Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears

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.

I started re-watching this for the first time in a long time, and realized about 30 seconds in how unique this short is. I had to rewind it 2 minutes in and time the first shot - EIGHTY SECONDS. The first three shots are almost 4 full minutes long. In all, there are only 10 shots in this entire cartoon - brilliantly paced, inspirational for anyone who wants to learn how to better tell a story.

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

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.

One thing I disliked about this cartoon was the slowness of it. The jokes were slow (not necessarily bad, just slow), the plot moved along slowly and even the animation was slow (in most places, anyway). This was the main thing I found mediocre.

"Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears" has an odd mix of humour. On the one hand, you have very funny and witty verbal jokes, funny Bugs Bunny acts and you have almost "cringey" slapstick and primarily unfunny sight gags. There is a great deal of originality in the cartoon (for those days anyway), which was very entertaining, fun and interesting to watch. On the whole, I thought it was an unusual Looney Tunes cartoon in quality of the different aspects, never have I had the same opinion of each aspect in a LT cartoon before (at least in my memory).

Anyhow, in this cartoon, we meet a small, grumpy father bear, a mummy bear and an utterly impossibly-biologically over-sized baby bear (he is bigger than either of his parents). The father bear is thinking of something or other, while baby bear waits impatiently for breakfast. They eventually decide to do the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Unfortunately they do not have porridge, so they have carrot soup instead. Not surprisingly, this attracts the Bugs Bunny rather than Goldilocks... Cartoon capers commence...

I am not sure whether I will watch this cartoon again, but it was perfectly pleasant at the time. I recommend this to people who like unusually slow Looney Tunes cartoons and to people who like Looney Tunes slapstick. Enjoy "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears"! :-)

7 and a half out of ten.