Bob Clampett

Who's there? I don't know if it's still on display at the Academy Museum right now, but two of the coolest things they have in the animation section are the first ever reference mech head of Bugs Bunny that was used for the wild hare.

And then the Bob Clampett drawn sketcher cell.

It's not fully colored, the sketch cell of the Porky Pig.

That's all folks.

Don't hate us.

I'm Bob Clampett, by the way.

Bugs here, Mel Blanc.

Sorry, kid.

John Katona as Ray Harryhausen, Chuck Jones, and Mel Blanc.

Tanya Verifield as Julie.

Tom O'Connor as Bob Clampett.

Alan Blumenfeld as Ted Geisel.

It was Chuck that gave Daffy the sour plus sarcastic talk-to-the-audience, fourth-wall-breaking meta humor that made him such a great foil for Bugs.

And I've noticed recently in The Day the Earth Blew Up and in Coyote vs. Acme, the writers and animators at Warner Bros. these days seem to be more influenced by the Bob Clampett daffy.

I guess it's an easier, broader form of Daffy to do and also it lends itself to more creative ways to make him look cartoony.

But there's just a specific level of humor that Jones brought to the character that I just haven't seen attempted, at least in the last few years.

They could have done a little pre-release buzz and then people, it goes out there and people like it.

My big worry going into this was that it was going to lean way too heavily into the millennial demographic and the millennials who grew up watching tune heads on Cartoon Network when they were eight, nine years old.

People like us who know the difference between a Bob Clampett Daffy and a Chuck Jones Daffy and went even further than us and then just made getting into Looney Tunes their entire personality.

That wasn't the case.

But generally because they're they sort of got I'm going to say their version of the Beatles working for Looney Tunes.

And those names are Tex Avery, Frizz Frilling, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Rob McKinson.

And of course, the great and late one of probably most people would say the greatest voice actor of all time, Mel Blanc.

Yeah.

And he ended up, he was a very talented sculptor and artist.

And he'd been doing work for Bob Clampett.

I had a chance to meet Bob Clampett, spend some time with Bob Clampett and with my friend.

That was an amazing experience.

So that was inspiring.

Yeah.

I mean, he literally even ran a clip of one of his films and did the voices for us because he didn't have sound on it.

And we're sitting there in his office, listening to Bob Clampett do all the voices on it.

I also love the way the film utilizes the other cartoon characters like Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.

Lately, there's been a push to return Daffy to the original Tex Avery Bob Clampett version of the character, as seen in the recent Looney Tunes cartoons and the animated film The Day the Earth Blew Up.

I'm a big fan of the jealous Daffy conceived by Chuck Jones, but I also really like that the wackier version has been getting some attention lately, and this movie even provides a story reason for it.

Most of the Looney Tunes featured here are voiced by Eric Bauza, who's proven to be such a chameleon.

He is, in many ways, an eternal optimist, and Coyote vs. Acme does a good job of exploring that.

Where they ultimately go with this is very sweet and a reminder of why the Looney Tunes continue to endear so many years after they were first drawn.

The movie is such a tribute to what makes the work of artists like Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKinson, and the other folks at Termite Terrace so special, and why we want to watch these characters attempt to pulverize each other to hilarious results.

Shame on whoever decided a better use of this movie would be gathering dust somewhere rather than letting the world see it.