Washam, Tom Ray, Phil Roman, Richard Thompson, Don Towsley
Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard, Don Morgan.
Narration: Paul Frees. C-10m.
by John M. Miller
The following is the complete schedule for TCM's March 24 tribute to Chuck Jones:
8 p.m. CHUCK JONES: MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD (2009) Premiere
8:30 p.m. "The Night Watchman" (1938)
8:40 p.m, "Prest-O, Change-O" (1939)
8:50 p.m, "Sniffles and the Bookworm" (1939)
9 p.m, "Elmer's Candid Camera" (1940)
9:10 p.m, "Scent-imental Over You" (1947)
9:20 p.m. "Haredevil Hare" (1948)
9:30 p.m. "Duck Amuck" (1953
9:40 p.m. "One Froggy Evening" (1955)
9:50 p.m. "What's Opera, Doc?" (1957)
10 p.m. "The Dot and the Line" (1965)
10:15 p.m. "The Bear that Wasn't" (1967)
10:30 p.m. CHUCK JONES: MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD (2009) Encore
11 p.m. The Phantom Tollbooth (1969)
12:30 a.m. "The Night Watchman" (1938)
12:40 a.m. "Prest-O, Change-O" (1939)
12:50 a.m. "Sniffles and the Bookworm" (1939)
1 a.m. "Elmer's Candid Camera" (1940)
1:10 a.m. "Scent-imental Over You" (1947)
1:20 a.m. "Haredevil Hare" (1948)
1:30 a.m. "Duck Amuck" (1953)
1:40 a.m. "One Froggy Evening" (1955)
1:50 a.m. "What's Opera, Doc? " (1957)
2 a.m. "The Dot and the Line" (1965)
2:15 a.m. "The Bear that Wasn't" (1967)
2:30 a.m. CHUCK JONES: MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD (2009) Encore
3 a.m. The Phantom Tollbooth (1969)
