AMPAS toasts 'Looney' toonmasters

Org to honor Tex Avery, Michael Maltese

By DEREK PETERS

Avery

Maltese

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will toast toonmasters Tex Avery and Michael Maltese with "Putting Looney in the Toons," a tribute marking the centennial anniversary of their 1908 births.

Festivities will be held March 24 at the Linwood Dunn Theater at the Academy's Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood.

Highlights from the duo's iconic "Looney Toons" collection -- and individual contributions to animated film -- will be shown alongside rare recordings from an interview with film historian Joe Adamson. A panel including Maltese's daughter Brenda Maltese Moulthrop and Looney Toons vets Martha Sigall, Jerry Eisenberg and Don Jurwich will further illuminate the pair's work.