"It's an Alphabeautiful Mathemagical New Musical Movie!" That is the tag line used in advertising "The Phantom Tollbooth" a 1970 feature length film directed and produced by Chuck Jones.  (It was his only feature length film.)  A combination of live action (Chuck makes a cameo appearance in the beginning live action sequence) and animation, "The Phantom Tollbooth" is about a young boy, Milo, who is bored with his life when suddenly a magic tollbooth appears in his room & propels him into a marvelous quest to save the Princesses Rhyme and Reason.  This is the second adaptation of a book by Norton Juster that Chuck Jones made into a film, the first being his Academy Award-winning "The Dot and The Line" of 1966.

The artwork (mixed media on board, approx. 4" x 8") pictured is a pre-production concept work by Phyllis Graham, the wife of the revered teacher and artist, Don Graham, from whom Chuck Jones took many a life-drawing class in the 1940s and 1950s.  It has been selected by the curator of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gallery to be a part of an upcoming exhibition of the art of Chuck Jones opening May 14, 2010 in their Beverly Hills facility.