{"id":354,"date":"2012-09-21T16:09:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T16:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=354"},"modified":"2023-09-21T08:40:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:40:08","slug":"one-hundred-years-of-amuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"One Hundred Years of Amuck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today is Chuck Jones\u2019 100th birthday and they\u2019re\u00a0 having a party for him <\/a>out in Glendale, California tonight to mark the occasion. That\u2019s great, but I thought an even-broader\u00a0fuss would be made over one of the greatest\u00a0American filmmakers. (And don’t you dare say he “only” made cartoons, which is somewhat like saying Chopin “only” wrote piano pieces.)\u00a0\u00a0If that clause requires justification, consider that\u00a0three of Jones’\u00a0 Warner Bros. shorts were among the films chosen by an army of critics and filmmakers in the recently-unveiled 2012 Sight-and-Sound poll of Greatest Films Ever Made.<\/p>\n

If I\u2019d had a ballot, I\u2019d have made sure I put a Chuck Jones film on it.\u00a0 But I’d have a helluva time picking one. \u00a0The three I\u2019d found on the S&S list \u2013 \u201cDuck Amuck\u201d (1953), \u201cWhat\u2019s Opera, Doc?\u201d (1957) and (a mild surprise) \u201cThe Ducksters\u201d (1950) \u2013 surely qualify.\u00a0 But that leaves out so much: \u201cThe Draft Horse\u201d (1942), \u201cTom Turk and Daffy\u201d (1944) (\u201cThe yams did it!! The yams did it!!!…), \u201cThe Eager Beaver\u201d (1946), \u201cMouse-Wreckers\u201d (1949), \u201cLong-Haired Hare\u201d (1949) (\u201cWhat do they do on a rainy night in Riiiio?….\u201d)\u201cThe Scarlet Pumpernickel\u201d (1950), \u201cThe Rabbit of Seville\u201d (1950), \u201cTwo\u2019s a Crowd\u201d (1950) (The first appearance of the floppy-eared puppy whose yapping sends Claude Cat to the ceiling), \u201cChow Hound\u201d (1951) (a personal favorite precisely because it freaks so many people out), \u201cBully for Bugs\u201d (1953), \u201cDuck Dodgers in the 241\/2 Century\u201d (1953)\u2026.<\/p>\n

Sheesh! And even this leaves out so much: All of Pepe Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Wile E. Coyote (and his Arcadian counterpart Ralph Wolf), that kitten-loving lummox Marc Anthony, the unwanted mongrel Charlie Dog, Sam the Sheepdog, the Road-Runner, Sniffles, Hubie, Bert and assorted other mice.<\/p>\n

And why stop with the Warners Bros, stuff? There\u2019s this Oscar winner from his MGM period that holds up as well as any full-length feature of comparable ambition. (I’ll think of one, eventually):<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n