In 1965 animator Chuck Jones adapted a short picture book called The Dot and The Line: a romance in lower mathematics as a 9-minute cartoon. It follows a rigid blue line who adores a carefree red dot; she, however, swoons for a swaggering squiggle.
Rejected, the line enrolls in self-improvement boot camp, bending, flexing and inventing dazzling angles until he can sketch cathedrals with a single stroke. When the squiggle tries to match the precision, his chaotic scribbles collapse, and the dot chooses discipline over disorder.
Narrated with champagne-dry wit by Robert Morley, the film unfolds on spare backgrounds that feel lifted from a Mondrian canvas, while the squiggle’s jittery form was drawn on rice paper so the ink could literally misbehave. Norton Juster, author of the 1963 book, adapted his own text, seasoning math jokes with romantic wisdom: “To the vector belong the spoils.”
The short captured the 1965 Oscar for Best Animated Short, one of MGM’s final cartoons and proof that Jones could do more than torment coyotes. Decades later, its crisp pop-art minimalism still inspires.
Previously:
• Chuck Jones’ 9 rules for writing Road Runner stories
• Chuck Jones directed this Oscar-winning government-funded cartoon promoting universal health care (1949)
• WATCH: How Looney Tunes’ Chuck Jones evolved as an artist
• Video of Chuck Jones drawing Wile E. Coyote
• Dr. Seuss, Chuck Jones, and Mel Blanc’s US Army cartoon warning against loose lips (1943)
• That’s all folks! Warner Bros CEO murders Bugs Bunny for fun and profit
• This 70-year-old cartoon made a hell of an argument for single-payer healthcare
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