The Bear's Tale

The Bear's Tale
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Airdate:	13 April 1940 Blue Ribbon reissue: 11 March 1944
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	5717
Vitaphone Number:	9369
Runtime:	9 minutes, 7 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	20 March 1968
Starring:	The Three Bears Goldilocks Little Red Riding Hood Big Bad Wolf
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc (uncredited) Tex Avery (uncredited) Sara Berner (uncredited) Berneice Hansell (uncredited) Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Director:	Fred Avery
Written By:	J.B. Hardaway
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger Henry Binder (uncredited)
Animated By:	Rod Scribner Virgil Ross (uncredited) Robert McKimson (uncredited) Charles McKimson (uncredited) Sid Sutherland (uncredited)
Background Artist:	John Didrik Johnsen (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

The Bear's Tale is a 1940 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.

Plot

The Three Bears decide to go for a bicycle ride because their porridge is too hot. Goldilocks is walking around, but instead of going to the bears' house she decides to go her grandmother's house, where the wolf happens to be. He sends her away, then realized she'll make a fine meal, so he rushes back to the bears' house. Red gets to granny's house, finds a note from the wolf, and decides to call Goldilocks. The Bears return home to find that their porridge was eaten, and Papa Bear goes upstairs, thinking it's Goldilocks, but he opens the door and sees the wolf. The bears run out of their home, with the baby bear's pants falling off.

Availability

(1991) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 1, Side 3: Tex Avery

(1992) VHS
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 3: Tex Avery

(2000) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 8: Tex-Book Looney (1995 Turner dubbed version)

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc Two

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 5, Disc Two

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack

Streaming

HBO Max (2020 - 2023)

Max (2023 - 2024)

Notes

• The short subject's premise combines elements of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "Little Red Riding Hood".
  • The combination of both fairy tales would be reused again in the Friz Freleng short "Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears" four years later.
• The cartoon was reissued in the 1943–44 season. When the cartoon was sold to Associated Artists Productions for distribution, AAP hacked off the original Blue Ribbon opening title and edited it with a 1948-49 cartoon Blue Ribbon (from "Dangerous Dan McFoo"), an edit then swaps to "Produced By Leon Schlesinger" and the blue ribbon print continues. In 1995, this was fixed in the dubbed version. Around the mid-2000s, the cartoon had its original opening and credits restored for DVD.
• The Blue Ribbon release erroneously shows a production number of MM-2-13 on the opening color rings, which is the production code for "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears".
• This is the first Blue Ribbon reissue to show a production number. However, this would not be consistently the case until the reissue for "Tom Thumb in Trouble".
• While there are three bears in this short, they are not to be confused with Chuck Jones' Three Bears characters.

Gallery

Animation cel in poor condition