The Three Bears

While the three bears -- for some reason, they're Italian -- are out arguing about Sonny's poor attitude towards practicing his violin, they're subjected to a pair of home invasions: first Goldilocks, then a hunter who wants their skins. Poor bears! There are some good gag sequences in this one, particularly the hunter and his dog trying to find a trail. The background work is also very good, the sort of Technicolor candy-box look that Terry's staff aspired to when they had a budget. However, there is a welter of incongruous detail that is only intermittently funny or striking. Sometimes these kitchen sink approaches to a familiar subject work. This time it doesn't.

This old Terrytoons short film has been gathering a surprising amount of attention lately, so I figured I would finally bother to do my first review on imdb to get something more serious out here.

Obviously, this is based on the classic children's story about Goldilock and the Three Bears. Fun fact, there was actually another animated short made about Goldilock in 1939 besides this one.

The most striking feature about this film are of course the voice actors, so let's start from there. Now, I'm not sure if they could really be called good exactly, however, they are certainly quite humorous at times and give the characters, the bears especially, a ton of personality right off the bat.

And speaking of the characters, almost all of them are quite hilarious at times. Father bear and the hunter especially so, but the mischievous Goldilock, (albeit whenever not funny she is just plain obnoxious) and child bear get their fair share as well. The memes like to focus on that one certain scene I'm sure is the reason any of you are here in the first place, but actually there are a lot more funny scenes spread throughout the film.

The story is of course very simplistic, it's a 6 minute long animated short for children, so that's exactly what you would expect. There are a ton of things I could nitpick about it, but what's the point really it doesn't hinder the enjoyment in a major way and I don't want to write a spoiler review so I'll just leave it at that.

I would say the weakest parts of the film are the various, fairly short, singing scenes. It's fairly awful to listen to really and don't really offer all that much. Another complaint I have is the unusual accents of the bears, while adding to the comedy, they may make what they are saying a bit hard to understand for children of today, hell, even adults may have to listen to some scenes two or three times to catch what exactly was said. The accents are really funny, but sadly not without this downside.

Beyond these things, all I really have to say about this film is that, well, the animation looks alright for the time period. No complaints there. It's aged fairly decently too. I'm a fan of old animation, so I like it.

Overall, this was a fairly solid fun little flick. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with interest in watching it. It's short in length, so it'll be a small time investment and you will most certainly not regret it.

THIS SPAGHET IS TRULY SATISFYING.... THIS SPAGHET IS TRULY SATISFYING.... THIS SPAGHET IS TRULY SATISFYING.... THIS SPAGHET IS TRULY SATISFYING.... VERY

This short slapstick cartoon has gained a newly found notoriety recently as it is the origin of the "somebody toucha my spaghet!" meme, which continues to grow in popularity. I, for one, find it to be a genuinely funny meme and far superior to most. That being said, the short it originates from is also genuinely quite funny. Godilocks sings stereotypical show tunes, papa bear has the worst temper of all time and has a hilariously over the top Italian accent/dialect, the armed and passionate bear hunter cannot help but feast upon some spaghetti, Baby Bear plays the drums with comic intensity, and it all ends with a weirdly violent slapstick sequence of exaggerated measures.

The Terrytoons are oddly interesting, mainly for anybody wanting to see (generally) older cartoons made by lesser known and lower-budget studios. They are a mixed bag in quality, with some better than others, often with outstanding music and with some mild amusement and charm and variable in animation, characterisation and content.

1939, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, more so than the other years even. Of which 'The Three Bears' is one of the better ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the best 1939 cartoons. There are flaws but also a lot of strengths, and a few things done better than what was seen before. 'The Three Bears' is well worth watching as an above average watch with more to it than completest sake.

Best asset is the music, which predictably is incredible. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, the Terrytoons at this point showed more fluidity in design than in previous years and some synchronisation is neat. The drawing is more fluid generally and the black and white is crisp. The sound has also gotten much sharper and clearer.

A fair share of amusing moments, with more gags than there can be usually found and they are all beautifully timed and funny (not always the case with Terrytoons), and there is a lot of zest and natural charm. Also a suitably strange and absurdist quality that was fun and endearing to watch. The characters are amusing and interesting and that the cartoon doesn't get saccharine is appreciated. There are imaginative visuals and moments, some nice touches and it was difficult to not have fun with the voices.

On the other hand, there are occasions where transitions and drawings are not as smooth as they could have been.

The singing interludes agreed are not easy on the ear and the it's occasionally a little too wild in places.

Overall though, pretty decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox