DTH Omnibus Page 9
Thursday November 15, 1990
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is aren't
y of the Harlem Globetrotters and the
e Addams Family. Spooky.
All this, together with nerd
;s Thelma, sorority babe Daphne and
t jockhunk Freddy. Let's not forget
e this was the first show to do the baby
r 'toon thing Scrappy Doo. And
t there was Scooby Dumb. And the list
y goes on and on.
t Noon. This is when Dad comes in
;s to make me go outside so he could
e watch Cowboy Theater. On rainy days
c I would watch too, but these guys
t fought about as well as professional
e rasslers and didn't talk junk about
each other or pick up cha irs and smash
g them over people's heads. Kinda
l boring.
I miss those days, but they went
y quickly once the Smurfs came on the
scene. Let's face it folks, the Smurfs
a stunk even when they did teach us
r some valuable lessons (none as valu
: able as those taught by Schoolhouse
f Rock). Personally, I would've liked to
2 have seen Gargamel chomp some
Smurf head after the first season.
Now (returning to the present)
t everyone tells me that cartoons are
i on the comeback trail. Afternoons
have heated up with Tailspins, Duck
Tales and Chip'n'Dale's Rescue Rang
l ers. Disney is rolling over in money in
; his grave. They even have Nintendo
i games for Duck Tales and Chip 'n Dale,
i Commercial sellout or not you
s make the call.
psychic
Japanesa comic book anti-hero,
ager of the Rialto, said that a lot of
animation and comic-book aficiona
dos had requested Akira. "The phone's
been really ringing, ' Munson said.
"It's been out for a while now. In the
cities where it has played it has done
very well."
"We've got something a lot of
people want to see."
just for
The kids are happy after school,
but they don't know what they're
missing. Back in my pre-pubescent
years, we had great shows on
afterschool TV (when they didn't put
on one of those stupid Afterschool
specials that my mother always made
me watch so I wouldn't turn into a
drug fiend). We had Star Blazers and
Battle of the Planets, two of my favorite
shows. Star Blazers was a series of shows
about a space battleship trying to save
earth in only 365 days. It went down
to the wire, but in the end the
battleship's Wave Motion gun kicked
hiney. And who could ever forget G
Force of Planets fame?
I will have to admit that kids of the
late '80s had a good afternoon lineup.
G.I. Joe and The Transformers were
nothing short of excellent in their
prime, but then they went into new
generations and fell into the abyss.
There is no justice.
Animation on the big-screen is
still alive and Disney is still in sole
possession of the top. Three reasons:
Fantasia , Snow White and Bambi. More
recently The Little Mermaid. 'Nuff said.
However, Spielberg has been
jumping into the scene with An
'American Tail and The Land Before
Time. Look out Disney, the E.T. man
wants a shot at the little kids' hearts
through animation, too. I mean, he is
the one who got this Tiny Toons
thing off the ground.
children
Kaneda, with a really big gun
Akira will open at the Rialto The
atre, 1620 Glenwood Avenue, in Ra
leigh on Nov. 19. Show times are at 9
p.m. from Monday, Nov. 19 to
Thursday, Nov. 22, and at 7 p.m. and
9 p.m. from Friday, Nov. 23 to
Thursday, Nov. 29. Weekendmatinees
are at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. For more
information call (919) 856-8683 .
kids anymore
0 - v" V
jTsJ v v
.f.v..vA
A prancing pachyderm and a graceful 'gator strut their stuff in 'Fantasia'
Cartoons are our life, our soul, our
spirit as kids. May they never die.
So, until they run out of ink in
their pens and the boulders stop drop
Director
Chuck Amuck:
The Life and Times
of an Animated
Cartoonist
by Chuck Jones
pubished by AvonBooks
$12.95
ooooo
r I rom 1933 to 1963, Chuck
I ffcJ Jones either created or had
ZD a hand in creating some of
J I the best-loved characters
' in America: the Warner
Brothers stable of animated actors.
Actors indeed. As Jones admits in
his vivid autobiography, Chuck
Amuck, Bugs Bunny and friends had
lives of their own. In his own words:
We (Bugs and I) had a happy life
together, but, as the six-year-old boy
protested when I was introduced to him
as the man who draws Bugs Bunny,
"He does not! He draws pictures of
Bugs Bunny."
