What exactly does an animation director do? I think some actually draw but others just supervise the work, like a film director. Still, I have trouble picturing an animation director at work.
When watching a cartoon, I can always tell if Chuck Jones directed it. He has such a distinctive style. He is the best. But what exactly did he do? Did he contribute drawings in cartoons he directed? Did he do all the character drawing? (And I understand some artists just do color work, others background, etc.) And it’s not just the drawings themselves that distinguish him. It’s not like telling the difference between a Van Gogh and a Rembrandt. But it’s more the way the characters move, the comic timing, the editing. Whenever I see a Robert McKimson cartoon, it just seems so amateurish compared to Jones’ work.
Another question. I’ve never liked Tom and Jerry cartoons, so I was surprised to discover that Chuck Jones did some of those. What exactly was his role in these? Do they have his “signature?”
Read “Chuck Amuck” if you really like his work. I thought it was hilarious. In the Termite Terrace days at WB, the cartoon directors are sort of the chief writer, animator, and general coordinator. They do the story boards and at least decide in general what the characters and backgrounds will look like. The rest of the folks have input, and make huge contributions artistically, but the director gets the final say. A good example of this is Maurice Noble, who did a lot of the classic Chuck Jones 'toons backgrounds. He did backgrounds for many of the other WB directors, such as Friz, the McKimsons (Bob & Chuck), et al, but for some reason they don’t look as cool in those 'toons. Chuck does have a distinct style, as you can see from his WB stuff, “the Grinch who stole Christmas” cartoon, and the classic “the Line and the Dot”, which is easily the best work to date on interdimensional dating. His Tom and Jerry work is from near the end of MGM’s T&J run, and it is distinctly his work. I don’t like those much, because they are too soft (and poorly animated IMHO). The earlier T&J were largely Tex Avery’s, and have his mark. Itchy and Scratchy from the Simpsons are clearly a parody of Tex’s ultra-violent cat and mouse 'toons.
Think of the director of a cartoon as a sort of of coordinator. Reporting to him is the writer (who may actually draw more than write; e.g. the Roadrunner cartoons), the musical director, background and layout artists, inbetweeners, colorists, and so forth.
The director starts by working with the writers and gag men. This is a loose committee of creative persons who come up with the general idea of the story (“Hey, what if Bugs and Elmer did Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 7 minutes?”).
From this idea, the director and writers develop storyboards. These are drawings with some words that describe the plot and action of the cartoon. A 7 minute cartoon can have something like 100 or so individual drawings; a feature animation can have thousands.
The storyboards are used to develop the extreme animation drawings. Since each second of film represents around 24 seperate drawings, the director supplies the beginning and ending drawings (the extremes), plus perhaps a central drawing of this second. It’s the work of the in-betweener to provide the drawings that make the animation go smoothly. The in-betweeners must copy the style of the extremes to match them, which is why cartoons have the distinctive look of their director.
If I recall, it was Chuck Jones who dictated that when Wile E. Coyote dropped off the cliff after chasing the Road Runner, that his fall would last EXACTLY 18 frames for maximum effect.
Of all the classic WB cartoon directors, Jones is probably most famous for setting rules. In his Bugs Bunny toons, Bugs is never the agressor; he only defends himself against another agressor (“Long Haired Hare” is a great example).
In the Ralph Wolf cartoons, the wolf and dog only fought each other when they were on the clock; they would stop fights when the 5 o’clock whistle blew. This came from Jones observation how people are defined by their jobs.
The roadrunner cartoons were based on 7 rules, of which I can only recall a few:
–all product are bought from ACME
–the coyote never catches the bird
–no talking (rule broken only once)
–all toons take place in the American southwest
Thanks, Guy Propski. That helps me a great deal to visualize what’s going on.
Also, what was the one roadrunner cartoon where there was talking? A vague picture of Wile E. Coyote saying “Mother” just before being clobbered comes to mind, though that may only have been Daffy.
Actually, though Tex Avery did some humorous chase cartoons (Droopy and the Wolf come to mind), he never did a Tom and Jerry. The wacky Avery directed every MGM cartoon at the time except T&J, which were directed by a duo who would later make a name for themselves in TV animation-William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
And, yes, Wile E. Coyote has talked from time to time. He was pretty much silent in the Roadrunner cartoons, but he and Bugs Bunny would have some lively conversations (“One musn’t be impolite, even to one’s breakfast”).
Actually, as the Wile E. falls, he gets smaller and smaller, then vanishes from sight. There is a small delay (I forget the exact number of frames) then the cloud of dust appears. Chuck found that this small delay, when the coyote wasn’t seen, was a big hit with the audience.
I’m guessing that the ones you’re referring to were not directed by Chuck Jones. I don’t know the director(s), but I can hear the chirper background music in my head. I also don’t recall Bugs being in the Jones’ Roadrunner cartoons.
In most, if not all, of the Jones Roadrunner cartoons, the Coyote communicated with signs. There were two Jones cartoons which took place in a different setting which pitted Bugs against the Coyote, who converse a bit: Operation: Rabbit(1952) and To Hare is Human(1956). Also, Bugs, with the help of some Acme Super-Speed Vitamins, fills in for the Road Runner and comments to the audience in Jones and Noble’s 1963 Hare-Breadth Hurry. Also, the Coyote talks in the 1962 Jones-Noble-Ray TV pilot film The Adventures of the Road Runner, and the two 1965 cartoons that were cut from it, Road Runner A-Go-Go and Zip Zip Hooray. The Coyote may or may not have talked in the 1960s cartoons done by Friz Freleng and Rudy Larriva (which can be easily identified by the fancy “modern” titles and lack of phony Latin scientific names), but I do not have any information as to that.
(Partial source: Beck, Jerry, and Will Friedwald. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1989.