Chuck Jones cartoons

TCM's prime time line-up tonight features a new 30-minute documentary on famous animator Chuck Jones, followed by about a dozen of his best-known shorts. One of the most famous would be What's Opera, Doc?, airing at 9:50 PM ET (and repeated overnight), in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs Bunny through a Wagner opera dressed up as Siegfried, with Bugs in drag as Brünhilde. Be advised, however, that this isn't the only short Jones' team made with an operatic theme. There's also the famous Rabbit of Seville, which has as its theme Rossini's The Barber of Seville. As such, it's easy to mix up bits between the two shorts, such as Bugs Bunny's massaging Elmer Fudd's scalp, or the race of the barber chairs, both of which appear in Rabbit of Seville. Sadly, Rabbit of Seville is not airing as part of the tribute.

A very interesting short Jones produced after leaving Warner Brothers is The Dot and the Line, which airs at 10:00 PM ET following What's Opera, Doc? In this bizarre mid-60s piece, a straight line is in love with a dot, but it's an unrequited love as the dot thinks the line is too plain. The straight line eventually tries to turn itself into shapes, with a result that's certainly interesting, if you haven't seen this short before.