Well, I Tried

NOTE: We had updated the video links to what purported to be an official page, but Warner Bros. thought otherwise. Since the blog posts don't make any sense without the films, we have decided to remove the blog posts entirely.

Thank you all for being so patient as we took a nice little overview of Chuck Jones' career, which culminated in a video smorgasbord on Friday last week.

However, I want to point out something a little saddening. In their infinite corporate wisdom, Warner Bros. has decided to once again very strongly police its copyrights, pulling down several prolific users' accounts which provided some of the cartoons you would have enjoyed in those slots. I believe Warners' axed some of them well before Jones' birthday. At the time I programmed those blog posts (which was about three weeks before) all those cartoons were working and I watched them all myself and verified they worked.

The affected cartoons included "From Hare to Eternity", "Now Hear This", "Drip Along Daffy", "Lumber Jack-Rabbit", "Hell Bent for Election", "Jerry Jerry Quite Contrary", "What's Opera Doc?", "Bully for Bugs", "Rabbit Seasoning", "A Pest In The House", "The Aristo-Cat" and "The Night Watchman."

Look, Warner Bros. I understand that you retain the rights to these films. But, dammit, we're trying to program a tribute to celebrate the 100th birthday of a man who's helped line your corporate coffers many times over who helped create some of the greatest cartoons ever made, originally intended as ephemera but somehow got thrust into timelessness through countless television viewings, as well as some of the greatest cartoon characters ever created. Don't freaking rain on his parade.

Chuck's generosity with up and coming cartoonists has been well documented. In 1990, Chuck explained some drawing techniques to one of his students, a young man named Jeff DeGrandis (who is now the producer of "Dora the Explorer" and "Go Diego Go"), and someone thought to roll a video camera. DeGrandis thankfully saved the tapes, and was able to create a 90 minute DVD. Unfortunately I believe the DVD is no longer available but you can still donate to the Chuck Jones Center by visiting www.chuckjonescenter.org.