Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears

Three bears are hungry; nothing to eat in the entire house except a few old carrots. Papa Bear comes up with an idea: "Let's pretend this is Goldilocks and The Bears." When "Goldilocks" comes, I guess the plan is for the bears to eat their prey.

Mama Bear makes carrot soup. The aroma travels down into Bugs' hole where he literally floats to the house and slurps up all the porridge, er soup. The rest of the animated short involves the bears trying to get Bugs. However, our hero compliments Mama Bear about her eyes and looks....and she's easily taken in with the compliments.

However, that leads to an unsatisfactory end of this story for Bugs!

Overall, a fast-moving story but so-so at best in the humor department.

This is one of my favorites. Every Character is absolutely hilarious. The Baby Bear being huge while the father is half his size is pure genius. Every time (and I am not promoting child abuse here) he Papa bear whacks Junyer I laugh out loud. Bea Benaderet is great as the ma bear. Stan Freberg was just as funny as Junyer.

These Three Bears cartoons, of which "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears" is the first, barely squeak past modern-day TV censors, and couldn't get made today. They feature a domineering patriarch who beats his child and browbeats his wife. Never mind that the cartoon hardly approves of his behavior. These are deadly serious subjects that must ... not ... be ... mocked!

This point of view has two errors. One, deadly serious subjects are the meat of comedy; certainly in Warner Brothers cartoons where the barely hidden themes are death, dismemberment, mayhem, sexual perversion, greed, humiliation, lust, abuse of power and so forth. As Steve Allen often said, comedy is tragedy plus time. Two, Papa Bear is not beating a helpless child or berating a gentle-spirited lady. Baby Bear is enormous, and he's stupid enough to blunt our sympathy. Mama Bear is a drip - and not even a nice drip. She's happy to go along with Papa Bear's cruel scheme to pulverize Bugs Bunny.

That scheme is odd, by the way. Baby Bear assumes they're doing it for food. But there's a strong suggestion that Papa Bear is just looking for some cruel fun. After all, they're not after a rabbit. They re-enact the "Three Bears" story to attract Goldilocks!

They get Bugs Bunny, who handily outwits them. But is Bugs a sexist, as modern scolds would have it? Bugs compliments the alleged beauty of Mama Bear in order to distract her from killing him. Later, when she lustily pursues him, he backs off in terror.

First, Bugs had every right to do what he could to save his life. He certainly didn't owe his would-be murderess an honest appraisal, i.e. that she's repulsive. Second, despite modern-day cant about inner beauty and unconventional beauty, Mama Bear has nothing to offer anyone. She's a homicidal drip.

Then again, audiences never hate her. You have to admire the spirit of a woman who gets one compliment, then immediately blocks every doorway against her admirer, while she wears various would-be attractive garments, or even wears nothing (!), and then shows up at his home to smother the unwilling suitor with kisses. Mama Bear, you're a multifaceted woman.

The animation in this cartoon is oddly crude for Warner Brothers and its director Chuck Jones. Otherwise, this is a top-notch, very funny short and highly recommended to all but prudes, scolds and P.C.-thinkers of all varieties.

This short is available on DVD on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume Three," Disc 3.

Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944)

**** (out of 4)

A masterpiece in the animation field has Papa, Mama and Baby bears hungry so they decide to try and lure Goldilocks in with carrot soup but instead they get Bugs Bunny. This take on the classic story is one of the greatest animated movies ever made. While there's nothing too ground breaking or special here, I think the story works so well that it's impossible not to fall for all the charm and laughs. Bugs is his classic, smart self as he's always one step ahead of the bears who are wanting to eat him. He brings plenty of laughs to the screen including a great sequence when he's eating where he tricks the baby bear into getting him some ketchup. What really makes this short memorable are the three bears and their personalities. This short runs just 7-minutes but it's amazing how much personality Jones can get into the film. I love how Mama bear overacts for the camera, how Papa bear is embarrassed to be acting the story out and then there's Baby bear and his dumbness. Some might object to the father beating the son but hey, it's all good fun.

Bugs Bunny is one of animation's funniest, most interesting and most iconic characters, and while their series of cartoons was short-lived The Three Bears were every bit as entertaining and their cartoons are very good to great.

While not one of the best of The Three Bears cartoons, 'Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears' having a still-finding-its-feet feel, 'Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears' is a very good and funny start.

The Three Bears are incredibly well realised on the whole, with very distinct and interesting personalities but Mama Bear is a little bland and has the least funny material of the three of them. While much of the animation quality is fine, there are cartoons out there that contain more energy in the movement and the bears are a bit scrappy and less refined in look, especially Mama Bear.

However, as said much of the animation is fine. It is bright, colourful and vibrant, the background art is filled with rich detail and Bugs is very well drawn. Carl Stalling's music is outstanding as always, the orchestration is lush and lively, the rhythms are high in energy and it just adds so much to what's going on on top of fitting brilliantly.

'Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears' is very funny, often hilarious stuff, with the dialogue of Papa Bear and Junyor evoking some very hearty chuckles and the gags being just as witty and fresh, like with Bugs tricking Junyor into giving him the ketchup bottle. Bugs is typically likable and smart, and shares great chemistry with the bears, but Papa Bear and especially Junyor steal the show from under him with both bringing so much personality to the cartoon.

Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet and Kent Rogers do very good jobs with the voices, though there is a preference to Billy Bletcher over Blanc as Papa Bear (though Blanc is excellent as the character, but he doesn't own the role like Bletcher did) and Stan Freberg over Rogers. The story is not surprising, but is a very clever twist on the famous story and is always paced in a way that ensures that there is not a dull moment.

In conclusion, a good start to The Three Bears series but better followed. 8/10 Bethany Cox