Barney Bear

Barney Bear is an American series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by MGM Cartoons. The title character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing except for peace and quiet. 26 cartoons were produced between 1939 and 1954.

History

The character was created for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by director Rudolf Ising, who based the bear's grumpy yet pleasant disposition on his own and derived many of his mannerisms from the screen actor Wallace Beery. The character was voiced by Rudolf Ising from 1939 to 1943, Pinto Colvig in 1941, Billy Bletcher from 1944 to 1949, Paul Frees from 1952 until 1954, Frank Welker in 1980, Lou Scheimer in 1980, Jeff Bergman in 2004, and Richard McGonagle from 2012 to 2013. Barney Bear made his first appearance in The Bear That Couldn't Sleep in 1939, and, by 1941, was the star of his own series, getting an Oscar nomination for his fourth cartoon, the 1941 short The Rookie Bear. Ising left the studio in 1943. Three additional cartoons were produced and directed by George Gordon before he too left in 1945.

Ising's original Barney design contained a plethora of detail: shaggy fur, wrinkled clothing, and six eyebrows; as the series progressed, the design was gradually simplified and streamlined, reaching its peak in three late 1940s shorts, the only output of the short-lived directorial team of Preston Blair and Michael Lah. Lah and Blair's cartoons had a direction much more closer to cartoons by Hanna-Barbera and Tex Avery. Both worked as animators (and Lah ultimately as co-director) on several of Avery's pictures. The last original Barney Bear cartoons were released between 1952 and 1954, directed by Ex-Disney/Lantz animator Dick Lundy. Lundy used Avery's unit to produce these cartoons while the latter was taking a one-year sabbatical from the studio. In the films from the late 1940s and early 1950s, Barney's design was streamlined and simplified, much the same as those of Tom and Jerry.

In the 1941 cartoon The Prospecting Bear, Barney is paired with a donkey named Benny Burro. Though Benny would only make two further cartoon appearances, he would later feature as Barney's partner in numerous comic book stories. In the 1944 Avery cartoon Screwball Squirrel, Barney Bear is mentioned by Sammy Squirrel as he talks to Screwy Squirrel at the beginning.

Barney Bear would not appear in new material again until Filmation's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show in 1980. More recently, Barney Bear appeared in the direct-to-video films Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse in 2012 and Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure in 2013. Giant Adventure once again paired Barney with Benny Burro. Barney Bear also made cameo appearances in Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes in 2010 and Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz in 2016.

Plot

The series begins with the title character, Barney Bear, usually trying to accomplish a task in his series. He can be a bit lazy, but not too lazy. But he tends to overdo or do his task the wrong way. He also has a hard time going to sleep, but when he finally does go to sleep, he is a heavy sleeper. Mostly, he doesn't talk, but sometimes, he does.

At times, he was paired with Benny Burro, a curious donkey who accompanies him on several occasions, but mostly when he's in the west (Benny never spoke, but he did in the comic books).

Controversy

Like many animated cartoons from the 1930s to the early 1950s, Barney Bear featured racial stereotypes. After explosions, for example, characters with blasted faces would resemble stereotypical blacks, with large lips, bow-tied hair and speaking in black vernacular.

In one particular cartoon, The Little Wise Quacker, when the duck kite hit the electricity cables, and Barney's face turned black because the electricity hit him, he rocked the duckling (also in blackface) and sang "Shortnin' Bread". Cartoon Network and Boomerang would usually omit these scenes on re-airings.

MGM filmography

#	Title	Directed by	Produced by	Release Date	Notes
1	The Bear That Couldn't Sleep	Rudolf Ising	Rudolf Ising Fred Quimby	June 10, 1939	The first Barney Bear cartoon.
2	The Fishing Bear			January 20, 1940
3	The Prospecting Bear			March 8, 1941
4	The Rookie Bear			May 17, 1941	Oscar nominee
5	The Flying Bear			November 1, 1941
6	The Bear and the Beavers			March 28, 1942
7	Wild Honey (Or How to Get Along Without a Ration Book!)			November 7, 1942
8	Barney Bear's Victory Garden			December 26, 1942	Narrated by Frank Bingman
9	Bah Wilderness			February 13, 1943
10	Barney Bear and the Uninvited Pest			July 17, 1943
11	Bear Raid Warden	George Gordon	Fred Quimby	September 9, 1944
12	Barney Bear's Polar Pest			December 30, 1944
13	The Unwelcome Guest	Michael Lah		February 17, 1945	Although Gordon is often cited as the director, Lah claimed to have directed this cartoon instead.
14	The Bear and the Bean	Preston Blair Michael Lah		January 30, 1948	Also supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
15	The Bear and the Hare			June 26, 1948
16	Goggle Fishing Bear			January 15, 1949
17	The Little Wise Quacker	Dick Lundy		November 8, 1952
18	Busybody Bear			December 20, 1952
19	Barney's Hungry Cousin			January 31, 1953
20	Cobs and Robbers			March 14, 1953
21	Heir Bear			May 30, 1953
22	Wee-Willie Wildcat			June 20, 1953
23	Half-Pint Palomino			September 26, 1953
24	The Impossible Possum			March 20, 1954
25	Sleepy-Time Squirrel			June 19, 1954
26	Bird-Brain Bird Dog			July 31, 1954	Last Barney Bear cartoon.

