Chuck Jones

Continuing with my tribute to the Oscars in the month of March, I turn my attention to Academy Award-winner, animator Chuck Jones. He won the 1966 Oscar (with Les Goldman) for the Best Short Subject, cartoon for the 1965 piece The Dot and The Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics. This is an extremely charming cartoon and a must-see if you don't already have it completely memorized--and why don't you?

Jones has also made an immense stamp on the culture of Christmas animation. He, of course, directed and produced the holiday classic 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!


But he also directed, produced and wrote for: 1979's Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (specifically the Road Runner sequence.)

1978's Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper. The character of the coyote is very familiar looking.




1973's A Very Merry Cricket (which was a follow-up to the popular Cricket in Times Square.)



Jones also received credit for the character design of 1981's A Chipmunk Christmas, the most well-known Alvin and the Chipmunks TV holiday programs.

Fans of this great man delight in actually seeing the legendary animator in his small appearance in the 1984 holiday film Gremlins. Jones plays 'Mr. Jones', the man sitting next to Billy at the bar with whom he exchanges a few words about his illustration, near the beginning of the movie.

Adult Swim

SET YOUR DVRs: tonight 12/5 at 11 pm (EST) on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programs: The PJs followed by The Boondocks.

The PJ's Christmas episode entitled "How the Super Stole Christmas" airs tonight. This stop-motion program from the 1990s features an adaptation of the familiar Grinch story in this episode. Hilarious. I discuss it on pg. 86.

And, The Boondock's holiday episode entitled "A Huey Freeman Christmas" is one of my personal favorite Christmas episodes. I love how Jasmine equates Jesus with Santa Claus--very blasphemous but clever. But the most charming storyline is watching Huey organize his school's holiday pageant--ala Charlie Brown--taking it to a whole new level, demanding Hollywood A-list actors audition and re-writing the story to make it meaningful to his generation. Of course, he's underappreciated and the teachers have to wrestle control over the project away from young Huey. Brilliant. I love a good 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' reference. This episode is discussed on pg. 84 of my book.

If you love the classic 1960s animated specials, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and A Charlie Brown Christmas, then you HAVE to watch their legacies. These are two of the best.