Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!
During his tenure as vice-president in charge of children's programming at ABC television, Jones produced and directed three half-hour television specials based on stories from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book". In 1973, the story of a young boy raised by wolves in the jungle, premiered to immediate acclaim. Narrated by Roddy McDowall, Mowgli learns about the love, justice and the jungle code of loyalty.
Early storyboard by Jones with a nascent Mowgli in the upper right corner.
Pre-production model sketch of Mowgli by Chuck Jones. You can begin to see how Jones is determining the character and personality of Mowgli through his use of the drawn line.
Production layout drawing by Chuck Jones. Providing hundreds of layout drawings for each of the films he directed, Jones here has clearly defined the character of Mowgli and establishes the model from which the animator's created the mood and movement of each scene.
Original production background layout created by Oscar Dufau and George Wheeler for the Chuck Jones 1975 animated television special, Rikki Tikki Tavi. One of Rudyard Kipling's stories from his "The Jungle Book," Rikki Tikki Tavi tells the tale of a uncommonly courageous mongoose in Imperial India and the family who adopts it.
Limited edition lithograph, created from original art by Chuck Jones for the opening credits of his 1974 animated television special, "The White Seal." Based on a story from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" it tells the tale of a white seal, Kotick, who saves his herd by finding an island where seals would be safe from their enemy, man.
Chuck Jones always felt that you had to know how to draw animals in order to make your cartoon characters (human as well as other species) believable. Here is a page from one of his sketchbooks (graphite on paper) filled with drawings and notes about primates. His notes detail their behavioral habits as well as noting their physical characteristics. He made good use of his study of primates in his television adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book story “Mowgli’s Brothers.”