Jones, Chuck

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (50th Birthday Deluxe Remastered Edition)

Accept no substitutes. The 1966 television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' timeless book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!--about an anti-Santa who tries to heist the holiday only to learn a powerful lesson--is a classic in its own right, and looking better than ever in its 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition. (For those doing the math, the 50 years is counting from the book's 1957 publishing date rather than the show's broadcast date.) The most significant improvement is in the digital transfer, cleaning up fuzz and specks and restoring the proper colors to the program. While the awful earlier DVDs showed the Grinch in a mustard-yellow color, this edition restores his proper green gleam. Special features are mostly ported over from the previous DVD--the Horton Hears a Who program, a featurette on the songs, Phil Hartman's special edition version, pencil tests, etc. minus the commentary track--but there is a new 15-minute featurette, "Dr. Seuss and the Grinch: From Whoville to Hollywood." While it starts out as a fluff piece aimed at the younger set (interviews with kids, some rapping), it does provide some interesting information, including interviews with the widows of Theodore Geisel and Chuck Jones and clips of Geisel and Jones' Private Snafu. (No mention of Jim Carrey, however.) --David Horiuchi

Every who down in Who-ville likes Christmas a lot, but the Grinch who lived just north of Who-ville did NOT! So the cuddly as a cactus Grinch (with termites in his smile and garlic in his soul) tries to wipe out Christmas for the cheerful Who-villains, only to discover: maybe Christmas, he thought doesn't come from as store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more! Magnificently narrated by Boris Karloff and animated by cartoon legend Chuck Jones, it's an award-winning Who-roast-beast-feast of a holiday classic!

Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Three

Like the previous entries in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series, volume 3 confirms how brilliant the Warner Bros. artists were and how durable their creations have proven. The set includes classics that every cartoon buff will recognize: "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!," "Robin Hood Daffy," "Birds Anonymous." Other selections are less familiar but significant in the development of the studio: "Sinkin' in the Bathtub," the first Looney Tune; "I Haven't Got a Hat," the earliest Warners cartoon viewers can watch for fun, rather than as an historic curiosity; "Porky's Romance," in which director Frank Tashlin introduced rapid cutting to cartoons. Some of the caricature films have aged less gracefully. Younger audiences will recognize the drawn versions of W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Katharine Hepburn, and Charlie Chaplin. But will anyone under the age of 60 remember Edna Mae Oliver, George Arliss, or Ned Sparks?

The producers have once again loaded the discs with supplemental material, including "Point Food Rationing," a unseen short explaining wartime ration books; a BBC documentary on Chuck Jones; and interstitial animated sequences for The Bugs Bunny Show. "Philbert" ranks as the oddest of the extras: an unsold (and leaden) pilot from 1963, featuring live actors and an animated title character. Whoopi Goldberg introduces the set, explaining that some of the ethnic gags would no longer be considered appropriate. But she correctly adds that to remove them would falsify both the history of animation and American popular culture. It all adds up to a set every cartoon fan will want. (Unrated, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/25/2005 Run time: 442 minutes Rating: Nr

Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Four

Like previous installments, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 mixes favorites from the Warner Bros. archives with relatively obscure older works. Chuck Jones' "Mississippi Hare" and Friz Freleng's "Sahara Hare" and "Knighty-Knight Bugs" (which won an Oscar) offer hilarious performances by Bugs. Two of Jones' earliest films, "The Night Watchman" and "Conrad the Sailor" prefigure his use of subtle expressions in his later cartoons. The disc of shorts by Frank Tashlin includes "Plane Daffy": pigeon see-duck-tress Hatta Mari anticipates Jayne Mansfield in such later Tashlin live-action comedies as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Not all of these films have aged as gracefully. Younger viewers will probably not catch the references to Charlie McCarthy, Bill Robinson, and other old film and radio stars. The Speedy Gonzalez cartoons feature ethnic humor that seems embarrassing today; it's also crashingly unfunny. Each disc offers a disclaimer about stereotypes, noting, "they were wrong then and are wrong today."

The discs are loaded with extras that range from a partial set of storyboards for "Sahara Hare" to three of the "Private Snafu" shorts, which were made for the "Army-Navy Screen Magazine" during WW II. The oddest extra is the documentary Bugs Bunny Superstar, which infuriated many of the Warner Bros. artists when it was released in 1977. Much of its information should be taken with a grain of salt. (Unrated, suitable for ages 6 and older: cartoon violence, some ethnic stereotypes, mild risqué humor, alcohol & tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/14/2006

Looney Tunes - The Spotlight Collection Vol. 1 (Premiere Edition)

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/03/2004 Rating: Nr

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (Deluxe Edition)

Chuck Jones was chief animator on this lively adaptation of the famous book by Dr. Seuss. The story of a friendly elephant named Horton who discovers--deep inside a daisy--a tiny city called Whoville with tiny, intelligent residents--this film (fleshed out a bit from the source) is strong on character and has striking, appealing visuals. The little folks of Whoville, with their natural air of aristocracy, are a kick, and when they come to see Horton as a hero for his democratic view of all life big and small, the effect is quite touching. This should be a real treat for kids already familiar with the book, but just might inspire those who haven't read it to pick it up. --Tom Keogh

