Bird-Brain Bird Dog

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. 'Bird-Brained Bird Dog' is Lundy's last Barney cartoon and also Barney's final theatrical cartoon appearance. It is sad saying goodbye to this character, but 'Bird-Brained Bird Dog' is fortunately a very good note to end on.

There is a slower pace than the usual frenetic energy one and Barney over time developed a simplified design and nicer and less gruff character than those in the Ising and Gordon cartoons. The story is slight and formulaic but very amiable and charming.

Barney is very easily watchable, lots of fun and is adorable, his frustration rootable. There is just a preference personally for his more nuanced and detailed original character design and his crankiness and gruffness made his frustration easier to empathise with (there is evidence of that here but it came through stronger before). Support is a lot of fun and turn out to be conflict worthy of Barney.

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.

'Bird-Brained Bird Dog' is amusing, hilarious even at its best and the timing, even with the not as frenetic and more laconic pace, is still spot on. Really liked the characteristic silly charm that makes the series so likable.

Overall, a very good cartoon to end the Barney Bear series on. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Until Filmation revived him as well as Droopy for their "Tom and Jerry" show on Saturday Mornings on CBS in the '80s, this would be the last appearance of Barney Bear anywhere in any cartoon series for a while. Here he's looking for a dog to hunt birds. Unfortunately for him, the dog he bought is a member of a bird lovers club as evidenced by his being surrounded by a cheerful aviary. So when this dog encounters one in the forest, he plots with him to play tricks on Barney who keeps getting shot in the head or butt. Directed by Dick Lundy, this was a very funny way for this M-G-M cartoon series starring this bumbling bear to end. So on that note, I highly recommend Bird-Brain Bird Dog.