He was absolutely right, and I can
think of no happier career than as a man
who drew pictures of such a fabulous
character.
Gloriously, Chuck Amuck is just as
lively as the Road RunnerCoyote
shorts Jones began directing in 1949.
j He writes candidly and amusingly
) iabout their creation, as well as the
nearly days of the Warner Bros, studios
"and His colleagues within them. Dry
"I was born in ... " facts are left to the
ping on coyotes, you'll find me glued
to the TV in the prime of my youth.
Twenty-one and a cartoon fan for
life.
fathers coyote and road runner: tells all
appendix; Jones just wants to tell some
very funny stories.
Such as the origin of Daffy Duck's
voice. Jones, veteran director Tex
Avery and legendary voice artist Mel
Blanc modeled Daffy after their simi
larly avaricious producer Leon
Schlesinger. Then they realized
Schlesinger would, of course, have to
see and hear the short.
In order to save ourselves the embar
rassment of being fired, all of us were
careful to write out our resignations be
fore that fateful day Then the lights
went on and Leon leaped to his feet,
glared around: "JeethusChristh, that's a
funny voithe! Where'd you get that
voithe?"
Jones spends a fair portion of the
book eloquently slamming his old
animation producers, reserving special
attention for Schlesinger and his re
placement, Eddie Selzer who, "like
the people in charge of network
television today, hated and feared
anything he had never seen before."
According to Jones, their short
sightedness provided excellent cre
ative motivation. Jones reserves spe
cial commentary for Selzer, who al
legedly told Jones there was nothing
amusing about a French-speaking
skunk (Pepe Le Pew) in the Oscar
winning "For Scent-imental Rea
sons," 1949) or bullfighting gags
("Bully for Bugs," 1953).
Thankfully, there's more to Chuck
Amuck than boss-bashing. Jones
spends a lot more time emphasizing
how critical his colleagues' work was
to the success of the Warner shorts.
Most people have never heard of Mike
Maltese or Maurice Noble before, but
Bring back Schoolhouse Rock!
Editor's note: Board opinions are
the product of the Omnibus Star
Chamber: editor Alisa DeMao, assis
tant editors Charles Marshall and Billy
Stockard, arts co-ordinator Randy
Basinger, layout and production co
editors Lisa Reichle and Laura Ross,
and copy editor Clare Weickert, plus
Omni pledge Devon Hyde. Opinions
are agreed upon by a majority vote and
do not necessarily reflect anybody's
opinionataU. Wejustneededtotakeup
space. And we did.
Do you realize that an entire
generation of children is growing up
without a proper education?
We're not talking about the lousy
SAT scores in this state or about the
mystery of Jesse. We're talking about
the lack of good Saturday morning
programming.
We grew up with the classics
Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny and, of
course, Schoolhouse Rock.
: Looney Tunes didn't manage to
survive the censors. Wile E. Coyote
never hits the ground because the
powers-that-be think little Johnny
may try to jump off the nearest 10
story building. Granny can no longer
give Sylvester a well-deserved bash
over the head with her umbrella,
while every sit-com and cop show
regales impressionable young minds
with at least a sock in the jaw.
We are rio longer shown that it is
possible to confront and defeat things
that are wrong. No matter how evil
the villain is, it is now against the
Jones wastes no words in detailing
their contributions as writer and de
signer, respectively, of 1953's "Duck
Dodgers in the 24 12 Century." Jones'
eloquent commendation of these un
sung heroes is admirable.
Speaking of "Duck Dodgers," there's
a wonderful section describing its
conception and the steps to its creation.
Separate chapters are also granted to
Bugs and Daffy, as Jones describes their
metamorphoses, and, of course, the
Road RunnerCoyote cartoons are
discussed. Jones includes the rules he
and writer Mike Maltese developed
that made the Coyote such a hit, in
cluding: Rule 2. No outside force can harm
the Coyote only his own ineptitude
or the failure of the Acme products.
Rule 7. All materials, tools, weap
ons, or mechanical conveniences must
be obtained from the Acme corpora
tion. Rule 8. Whenever possible, make
gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.
