Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears

There are Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. The bears are hungry and they make porridge. It is too hot. They take a walk to let it cool off. It turns out to be a trick as they hide under the stairs. Bugs Bunny gets lured in by the smell of the food.

This is Bugs Bunny doing Bugs Bunny things... at first. It is interesting that the Bears are laying a trap for him. It is a different path than the traditional Goldilocks story. I like it. The middle is what I expect from Bugs as he gets the upper hand against the Bears. The ending is less like Bugs and it feels a bit off. I like the more standard story where Bugs wins.

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.

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.

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.

Without any porridge left the cupboard, the three bears realise they won't be able to attract Goldilocks to their home. With only the old carrots available to eat, they make soup and lure Bugs Bunny into their house. However Bugs proves to be much harder to catch than Goldilocks and the 3 Bears are not getting their fairytale ending.

Bugs Bunny cartoons will always do roughly the same thing every time – Bugs will evade and trick and mock who/what ever is trying to catch him. In this case he is drawn into the fairytale world of the 3 Bears. Cue his usual trademark humour which I found as funny as always here.

Bugs' support characters usually make or break a film and here his foils are mostly pretty funny. The papa bear is a hoot with his impatience and quick temper, the baby bear is slow and dumb and combines well with the father. Only the mother fails to really establish herself, even though she is used in the punchline of the film she is not as strong as the others.

Overall though this is a funny film and the support characters do what they are supposed to do and carry a certain amount of the weight of the comedy and give a foil for Bugs to play off well.