It’s not easy to say so, but Chuck Jones was definitely the low man on the totem pole at the Warner studio in 1944. While Tashlin, Freleng, and Clampett were all making very fine and funny pictures that year, Jones only turned out two that work as whole films. (Tom Turk and Daffy and Lost and Foundling). From Hand to Mouse, The Weakly Reporter, and Angel Puss all either suffer from sluggish pacing or bad gags. (Though I suppose if you used a computer program to replace the Jones unit animation with Clampett unit animation on the third, it’d be hailed as a “celebration of differences”.)
But then there’s a little oddity called Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears. I neither like nor dislike this cartoon, though I really want to like a cartoon with a nymphomaniac Mama Bear causing Bugs to scream in horror at the iris out. One criticism you can never make about the Jones cartoons is bad posing or in-betweening, but in this one, both stink ever so rotten. The Bobe Cannon scene with the bear family at the table looks as though they’re going to float away. There’s also that absolutely revolting looking bit towards the end with Mama Bear trying to coddle Bugs (Rudy Larriva?) where it’s just a juxtaposition of random, unrelated poses. (John K. anyone?) Only Ken Harris does any well-grounded work in this film (Bugs singing “King for a Day” in the pajamas to kissing Mama Bear).
What caused these unfortunate circumstances for this one cartoon I wonder?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swYL10FhZo&hl=en&fs=1]
BTW, that’s Kent Rogers as Junyer Bear here, not Stan Freberg as often claimed.
