Chuck Jones

Born: Charles Martin Jones
Birthday: September 21, 1912
Location: Spokane, WA, U.S.
Alma mater: Chouinard Art Institute
Occupation: Animator, Director
Years active: 1931-2001
Died: Februray 22, 2002

Chuck Jones drew frequently as a child. His father was an entrepreneurial man who started many businesses, and every time he began a new business venture, he bought pencils and stationary with the new company’s letterhead. Evey time his new company failed, he gave those supplies to his children. Chuck was never at a loss for art supplies.

After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute, Jones got a job offer from his friend, Fred Kopietz, who was working at the Ub Iwerks studio. Chuck began as a cel washer, moving up to become an ink and painter, eventually promoting to an in-betweener.

In 1933, Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions as an assistant animator. Schlesinger’s was an independent studio producing the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Warner Bros. He was promoted to animator in 1935. During WWII, Jones directed many of the Private Snafu shorts shown to United States military members.

After his career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started his own studio, Sib Tower 12 Productions and made cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a new Tom and Jerry series of shorts, and television adaptations of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Horton Hears a Who! But, Sib Tower 12 was absorbed by MGM in 1964 and renamed MGM Animation/Visual Arts. While under MGM, Chuck’s animated short film, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1965.

Jones started up another studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises, when MGM shuttered its animation division in 1970. He produced The Cricket in Times Square and two sequels. Chuck also directed three animated TV adaptations of Rudyard Kipling stories; The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Brothers, The White Seal, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. He directed and produced The Phantom Tollbooth.

Jones wrote his memoir, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist in 1990.

Over his lifetime, Jones won three Academy Awards for Best Animated Short. He was also awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for his work in the animation industry.

The Author

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee has been creating animated cartoons online since 1999/2000 for his website flashcartoons.org. Many cartoons on the site have gained viral video status reaching millions of viewers online. In 2009, Lavalle started learning hand drawn animation from Don Bluth in his animation classes, as well as attending his Masterclasses in Arizona. He has also personally studied animation and visual effects from Veteran Disney animators in Orlando, FL.

Lavalle is widely known in the animation industry as the creator of the TraditionalAnimation.com website. After seeing that most animation sites were about all types of animation, not any specific to classical hand drawn animation, Lavalle knew Traditional Animation needed to be represented online. TraditionalAnimation.com has become the leading website and social media account for all things 2D. The website served as inspiration for “The Traditional Animation Show” in which Lavalle was both producer and host.

His partnership with Don Bluth began when he championed the Dragon's Lair Indiegogo campaign as lead project manager, editor, voice actor and in-betweener. The campaign reached $730,000 dollars to produce a 7-minute pitch video. In 2017, Lavalle brought the idea of creating a school to Don Bluth, and Don Bluth University was born. After a decade of learning from Don Bluth and working together on multiple pitches and business ventures, Lavalle accepted the position as Vice President of Don Bluth's new company Don Bluth Studios.