The Bear and the Beavers

It's an MGM color cartoon by Rudolf Ising. Barney is an old bear who had built himself a cabin to spend the winter. He runs out of firewood and so he goes into the woods with an ax. He has many difficulties unlike the busy beavers who are much more in their elements. He decides to steal from the beavers and they're not too happy.

The bear is fine but I would have liked to have a voice go with the character. The only dialogue comes from a beaver saying Timber! The 'war' is not that inventive although it does end with a Defense Bond advertisement. If WW2 is the inspiration, the leads should be the beavers who are surprise attacked by the bear. Then the war would be more patriotic which is what the short is trying to do. It doesn't work if the audience is rooting for the bear and it doesn't work with the WW2 narrative.

In the 1930s, Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising paired together to make a ton of truly insipid cartoons for Looney Tunes. The films, apart from being rather dull, had something else in common...they were sacchariney and filled with cutesy characters who love to sing. While this might have worked okay back in the 1930s, Looney Tunes took a huge shift when the pair left the studio....making much more edgy and funny cartoons. Gone were singing cuties and Bosco (one of their dullest stars)...in were the likes of Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny. Rudolf Ising went to MGM to make more cartoons and at first, they too, were kind of the sappy variety. Fortunately, they did get better....and "The Bear and the Beavers" is proof the man could make fun cartoons. He joined the likes of Hanna-Barbera (who specialized in the Tom & Jerry shorts) and Tex Avery (who simply made insanely strange and funny shorts) and remained there for a few years.

This cartoon stars Barney Bear....a character that Ising worked with frequently. Barney awakens mid-winter as he's run out of wood and his home is getting cold. So, he goes out to chop wood....and discovers the beavers' stash instead. Is Barney going to get away with stealing this or will the beavers get their revenge?

The cartoon is not insanely funny nor especially great....but it's NOT cutesy and there's no singing...a huge improvement over the 1930s shorts. Not a must-see film but a decent time-passer.

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 'The Bear and the Beavers', which may not be one of Barney's best or funniest efforts but it is very hard to dislike. It may be slight and there are funnier Barney cartoons, for Barney it's a comparatively serious effort in the latter half in particular. Generally 'The Bear and the Beavers' is like the other Ising-directed Barney cartoons in general, pretty much everything is well executed but it doesn't blow the mind.

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. 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. It's charming, has some silly chuckles and is paced beautifully.

While all is done well, the scene-stealing beavers are particularly good and one does feel sympathy for them.

All in all, doesn't blow the mind but very nice to watch. 8/10 Bethany Cox