Bah Wilderness

In the 1930s, the team of Harmon and Ising made a ton of godawful films. While the animation wasn't bad, the films were chock full of ultra-cutesy characters who sang!!! Humor seemed unimportant--and irritating the audience and making them want to commit suicide seemed to be their aim. The films were THAT bad! However, times changed and by the 1940s, the super-cute style and terrible singing was out--and Harmon and Ising managed to adapt with the times. And, in the case of "Bah Wilderness", they adapted VERY well.

The film is a Barney Bear comedy. Good 'ol Barney is camping but a million and one irritants make it impossible for him to get a good night's sleep--including porcupines, lights and water....LOTS and LOTS of water. You just have to see it--and it's filled with nice humor and will make you smile. Well worth seeing and definite proof that the Harmon-Ising team was not 100% evil!

Barney Bear goes camping, and discovers that the great outdoors are no place to get a good night's sleep in this episode of the MGM cartoon series.

Like most of the Barney Bear series -- indeed, like a lot of MGM cartoons when you got out of the Tex Avery unit -- it makes extensive use of silent film techniques and very little dialogue. The only voices heard are on the radio, and the sounds are mostly the movie's score and sound effects. Although director Rudy Ising was thoroughly conversant with talkie techniques, his roots were in silent film making -- he was one of the people who had begun with Walt Disney back in Kansas City -- and he didn't use talk when he could direct a good visual gag.

Barney Bear is sleeping outside in the woods. He's camping out with all the gear, but is constantly interrupted by all the wild animals. He lays out all the traps, but only traps himself. A storm comes. It's one thing after another.

It is one thing after another. If this needs one more thing, it needs more movement. Here's an idea. He gets washed away by the storm and it becomes an exciting bumpy ride all the way to the front door of his house. That would have given this more kinetic energy. This is a fine Barney Bear cartoon although not that exciting. This feels more like of a list of ideas.

Just from the summary you can probably get a very good sense of what this cartoon is all about. No surprises here -- Barney has no patience for the wild, albeit adorable animals around him, and then gets his comeuppance several times over. The cartoon has no dialog other than a few lines coming out of Barney's radio. But it's still enjoyable to watch, in large part because of the careful way it's animated -- this nighttime wilderness is indeed dark and mysterious, often bathed in blues. Light is cleverly used, keeping some things hidden in the dark until Barney shines his flashlight on them. And the opening sequence, where the camera zooms in on Barney through a 3D forest is just lovely.

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 ninth cartoon (of 26), and nine of ten for Ising, 'Bah Wilderness', which may not be one of Barney's funniest efforts but it is very hard to dislike and is among his better ones. It may be slight and anybody familiar with the "struggle for peace and quiet" concept will know where it is going. 'Bah Wilderness' 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.

As to be expected, 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 nuanced 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.

'Bah Wilderness' is charming, has some silly chuckles, has enough that is amusing, centring around Barney's struggles with his conflict with the great outdoors, and is paced beautifully. The opening sequence is great and particularly beautifully animated.

In conclusion, very well done. 8/10 Bethany Cox