Chuck Jones
July 16, 2014 By Michael Florio
Meep! Meep!
A new exhibit, “What’s Up Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones,” is opening at the Museum of Moving Image this Saturday, which will pay tribute to the work of the famous animation director who helped put together the popular Looney Tunes series.
Jones is credited with perfecting Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, while creating many characters of his own including Road Runner, Pepe Le Pew and Wile E. Coyote.
The exhibit, which will run until January 19, will feature 23 of Jones’ animated films, a short documentary and an interactive experience, which will give insight into the animation process.
Following its debut in Queens, the exhibit will be taken on the road, where it will be shown in 13 cities through 2019.
The exhibit will feature more than 125 original sketches, drawings, storyboards, animation cells and photographs that reveal how Jones and his collaborators at Warner Bros.’s designed these cartoons.
It will also explore his partnership with author Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) on works such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” which was released in 1966, and “Horton Hears a Who!” which came out in 1970.
The exhibit will feature behind-the-scenes audio of Jones directing the voice actors who played many of the popular Looney Tunes characters, as well as interviews with him.
“Chuck Jones is one of the enduring geniuses of American comedy,” said David Schwartz, Chief Curator of Museum of Moving Image.
“His work is marked by its ability to convey the distinctive personality of his characters, his endless comic invention, and his mastery of timing and visual and verbal humor,” Schwartz added.
The exhibit has been put together through the collaboration of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, and the Museum of the Moving Image.
Jones graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute, now the California Institute of the Arts, in 1931. He created more than 300 animated films in a career that spanned over seven decades, including nearly 30 years at Warner Bros., where he started in 1933. He won four Academy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 1996.
Jones died in 2002 at the age of 89.
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