Wild Honey, or, How to Get Along Without a Ration Book

Barney Bear cartoons were not among the best films ever made by MGM...but they were entertaining and harmless fun. Like. Most of them, this one was directed by Fred Quimby while the Hanna-Barbera team made most of the Tom & Jerry shorts.

Barney wants honey...which makes sense since he's a bear! But unlike the average bear, he doesn't rely on instincts but on a book! Yes, apparently in the pre-Amazon days, you could find a book on how to find and harvest wild honey! Unfortunately, Barney is a big dim...and suffers the consequences.

This is a pleasant film but is pretty tame compared to many other MGM cartoons. I think a lot of this is because there was no one rival with a fully developed personality...just a bunch of bees. Also, while enjoyable, most of the gags are just okay...nothing special. But considering the quality of the animation and entertainment, the film still is better than most offerings from the era.

Barney Bear is out in the forest looking for wild honey. He finds a bee and follows it back to its hive. It's a fun little Barney Bear short. The main issue is the point of the thing. One assumes that they are trying to sell the virtue of the ration book during times of war. This does not do any of that. At best, it's a warning against gathering wild honey. I can see the difficulty with selling the ration book. Maybe Barney Bear could do something else.

With a war on and sugar rationed, Barney Bear goes in search of honey from wild bees, with the aid of a book.

Director Rudolf Ising turns in a very good little cartoon here, even though he leans heavily on Fred Quimby's staff, rather than his usual producing partner, Hugh Harman. Were they wrangling at the time? In any case, like most of the Barney Bear shorts, this is essentially a silent comedy, and a well-timed one at that. The usual candybox stye of animation is in evidence here, with Joseph Smith's background and layout work particularly fine.

While not one of my favourite cartoon characters, Barney Bear was a very funny and likable character where his sluggishness was a huge part of his charm. He was also interesting for being modelled on both his creator Rudolf Ising (who also was his first voice actor until 1941) and the mannerisms of Wallace Beery.

To me, the early Barney Bear cartoons are among Ising's better cartoons. The same goes to Barney's seventh cartoon (of 26), and seventh of ten for Ising, 'Wild Honey', which may not be one of Barney's best or funniest efforts but it is very hard to dislike. It may be slight and predictable and it doesn't blow the mind or have much that is hilarious or innovative. But it's well made, cute and entertaining and executes all its components very well and not making without completely wowing.

Barney's personality again is very well established and he proves again why he was deserving of his own series and it was sad he didn't last longer. He is a fun and adorable character and easy to root for, one can really understand his frustration. The animation is colourful and beautifully drawn with fluid movements and meticulous attention to detail. The amount of detail given to Barney's character design was incredibly and it was a shame that it became simplified later on and lost its special uniqueness.

Music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed, even enhancing the impact of actions and gestures.

'Wild Honey' is charming, has some silly chuckles, has enough that is amusing and is paced beautifully. The gadgets are cool and fun even when the outcome of their use is known.

Overall, well done and a nice watch. 8/10 Bethany Cox