I thought it was a laugh but people in the audience cry a little

February 26, 2024 6:38 AM

From Sniffles The Mouse to Bugs Bunny to The Grinch... Chuck Jones: Extremes and InBetweens - A Life in Animation [1h24m] (Originally recorded on VHS from Australian TV in 2000.)

I think my main complaint about this is that they talk about basically everyone involved in creating these cartoons, and they talk repeatedly about how they are working to a musical score, but NEVER ONCE do they include Carl Stalling in the mix.

It's a minor quibble about a pretty good documentary with a lot of great cartoon footage, including some bits that weren't on the endless Saturday Morning reruns that I grew up with.

posted by hippybear (6 comments total)

At the medical school where I work, before films were regularly available via streaming, I had a movie night. You can't show great movies without a great cartoon lead-in.
I bought this documentary when it came out because for a period of time it was the only classic Looney Tunes cartoons on DVD.
I also bought a CD of Carl Stalling's music.
WB animation is an important part of film history. Of American history.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:23 AM on February 26 [5 favorites]

The indispensable Mel Blanc should always be included in the mix.
Daffy Duck's Rhapsody comes to mind, for example.
posted by y2karl at 11:52 AM on February 26 [2 favorites]

Carl Stalling gets a passing mention from Andre Previn, but I agree he deserved more.

I was pleased to see Michael Maltese at least get a mention too. He wrote many, many of the best Chuck Jones cartoons and yet is hardly ever acknowledged. The cartoons he and Jones worked on together include:

For Scent-imental Reasons
Beep Beep
Rabbit Seasoning
Duck Amuck
Bully For Bugs
One Froggy Evening
Ali Baba Bunny
What's Opera, Doc?
Robin Hood Daffy
Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century

As for Mell Blanc, this is one of my favourite Christmas songs.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:07 PM on February 26 [3 favorites]

Back in the 1970s, when the Looney Tunes were probably at a low, relegated to a bygone era, and not yet a marketable nostalgia craze, I was living in Southern California. Mel Blanc offered a school for making character voices. I sometimes ponder what my life would have been life if I took that class.
Bit of trivia: Mel Blanc died within one day of Laurence Olivier. I remember reading their obituaries side by side.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:13 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

I think Warner/Discovery could probably make a tidy penny if they were to put their Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes catalog on YouTube as a streaming service. Run the cartoons intact, put 2-3 ads in between each of them, put it on 24 hour streaming...
posted by hippybear at 1:52 PM on February 26 [4 favorites]

Thanks for posting this-it was on PBS in 2000, so I must have seen it, but didn't remember it at all.

It's utterly fantastic! And I'm glad to see Chuck got paid from his art later.
posted by Marky at 11:25 PM on February 26