Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears is a 1944 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot[]
The Three Bears want something new to eat and decide to try and lure Goldilocks to them with porridge. However, all they have is carrot soup which lures Bugs Bunny instead. In an attempt to stop them from chasing him, Bugs tells Mama Bear that she's beautiful, compliments her eyes and plants a big kiss on her lips. The plan works, but Bugs now must escape from a love-stricken Mama Bear, now so smitten she can't keep her hands off of him. "Now, now, cut it out! Stop it! Hey, people are lookin' at us! Compose yourself!! STOP!!!"
Mama Bear hugs him, tries to kiss him, and runs her fingers up and down his arms. Bugs tries to get away but Mama Bear is behind every door he opens. She tries to seduce him while wearing a loose fitting nightgown with a brown wig, a curve hugging green evening gown with a blonde wig (a la Veronica Lake), and finally appears before him in a bathtub taking a bubble bath. Bugs plows through a wall to escape. He makes it back to his hole to find Mama Bear already there. She giggles like a school girl and says "Tell me more about my eyes!" She has her way with him, kissing him several times off-screen. Bugs appears out of the hole, his face covered in red lipstick marks. Bugs runs away into the horizon screaming, visibly traumatized. Mama Bear pops out of the hole, wearing a thick layer of red lipstick, looking very content and pleased by her makeout session with Bugs.
Caricatures[]
Music Cues[]
- Raymond Scott - "In an 18th Century Drawing Room" - plays when the bears are introduced.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- On MeTV, the shot of Mama Bear trying to seduce Bugs Bunny while wearing a see-through nightgown with a brown wig was cut when the short premiered. Since September 2021, the scene has been reinstated.[2]
Notes[]
- This short marks the first appearance of Jones' dysfunctional version of the Three Bears from "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", of which the short parodies.
- After Kent Rogers died in an accident while air training, Stan Freberg would voice Junyer Bear. Billy Bletcher would voice Papa in subsequent appearances.
- Bletcher was originally going to voice Papa in this cartoon, but his records are not used.[3]
- While Bugs is making himself at home in the bears' house, he hums part of the melody and sings the title line of the song "King for a Day", composed by Ted Fio Rito.
- The American Turner "dubbed" version keeps the original ending music cue, while the European version alters it to that of the 1938-41 rendition of "Merrily We Roll Along".
- The plot device of an older woman falling for and chasing after a younger man to the point where he finds it difficult to escape from her loving embraces and passionate kisses has been featured in other cartoons such as "Red Hot Riding Hood" and "Swing Shift Cinderella", "A Fine Feathered Frenzy", and "Red Riding Hoodlum". Donning several outfits in attempts to seduce these younger men along with appearing behind every door they open are similar tactics that these women use.
- This is the only Three Bears short not to be reissued, so it survives with its original titles.
- In the opening titles, the bylines "WARNER BROS.", "Present", and the copyright information subtly shift downwards a bit, but before the Merrie Melodies logo fades in, they switch back to place. Due to this being captured on the camera negative, and not a result of a faulty print, this error is present in the Associated Artists Productions print, the 1995 Turner prints, and both restored prints.
- Vitaphone release number: 1206[4]
Gallery[]
Clips[]
References[]
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/catalogofc19723261213libr/page/66/mode/1up?view=theater
- ↑ https://www.intanibase.com/forum/Posts/t4767-MeTV-launching--Toon-In-With-Me--and--Saturday-Morning-Cartoons--in-2021/page18
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 62.
- ↑ Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts (in en). McFarland, page 280. ISBN 978-0786412792.
External Links[]
- "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears" at SuperCartoons.net
- "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears" at B99.TV