As progress continues on the expansion of the Crocker Art Museum, its staff has arranged for an exhibit that has an undeniable appeal for people of all ages.

Beginning today and continuing through Jan. 18, 2009, the Crocker will showcase its newest exhibit, “The Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons.”

Consisting of more than 160 drawings, paintings, animation cels and related art objects, the exhibit, said the museum’s director Lial A. Jones, will surely present the famous cartoons in a much more indebt nature.

“Many people are familiar with [Warner Bros.] cartoons, but this is a chance to see the artistic process and raw talent behind those iconic images,” Jones said.

For most people, images of such Warner Bros. animated characters as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, the Roadrunner, the Coyote, Sylvester and Tweety are extremely familiar and bring out a variety of positive responses.

Through the exhibit, which traces the great years of Warner Bros. cartoons from 1935 through 1955, guests can obtain up-close views of many famous Warner Bros. cartoon images, as well as gain a behind-the-scenes understanding of the development of classical Warner Bros. cel animation.

Bringing Art to Life
The exhibit also presents details regarding how Warner Bros. draftsmen and animators worked intensively to create and evolve their characters with careful attention paid to anatomy and facial expressions.

An example of this precision can be found in the exhibit’s Bugs Bunny model sheet, which was drawn by artist, Robert McKimson in 1943. The sheet shows various sketches and notes related to the fine detail of Bugs Bunny, including how the character should look while running and how its nose, eyes and ears should appear with different poses.

Featured in the exhibit, which includes works by all of Warner Bros. studio’s directors from the 1930s through the 1960s, will be Chuck Jones’ cel from “Rabbit Hood” with Bugs Bunny, and Arthur Davis’ cel from “What Makes Daffy Duck.”

Diana Daniels, the museum’s associate curator, said that she is pleased that the Crocker was able to present such an important California exhibit as “The Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons.”

“[The owner of the exhibit’s works], Stephen Schneider continues to circulate the exhibition and we had received materials about its availability and one of the things that we liked about the exhibition was the fact that this is some of the most famous art ever to have been produced in California,” Daniels said. “The Crocker does emphasize contemporary artwork of California and [the Warner Bros. cartoons] are something that a lot of people don’t necessarily appreciate for all the handwork and the skill that goes in behind the short films. We thought this would be a great opportunity to bring that kind of [educational exhibit] to our audience.”

“Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity”
In an exclusive telephone interview with The Union, Schneider, who is also the author of the book, “That’s All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation,” a comprehensive, but now out-of-print, critical history of the Warner Bros. animation studio, spoke about the current exhibit.

“Really, [viewing this exhibit] is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Schneider said. “Not much of this material survived, so it’s unlikely that a comparable show will happen again. Certainly, it hasn’t happened until now.”

Schneider, who is also a former New York Times writer, who freelances for various publications from his home in Amsterdam, said that the creation of Warner Bros. animation studio was that of fortunate timing.

“Warner cartoons studio was one of the totally unplanned, unplannable little miracles of popular culture, where something happened that could not have been perceived,” Schneider said. “For no reason that anyone can understand, the best directors, the best writers, the best voice people and the best music people all ended up at the one studio and their outputs for a period of about 10 or 15 years in particular was nothing short of prodigious and amazing.”

From Cel to Screen
In addition to the exhibit, the Crocker will also be offering several exhibit-related educational programs, including the Warner Bros. Film Festival, which will be held at the Guild Theatre at 35th Street and Broadway on Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.

Stacey Shelnut-Hendrick, the museum’s director of education, said that the Crocker is proud of the educational programs that will accompany the exhibit.

“We have developed a series of educational programs that offer opportunities for children and adults to explore the wonderful characters developed during Warner Bros. golden era and what made them so special and enduring,” Shelnut-Hendrick said. “One of the programs we are most excited about is the Warner Bros. Film Festival. This program is a wonderful way to look at several classic short films, originally developed for the big screen, that you can no longer see on television and examine what made animation done by Warner Bros. so special and how it has changed over the years. There will be educators on hand to discuss some of the key elements of the films, but largely this is about enjoying very entertaining films.”

The film festival, which will be offered free to museum members and will cost $3 for non-museum members, will also include the more recent Warner Bros. films, “Space Jam” (1996; 88 minutes) and “The Iron Giant” (1999; 86 minutes).

Other educational programs will include the Looney Cartooning Workshop, an interactive cartoon making event for adults led by Emma Moore on Dec. 4 at 6 p.m., and Cartoon-O-Rama, which will present children with the opportunity to view Saturday morning cartoons on Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Additionally, a special Second Saturday event for families called “Looney Tunes and Opera” will be held at Curtis Hall in the Sierra 2 Center at 2791 24th St. on Jan. 10, from noon to 2 p.m.

That’s All Folks
Emphasizing the popularity of classic Warner Bros. animation, Schneider said, “[Warner Bros.] is universally considered to have made the greatest short cartoons in all of the Golden Age. Certainly, anyone between the ages of 25 and 50 has seen these cartoons hundreds or possibly thousands of times as they were growing up on television and, if they have earlier memories, in the theaters. So, for the parents of a lot of young kids, this [exhibit] will really be like getting in touch with some old friends.”

For additional information about this exhibit and its related programs, call (916) 808-7000 or visit the Web site www.crockerartmuseum.com.