Right after Chuck Jones died in February, 2002, PBS ran a documentary about him. I watched it, but didn't catch the title. When I saw that one of the Looney Tunes DVDs carried "Chuck Amuck: The Movie", I wondered whether that was the same one. It turned out to be a different one. This one starts out with an exhibit in London's Museum of the Moving Image, which was at the time featuring Chuck Jones's work. From there, the documentary focuses on Jones, but he uses much of it to talk about the art of animation in general. There are of course plenty of scenes from the Looney Tunes cartoons to move the action along, but also stuff from Jones's childhood and how it influenced his work.

OK, so maybe the documentary is sort of advertising the museum, and maybe there is more focus than necessary on Jones's childhood. I, for one, find it fascinating to hear about how a person's experiences in life contribute to his/her work. Of course, I like hearing all about the classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, so maybe I'm too biased about all this. The overall point is that even if this documentary isn't the greatest ever made (for ones of this nature, you can't beat "Bugs Bunny Superstar"), it should still be of interest to Looney Tunes fans. Worth seeing.

I wonder what the other Chuck Jones documentary was called.

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