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What's Brewin', Bruin? is a 1948 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.

Title[]

The title alludes to the homophone of "brewin'" and "bruin," and suggests a nod to Bugs Bunny's catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?"

Plot[]

The Three Bears are getting ready to hibernate for the winter. While Junyer is reading comics, Henry is playing cards with Mama, but keeps losing.

They get ready to go to sleep, but Henry gets annoyed by various things:

  1. Mama pulls the window shade when snoring with her mouth open, which makes more noise.
  2. Junyer frequently rocks his bed. When Junyer has a nightmare, he accidentally destroys his bed, forcing Henry to tuck Junyer in his bed. Much to his annoyance, Junyer frequently rolls on Henry, flattening him.
  3. There is a water leak in the house. Junyer pokes his finger into the leak, but it gets worse.
  4. Mama opens the window, and Henry closes it, repetitively throughout the short. At one point of the cartoon, the winter snow from outside blows onto Henry, giving him the appearance of a snowman.
  5. Junyer, snoring with his mouth open, inadvertently attracts a feather which eventually blows on to Henry's nose, causing him to sneeze and crash into the trophy moose head. Junyer and Mama continuously attack the "moose", thinking it's a wild animal.

Henry gets annoyed with all these, and so has his revenge by shutting both Mama and Junyer up and tying them up to their respective beds. At first, Henry seems to be able to get a peaceful rest, but not until winter seasons ends, spring begins to blossom, and everything (leaves, flowers, etc.) grows, birds start chirping, and a moose make noise, winter ice start to melt. When Henry hears the springtime noise, he yells "QUIET!" and makes the time turn back to winter, calms down and goes back to sleep.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

  • Beginning with this cartoon, the Three Bears are redesigned from their appearances in their debut cartoon ("Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears"), looking rather coarse and off-model. Also starting with this cartoon, Billy Bletcher and Stan Freberg replaced Mel Blanc and the late Kent Rogers as the voices of Henry and Junyer respectively (although Blanc would still continue to provide Henry's shouting voice in some scenes for comedic effect).
    • This is also the only cartoon where Mel Blanc voices Ma, who has only two brief lines of dialogue ("Gin!" and "Good night!" after some praying).
  • This is the second and last cartoon featuring The Three Bears (after "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears") whose copyrights were sold to the a.a.p. package for television distribution.
  • It is one of four known pre-1948 Looney Tunes shorts to keep their original closing Color Rings. Like the other three, the original opening and credits are cut, but the original ending music is preserved.
  • Both American and European dubbed versions retain the ending music cue, and use the Looney Tunes "dubbed" ending card taken from "Haredevil Hare".[3][4][dead link]
    • This is the only cartoon reissued as a Blue Ribbon to bear this effect in both USA and EU 1995 dubbed transfers. All other Looney Tunes cartoons reissued as Blue Ribbons however have the Merrie Melodies ending card, even though some keep their original ending music, while others have the Merrie Melodies ending theme.
  • This is the only the Three Bears cartoon not to survive with its original technical credits.
  • This short marks the first appearance of the "blue background with falling stars and floating bubbles" that is used to depict a violent "hit" taken by a character offscreen.

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