Half-Pint Palomino

In the Grand Canyon, Barney and his put-upon burro try to capture a palomino pony the size of a mouse. The pony, unsurprisingly resists.

It's Dick Lundy trying to do a Tex Avery sort of cartoon, with frequent variations on the same gag, using Heck Allen as the screenwriter. It doesn't really work in the Avery style, but given Barney Bear's frequent appearances as one of MGM's cartoon stars, it's quite amusing in its assumptions and gag execution.

In the 1940s and 50s, Warner Brothers and MGM were consistently making the best and most enjoyable cartoon shorts. One of MGM's characters aside from Tom & Jerry was Barney Bear and he's the star of "Half-Pint Palomino". And, while I generally have enjoyed Barney's cartoons, this particular short is a bit disappointing...mostly because his foil is strange and difficult to love. In this case, Barney is trying to catch a horse that is about the size of a baseball, as some eccentric millionaire is offering a fortune for the person who brings him the smallest horse...which, if you think about it, doesn't make a lot of sense. What follows is pretty much what you'd expect...a tiny horse beating the snot out of full grown bear. Mildly enjoyable and nothing more.

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.

After the Preston Blair and Michael Lah unit stopped after just three (and pretty good too) cartoons, 'The Bear and the Bean', 'The Bear and the Hare' and 'Goggle Fishing Bear', Dick Lundy was the fourth director to take over the Barney series after Ising (10 cartoons), George Gordon (3) and Blair/Lah, and turned out to be the joint-longest-serving director after Ising with 10 contributions to the series. Following on from one of the series' best cartoons, 'Half-Pint Palomino' while still a nice cartoon is a contender for Lundy's weakest Barney Bear effort.

Even for a Barney cartoon, the story is slight and predictable and was in need of a little more energy than what was provided. The funny moments are only amusing and perhaps there's a little too much emphasis on the "cute" factor which fall very close to being too cutesy.

Barney is very likable and fun, but there is a marginal preference for his more nuanced character design (he is very well drawn here but his design is comparatively simplified) and more of his characteristic crankiness would have suited the premise well. The little horse is adorable while Barney's antics are amusing and sweet.

Animation is nicely drawn and colourful, if slightly lacking the finesse and meticulousness of the earlier entries of the Barney Bear series. The 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.

'Half-Pint Palomino' is charming and amusing, with decent if not always consistent timing. Paul Frees shows off as ever his considerable talent as a voice actor.

Overall, pretty good but not among the best of the Barney Bear series. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Eccentric millionaire offers fabulous reward for capture of world's smallest horse. Barney Bear is on the hunt assisted by his little donkey and a trained horsefly.

It's a MGM cartoon directed by Dick Lundy. It's cute. It's all very cute. I'm not sure why people are down-voting this short. For Barney Bear, this is pretty good.