`Bugs Bunny Film Festival': Quite A Lot Is Up, Doc

Earlier this month, a Chuck Jones cartoon, "What's Opera, Doc?," was named to the National Film Registry of "works that are considered culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

Starting today and running through Jan. 3, the Neptune will be playing "The Bugs Bunny Film Festival," a program of Warner Bros. cartoons that is made up mostly of Jones' work, including his 1950s Bugs Bunny cartoons, "Bully For Bugs," "Beanstalk Bunny," "Rabbit Seasoning" and "8-Ball Bunny." All are 35mm prints of shorts produced between 1941 and 1957, and there's not a dud among them.

Not all of the 12 cartoons actually star Bugs Bunny, and unfortunately the list doesn't include "What's Opera, Doc?" But much of Jones' most inspired work is on view, including his 1956 classic, "One Froggy Evening," about a singing frog that performs only when it feels like it; one of his breeziest Roadrunner cartoons, "Gee Whiz-z-z" (1956); and "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century," a 1953 Daffy Duck/Porky Pig spoof of science-fiction movies that so impressed producer-director George Lucas that he had it blown up to 70mm to show with the first engagements of "Star Wars" in 1977.

Born in Spokane in 1912, Jones visited Seattle several years ago for a display of his drawings at the Pioneer Square Gallery. He said he regards the years 1944-'62 as the golden era of Warner Bros. cartoons, adding that he thinks most television cartoon shows are really "illustrated radio" that have nothing to do with the art of animation.

"Turn the sound off and watch a film for a few minutes," he said. "If you can't understand what's going on, it's not working. Very few writers today even know how to write action. They write dialogue. If you find it comprehensible without the sound, it's full animation."

Also on the program is the work of several other Warners animators: Tex Avery's "Porky's Preview" (1941), Frank Tashlin's "Porky Pig's Feat" (1943), Friz Freleng's "Ballot Box Bunny" (1951) and Robert McKimson's "(Foghorn) Leghorn Swoggled" (1951).

In mid-January, the Pike St. Cinema is planning an alternative program, "Bad Bugs: The Dark Side of Warner Brothers," made up of several Bugs Bunny cartoons (Avery's "All This and Rabbit Stew," Jones' "Any Bonds Today") and a number of politically incorrect Warners titles (Bob Clampett's "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs," Tashlin's "Wholly Smokes").

The National Film Registry, which began enshrining 25 films each year in 1989, is now up to 100 films. Librarian of Congress James Billington works with an 18-member board of filmmakers and critics to make the selections, which have drawn considerable flak this year.

The most controversial movie on the new list is also the oldest: D.W. Griffith's 1915 Civil War epic, "The Birth of a Nation," which turns the Ku Klux Klan into saviors of the South during the Reconstruction era. Dr. William Gibson, chairman of the NAACP's national board of directors, protested the movie's "distorted and hate-filled glorification of white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan." Gibson wants President Bush to overrule Billington and take "Birth" off the list.

At the same time, the Registry selected two black films: "Within Our Gates," an obscure 1920 silent film by the pioneering African-American director, Oscar Micheaux, and "Carmen Jones," a 1954 musical starring Dorothy Dandridge, whose performance made her the first black actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for a leading role.

In the past, the Registry has honored such black filmmakers as Charles Burnett ("Killer of Sheep"), Gordon Parks ("The Learning Tree") and Spencer Williams ("The Blood of Jesus"). The only female filmmakers on previous lists were Maya Deren ("Meshes of the Afternoon") and Barbara Kopple ("Harlan County USA").

No more women were added this year, although the new list does include more cult movies than usual: Bruce Baillie's "Castro Street" (1966), Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour" (1945), Stan Brakhage's "Dog Star Man" (1964), Albert and David Maysles' "Salesman" (1969) and Herbert Biberman's "Salt of the Earth" (1953). The only Oscar winner for best picture that made the new list was Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" (1977).

Also added to the Registry this year: George Cukor's Tracy-and-Hepburn classic, "Adam's Rib" (1949); the W.C. Fields comedy, "The Bank Dick" (1940); the Laurel and Hardy short, "Big Business" (1927); King Vidor's silent war epic, "The Big Parade" (1925); Arthur Penn's once-controversial gangster movie, "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967); Billy Wilder's film noir, "Double Indemnity" (1944); the Busby Berkeley musical, "Footlight Parade" (1933); Charles Chaplin's most popular comedy, "The Gold Rush" (1925); Max Ophuls' tale of unrequited love, "Letter From an Unknown Woman" (1948); Josef von Sternberg's Marlene Dietrich vehicle, "Morocco" (1930); Robert Altman's bicentennial epic, "Nashville" (1975); Charles Laughton's only film as a director, "The Night of the Hunter" (1955); Stanley Kubrick's anti-war drama, "Paths of Glory" (1957); Alfred Hitchcock's shocker, "Psycho" (1960); and the Sam Peckinpah western, "Ride the High Country" (1962).

AROUND TOWN: Ford A. Thaxton's "Soundtrack Cinema," on KING-FM at 9 p.m. tomorrow, features music from the future, including Jerry Goldsmith's score for "Logan's Run" and the Vangelis music for "Blade Runner" . . . The next "open screening" at 911 Media Arts Center will be at 8 p.m. Monday - "if we feel like it," according to 911's brochure. In other words, call 682-6552 before you go . . . Nomad Video will be back at 7 p.m. next Friday at the Weathered Wall, 1921 Fifth Ave. The program this time is made up of videos from Seattle-area artists Cyndia Pickering, Michael Douglas and Alan Pruzan, plus new work from West Hollywood, New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Bay Area. Tickets will be $5 at the door.