Home media

A selection of Barney Bear cartoons have been released on VHS tapes and Happy Harmonies Cartoon Classics LaserDisc by MGM/UA Home Video in the 1980s and 1990s.

The following cartoons can be found as extras on DVDs or Blu-rays of classic Warner Home Video films of the period:

• The Fishing Bear is on the DVD and the Blu-ray of Pride and Prejudice
• The Rookie Bear is on the DVD of Lady Be Good
• Bah Wilderness is on the DVD and Blu-ray of Du Barry Was a Lady
• Bear Raid Warden is on the DVD of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
• The Unwelcome Guest is on the DVD of Easy to Wed
• The Bear and the Hare is on the DVD of On an Island with You (albeit with fake stereo sound)
• Barney's Hungry Cousin is on the Blu-ray of Kiss Me Kate
• Cobs and Robbers is on the DVD of Easy to Love (albeit with fake stereo sound)

In 2017, most of the Barney Bear shorts were released on the Boomerang streaming app.

Comic books

Barney Bear began appearing in comic books in 1942. Dell Comics licensed various MGM characters, including Barney Bear. He appeared in backup stories in Our Gang Comics (1942–49) starting in the first issue; then—from 1949—in Tom and Jerry Comics (later just Tom and Jerry) and its spinoffs. From Our Gang #11-36 (1944-1947), Carl Barks took over the writing and drawing of the series. Barks regularly teamed Barney up with Benny Burro; later, the obnoxious neighbor Mooseface McElk was also introduced.

Mooseface was created for Barks by Western Publishing colleague Gil Turner, who wrote and drew the Barney stories for several years after Barks' run ended. Later, post-Turner talents introduced other characters, including Barney's nephews Fuzzy and Wuzzy. Another artist who worked on Barney Bear was Lynn Karp.

In 2011, Yoe Books issued a hardback volume collecting Carl Barks' work on the series.

List of comics

• Our Gang Comics (1947) (Dell)
• Our Gang With Tom & Jerry (1949) (Dell)
• Barney Bear Comics (1949) (Magazine Management-Australia)
• Barney Bear's Bumper Book Of Comics (1950) (Rosnock-Australia)
• Woody Woodpecker Back to School (1952) (Dell)
• Tom & Jerry Winter Carnival (1952) (Dell)
• M.G.M.'s Tom & Jerry's Winter Fun #3 (1954) (Dell)
• M.G.M.'s Tom & Jerry's Winter Fun #4 (1955) (Dell)
• M.G.M.'s Tom & Jerry's Winter Fun #5 (1956) (Dell)
• M.G.M.'s Tom & Jerry's Winter Fun #6 (1957) (Dell)
• M.G.M's The Mouse Musketeers (1957) (Dell)
• Tom and Jerry's Summer Fun (1957) (Dell)
• M.G.M.'s Tom & Jerry's Winter Fun #7 (1958) (Dell)
• Tom & Jerry Picnic Time (1958) (Dell)
• Tom and Jerry Comics (1962) (Dell)
• Golden Comics Digest (1970) (Gold Key)
• TV Comic Annual (1975) (Polystyle)
• Tom and Jerry Winter Special (1977)
• Tom and Jerry Holiday Special (1978) (Polystyle)
• Tom and Jerry (1979) (Gold Key)
• Barks Bear Book (1979) (Editions Enfin)
• Tom & Jerry Julehefte (1987) (Semic International)
• Tex Avery's Wolf & Red #1 (1995) (Dark Horse Comics) (appearance as a plush toy bear)
• Carl Barks' Big Book of Barney Bear (2011) (IDW Publishing)

External links

• Barney Bear at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on August 27, 2015.