Can horton prove that the whos exist? includes thidwick the big-hearted moose. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/07/2008 Starring: Narrated By Dustin Hoffman Run time: 26 minutes

Looney Tunes - Movie Collection (Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie/1001 Rabbit Tales)

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/19/2008 Rating: Nr

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
Chuck Jones directed some of the funniest shorts in the history of filmmaking, and this 1979 feature-length compilation includes several of his best cartoons. Among the 11 shorts shown in their entirety are the classics "Robin Hood Daffy," "What's Opera, Doc?," "Bully for Bugs," and "Duck Amuck," which remain as hilarious as they were when first released 50 years ago. As with any collection, the viewer wonders why some films were omitted or cut ("Long Haired Hare" combs footage from several Road Runner shorts into a 20-minute montage weakening the pacing). These caveats aside, The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie provides a showcase not only for Jones's razor-sharp timing, but for the work of his exceptional crew, which included designer Maurice Noble, writer Mike Maltese, composers Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn, and voice actor Mel Blanc. --Charles Solomon
1001 Rabbit Tales
If Bugs Bunny were to direct his signature inquiry--"What's up, doc?"--toward the modern-day Warner Bros. creative team, he wouldn't be far off. For 1001 Rabbit Tales, they've doctored up a batch of classic cartoons featuring the carrot muncher and his bumbling comrades and bundled them, near seamlessly, into a feature-length film. Here's the premise: Bugs and Daffy, both book salesmen, are competing to sell the most copies of a kids' book. Instead of burrowing a beeline to his sales territory (he should have made a left at Albuquerque), Bugs ends up in the castle of Yosemite Sam, here a harem-leading honcho. Sam's pain-in-the-spurs son, Prince Abalaba, needs somebody to read him stories; Bugs, who'd sooner take the job than suffer the alternative, that involving being boiled in oil, signs on. Each rabbit-read narrative replaces a sedate story with a Loony Tunes favorite: In "Jack and the Beanstalk," a canary-keeping giant bellows "Fee, fi, fo, fat, I tawt I taw a puddy tat"; the witch in "Hansel and Gretel" develops a hankering for rabbit stew; "Goldilocks" goes feline as Sylvester swaps his porridge for suffering succotash on behalf of his bratty son. In the end, the varmint finds a way to vamoose, but, being a generous sort of bunny, he doesn't keep the address from his commission-hungry coworker. From there, the feathers fly, as does the rest of this feature, which is undiluted fun for fans of these cartoons from way back as well as those just getting to know the loopy Looney Tunes gang. (Ages 4 and older) --Tammy La Gorce

Rikki Tikki Tavi/Yankee Doodle Cricket

The original 1976 animated feature rikki tikki tavi along with a bonus cartoon of yankee doodle cricket on the same disc! Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 01/25/2005

The Best of the Best of Electric Company

The Best Of The Best Of The Electric Company™FEATURING BILL COSBY MORGAN FREEMAN RITA MORENO and More!"We re gonna turn it on.We re gonna bring you the power."If you were between six and ten years old during the years 1971 through 1985 then there is a good chance you learned to read with help from The Electric Company.Comedy sketches music animation and special effects were the tools of this "video" classroom. The show was so terrific that it attracted major talent. In addition to stars Bill Cosby Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno Joan Rivers Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel were the characters in "The Adventures Of Letterman." Mel Brooks was the voice of the animated Blond-Haired Cartoon Man. The satirist Tom Lehrer wrote ten songs for the shows.The Electric Company was a product of its time perennially cool and hip while never wavering from its educational goals; it was full of wit and energy and made learning to read fun.So take a trip back in time with Letterman Easy Reader J. Arthur Crank Fargo North Decoder the Short Circus Jennifer of the Jungle and all the rest with THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE ELECTRIC COMPANY.™5 GREAT EPISODES INCLUDING SERIES PREMIERESPECIAL FEATURESRita Moreno RemembersOuttakesNew Episode Intros by Rita MorenoTriviaFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 826663100662 Manufacturer No: DVD10066

Chuck Jones Collection

Rudyard Kipling's classic story comes to delightful life with this wonderful animated short combining the estimable talents of narrator Orson Welles and director Chuck Jones (the genius behind many of the best Warner Bros. cartoons). Blending action, humor, and a few (thankfully noncloying) songs, this daydream of an adventure from the author of The Jungle Book details the efforts of a frisky mongoose sworn to defend his adopted family from a garden full of cobras. This is bound to fascinate and entertain both kids and adults who are interested in nature's struggles, although parents may wish to watch it with younger children who possess a fear of snakes. --Andrew Wright

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 11/06/2007 Run time: 150 minutes Rating: Nr

Looney Tunes - Spotlight Collection Vol. Four

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/27/2008