Between 1938 and 1962 Chuck Jones directed more than 200 Looney Tunes cartoons for Warner Brothers – ten films a year, six minutes per film – becoming one of the all-time masters of visual comedy in the process. And yes, the Coyote always chased the Road Runner, and Pepe chased his true love, and Daffy always started a fight with Bugs, but how did he keep those recurring cartoons from being too formulaic or repetitive? The answer is in the brilliant character development that happened over the course of those 24 years.
From Slate: The latest video essay from notable movie dissector Tony Zhou (“Every Frame a Painting”) does an excellent job of breaking down the artistry, focusing the very detailed and intense process behind Jones’ creation of characters (their individual desires, for instance) and how they evolved over time.
Watch it below.