Interestingly, that first Road Run
ner cartoon, "Fast and Furry-ous"
(1949) was meant to be nothing but
satire.
It was 1947 and the American short
subject was preoccupied with the chase.
Everyone seemed to be in the pursuit of
one another ... So, as all writers and
producers must have, Mike and I felt the
call of Profundity. We would do a satire
on chases, show up the shallowness of the
whole concept . . .
Audiences never got. that particu
lar joke, but thought the chase was
hysterical anyway. Jones decided, if
you can't lick them, join them. Even
tually, his "Beep Prepared" (1961)
rules to hurt him, so how can you
possibly destroy him for good?
In any case, who believes that when
you see the umbrella swinging before,
and Sylvester staggeringater, that you
don't know what happened duringl
In the interest of "non-violence,"
the censors cut the heart out of the
classic Bugs 'toon recounting the life
story of the venerable wabbit- After
Bugs is rescued from rock-bottom by
Elmer Fudd to star in vaudeville, he
gets tired of being the butt of the jokes
and turns the tables on Fudd, stealing
his lines and shooting htm in the face
with a seltzer bottle. After a classic
chase through the theater, Elmer pulls
out his rifle, prompting Bugs to say
(for the first time ever), "What's up
Doc?" A star is born. But the "im
proved" version cuts from Bugs decid
ing "things are going to change" to
Elmer pointing a gun at him. "What's
up Doc?" is entirely out of context
and takes on a whole new meaning.
Instead, we were subjected to the
Smurfs in their smurfy little world,
where everything is just smurfy. Ev
eryone does what wise Papa Smurf
tells them. If they strike out on their
own, they get into trouble, every
thing is not smurfy, and they have to
be rescued by the whole gang. Do we
see a pattern emerging here? One of
conformity, unquestioning obedience
to authority and the perils of being an
Til kiww
earned an Academy Award nomina
tion. Chuck Jones' art litters the hook,
as it should; the excellent character
animation is what drove the Warner
shorts in the first place. There are
hundreds of original production
sketches, including a mournful coy
ote covered with mousetraps and Bugs
hung over from mixing carrot juice
with turnip juice.
Also included are plenty of char
acter studies of the people Jones has
worked with over the years, and a set
of color plates featuring scenes from
his favorite projects like "Duck Dodg
ers"and "What'sOpera, Doer, which
individual? The Smurfs are anath
ema to everything that supposedly
made this country great.
We are convinced the primary
reason SAT scores are so low is the
absence of Schoolhouse Rock. In an
informal survey of staffers, not one
was found who could not sing at
least three episodes of this infectious
series of classic lessons in grammar,
American history and other subjects
designed to edify young minds. A
friend of one writer remembers ev
ery word and every note of every
installment, except the one about
the multiplication table ("that one's
too boring"). Who out there doesn't
remember "Conjunction Junction"
or "Interplanet Janet?"
Schoolhouse Rock was a way to trick
us into getting excited about learn
ing before we actually found out
how frustrating and boring it would
become. Just think of those bits of
grammar we learned that still help
us today: And who could have made
it through Poli 41 without the help
of the bill sitting up on Capitol Hill ?
No schoolteacher or parent taught
us anything so early that has stuck
with us so well.
Unfortunately, instead of watch
ing Schoolhouse Rock between car
toons, we now have to watch vapid,
glossies of Jordan Knight running
away from his fans. And they won
der what's happened to Saturday
morning cartoons they've re
placed what teaches with what sells.
't,
the wabbit!'
condensed Wagner's Ring Cycle to
six minutes. (Elmer Fudd: "I'ww kiwi
the wabbit!") These close-up views
show what a master of expression
Jones is; you can understand his car
toons clearly even with the sound
turned down on your TV.
The book's subtitle, The Life and
Times of an Animated Cartoonist, is
inspired. Chuck Jones defines the
term. Chuck Amuck is a thoroughly
enjoyable read. Today's cartoon pro
ducers, or even cartoon lovers, would
do well to study this book and learn
more about how wonderfully creative
quality animation is.
- Chip Suddertfa