Whitney is a huge Chuck Jones fan and she also loves to visit art galleries. When she was at Comic-Con 2010, she learned about the Chuck Jones Galleries and their mission to promote animation and comic artwork. She's been following them ever since and she tracked down Craig Kausen, Chuck Jones's grandson and head of all Chuck Jones related companies, to discuss how he is preserving Chuck's legacy and spreading the message of creativity.

Craig’s grandfather was Chuck Jones ,one of Bugs Bunny’s fathers, and a significant creator in the Warner Brothers cartoons. He works in the family business of preserving Chuck’s legacy via his namesake galleries and the Chuck Jones Experience. Whitney shares her experience at a Chuck Jones Gallery and together they express their appreciation of Bill Plympton. Craig explains how Warner Brothers animators made cartoons for themselves and hoped the audiences would enjoy their humor. Craig shares one of the questions he asks perspective employees and asks it of Whitney. Chuck’s animation legacy left a huge impact on today’s animation industry, including on Pixar’s John Lasseter and Japan’s Osamu Tezuka. Chuck was adamant that you learned the rules so you could then break them and he was always learning art technique. Chuck Jones related companies started when he and his daughter, Linda Jones Clough, started an art company to present animation production material showcase artists, and more. When Linda contacted Warner Brothers about Chuck’s production material, she learned the studio burned them. Since then the Chuck Jones companies have preserved animation and art history, while nurturing new talent. A new opportunity Craig is exploring is how to inspire creativity in people, businesses, and communities called the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. The Center is also associated with the Smithsonian, Museum of the Moving Image, and the Academy of Motion Pictures on a traveling exhibit called "What’s Up Doc?: The Animation Art of Chuck Jones."

Episode 39: Jake S. Friedman

Toon-In TalkBy Whitney GraceMar 22, 2023