Goldilocks

I'm very much a Bing Crosby fan, but his TV special "Goldilocks" is nothing special. This is a musical cartoon, retelling the famous story of the Three Bears: a story that really can't sustain itself over a half-hour format, even with the addition of songs and commercials.

The cleverest aspect of this cartoon was the decision to retell the story from the viewpoint of Papa Bear ... but that decision was probably made merely to pad Bing Crosby's part. Crosby supplies the speaking and singing voice of Papa Bear, and he also narrates.

The (very few) songs are by the Sherman brothers, who have done superlative work elsewhere but stumble badly here. By far, their best song in this cartoon is the one sung by Papa Bear (Crosby) as he explains to Junior Bear about those weird creatures called humans: "Oh, it's the human race, the human race, the hustlin' bustlin' people-chase." I wish all the songs in this very un-special TV special reached that level.

The animation, by the sadly underrated DePatie-Freleng Studio, is not up to that studio's usual standard. "Goldilocks" is quite bad. The fact that all the voice-overs are performed by members of Bing's family only adds to the amateurish, vanity-production feel of this very poor special. Purely out of admiration for Crosby's long career, I'll rate this show 1 star out of 10.