Watch a New Chuck Jones Cartoon for Free

If you want to see DAFFY DUCK FOR PRESIDENT, the new four-minute cartoon based on a 1997 Chuck Jones book, you could go out and blow a lot of money on the LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION VOLUME TWO set. OK, you’re getting that set anyhow, and should, but if you haven’t gotten around to it yet (or, like me, are waiting for an Amazon shipment), you can still see the new Daffy cartoon. Yahoo lets you watch it online here, in an apparently exclusive deal with Warner Bros.. (If you still hold out hope that an unexpected recount may make the mallard our next president, you might also want to check out DaffyForPresident.com, which offers an MP3 of a hip-hop campaign song and some screen savers, among other items.)Chuck, despite not being with us any more, is the only guy credited in DAFFY DUCK FOR PRESIDENT’s opening, but the short was directed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone. It’s an odd combination of comedy and civics lesson that vaguely reminds me of Chuck’s 1939 short OLD GLORY (which is also in the GOLDEN COLLECTION 2 set, by the way).This cartoon does feel like it’s based on a book that Chuck Jones did in 1997–which I don’t mean as a compliment–but it’s a pleasant way to spend a few minutes, which I can’t say about all the cartoons that Jones was actually involved in as an active participant in his later years. The backgrounds and color styling are particularly nice.You do sort of get the feeling that the only reason anyone saw the 1997 book as material for a new short is the Jones connection, which makes one wonder: Are there any other Jones stories out there that someone is going to decide need to be adapted into a cartoon? Was WILLIAM THE BACKWARDS SKUNK ever animated?