Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1939)

Another Day, Another- well you get the idea folks!

but anyway, it should be noted that this cartoon was originally planned and made as a Disney Silly Symphony cartoon by Harman and Ising, but eventually it was instead made as an MGM cartoon short subject instead.

Well what i liked about it, hmmm, Goldilocks is espcially noticeable, the linework and coloring is much, much simpler and more basic compared to the Disney cartoons of the same period (which is laden heavy on the shadows , epsecially most heavy on grounded feet shadows and the lines were much thicker there), but that's why i like it here in this cartoon, it looks really beautiful and skillful and the Bears in this cartoon are just as attractive here as they are in this one, the linework is Xerox Disney done RIGHT and in it's only form ever (all of xerox linework iteslf is laden enough to give someone a terrible rash, almost like a poision ivy rash, but not really), the backgrounds here are pretty neat, great colors for each setting that indicates mood and the effects animation (like the water in the eat the poridge sequence) are really good and lush and beautiful, and the drawing techinque on the backgrounds is first rate, as for what i liked about the animation, well, it's in the porridge sequence clearly the scenes where Papa Bear finds out someone has been messing with his porridge and when Baby Bear finds that his bowl is licked clean, well it looks like it could have been clearly Bob McKimson on loan from Schlesinger Productions!, and not only that but it clearly LOOKS like it was DEFIANTLY done by exactly Robert McKimson right down to the entire solid flowing breathing movement and also the pretty detailed drawing style is extremely noticeable (though the movement is even MORE noticeable), and in the end EXACTLY makes him extremely a no brainer at best, not to mention as far as animator IDs go, McKimosn himself was extremely talented and a really great artist, not to mention an awesome animator and a highly valuable asset of the Leon Schlesinger Productions ("Termite Terrace") that do cartoons for their Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies brand line of cartoon shorts that were eventually released by Warner Bros.

Anyway, the scenes of animation where Baby Bear says it's all gone up to Papa Bear's reply of burgulars also look as well like they were done by one of Bob McKimson's brothers (be it Charles or Thomas), because it looks like the Bob McKimson scenes i just talked about, only they are much more diffrent for good measure, the drawing being extremely loose, staggering, and really exaggerated and the timing is also really extremely quick yet strong.

I suspect this is Tom McKimson defiently, but also in the very shot of Mama Bear saying burglars it could also be one of the earliest scenes done by Irv Spence based on the way the teeth are drawn, Irv Spence drew really specfic and exaggerated teeth while at the same time were extremely realistic, moreso than the other animators and even Jim Tyer somewhat, in fact i say it's little bit of Jim Tyer and Rod Scribner in one done right in the only unique form ever only in it's own right.
and i think the scene where the Three Bears discover the beds and eventually Goldilocks was i suspect, animated by Al Coe, who was formely from Harman-Ising Productions and later went to Disney in the early 1940s and eventually finished his carrer at the Walter Lantz Productions where his animation clashed with Les Kline, who is regarded as pretty much the aboslute worst of the Lantz animators, i understood it long before i cheked it on the internet.

And what i don't seem to like about it, well the staginig and BG designs in this are extremely akward and feels rather sloppy, and the animation of Goldilocks feels pretty fake, i mean nearly the whole thing of Goldilocks is "rotoscoped" meaning they just took live footage and retraced it, that's exactly HOW fake and cheap it feels, Goldilocks' character design also feels like they took a picture of an old pre-Barbie ragdoll and perfectly retraced it without any distinct personality whatsoever (i.e without adding anything at all) , i'm well aware Hugh Harman (who soely directed this picture) was from Disney but the MGM pictures he handled are as bland and sterile as they come, I think Rudy Ising became an execption later on when he created Barney Bear in the same period, the animation of the Bears by comparision of Goldilocks are much more realistic and much more natural because THAT was all done by scratch by hand (in my defense, everything here was done by hand considering they had no computers back then), and the voices of Little Bear and Goldilocks by Bernice Hasen defiently are actually kinda ear piercing, cloying and really shrill and kinda unpleasent, but then again, Bernice Hansen as the Little Bear is one of the few earliest instances of a Female voicing a little male kid, which is one of the oldest tricks in the book, or on second thought, i think the Baby Bear was actually voiced by one of the African American kids from the Our Gang comedies. And the ending with the Mama Bear yelling to the Papa Bear here was just Hugh Harman's attempt to be funny, yet it comes out as rather schreeching to the point where it turns me off.

And this is almost all i could say, i think the Papa Bear was voiced here either by Paul Frees or Dal McKennon, it's defiently not Billy Bletcher.

The Mother is Sara Barner, i think?

Anyway, how about your thoughts, the cartoon itself, i mean, not just this review

images from Goldilocks and the Three Bears

• Theatrical Short
• MGM
• Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Cartoon Characters: Goldilocks, Papa Bear, Momma Bear, Junior Bear (The Bear Family).
• Directed By Hugh Harman.
• Produced By Fred Quimby.
• Originally Released on July 15, 1939.
• Originally Released Theatrically.
• Running Time: 10:47 minutes.
• TechniColor
• U.S.A.