Following the closing down of "Termite Terrace" – the true home of the beloved Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons – in 1963 and after completing a few more Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner shorts, animation legend Chuck Jones left Warner Brothers for an unfruitful stint at revamping Tom and Jerry at MGM. To counter this perhaps, he also turned his attention to some highbrow stuff on the side of which, the Oscar- winning short under review is one example and the feature-length fantasy THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH (1969) would be the culmination.
What we have here is a series of colourful lines, one of which falls for a red dot, which in turn is infatuated with a doodle (here called "squiggle")! Despite the good counsel of its ilk, the line still mopes after the dot and literally bends itself out of shape to impress it. Before long, the 'jazzy' uncouthness of the squiggle dawns on the latter and it recognizes and starts admiring the 'square' qualities of the line. It must be said that rotund character actor Robert Morley's narration adds invaluable gravitas to the thin plot line. Apart from perhaps wishing kids to love their maths lessons, one could also take this as Jones' denigrating commentary on contemporaneous European abstract animators not to mention the emerging hippie community!!
What we have here is a series of colourful lines, one of which falls for a red dot, which in turn is infatuated with a doodle (here called "squiggle")! Despite the good counsel of its ilk, the line still mopes after the dot and literally bends itself out of shape to impress it. Before long, the 'jazzy' uncouthness of the squiggle dawns on the latter and it recognizes and starts admiring the 'square' qualities of the line. It must be said that rotund character actor Robert Morley's narration adds invaluable gravitas to the thin plot line. Apart from perhaps wishing kids to love their maths lessons, one could also take this as Jones' denigrating commentary on contemporaneous European abstract animators not to mention the emerging hippie community!!