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00:00♪ ♪ ♪
00:07♪ ♪ ♪
00:12♪ ♪ ♪
00:17♪ ♪ ♪
00:22This is Michael Barrier.
00:23I'll be talking with you about
00:24A Bear for Punishment, a cartoon
00:26directed by Chuck Jones.
00:28♪ ♪ ♪
00:33Now, this cartoon actually
00:34originated in some real events,
00:37celebrations of Father's Day
00:38that Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese
00:40experienced when their own
00:41children were young.
00:42And I think we can conclude
00:43from what happens in this
00:44cartoon that those were
00:45rather disastrous celebrations
00:47at the Jones and Maltese
00:48households.
00:49♪ ♪ ♪
00:54♪ ♪ ♪
00:59♪ ♪ ♪
01:05These characters are
01:06Jones's versions of
01:07the three bears.
01:08It's just a very simple,
01:09effective idea behind this
01:11short series of cartoons,
01:13but you're just reversing
01:14the sizes of the papa bear,
01:16who is, of course, the biggest
01:17bear in other versions
01:18of the story,
01:19and the baby bear,
01:20who here is a huge lout.
01:22But, of course,
01:23the personalities of the baby
01:24bear and the papa bear
01:25are still appropriate
01:26to the kid
01:27and to the grumpy father.
01:29♪ ♪ ♪
01:32♪ ♪ ♪
01:38That simple idea
01:39of the reversal of the sizes
01:41is key to the success
01:42of the series,
01:43but another important element
01:44is the wonderful voices.
01:47The papa bear is
01:48Billy Bletcher,
01:49who in fact physically
01:50resembled the papa bear.
01:52He was a very small man
01:53with a very deep voice.
01:54He did appear on screen
01:55in a number of films,
01:57but he is best known
01:58as the voice
01:59of cartoon characters.
02:01Big Bad Wolf,
02:02for example,
02:03was in the original Disney,
02:04Three Little Pigs
02:05had his voice,
02:06and then he turns up
02:07in various other cartoons,
02:08but probably
02:09his most famous
02:10continuing role
02:11was as the papa bear.
02:12I am doing a good thing
02:14on Father's Day.
02:16The mother bear
02:17was Bea Benadera,
02:18a wonderful radio actress
02:19who was very,
02:20like all these great
02:21radio performers
02:22who did voices
02:23for the cartoons,
02:24had this wonderful ability
02:25to create and make
02:26a character vivid
02:27through the voice alone.
02:28The baby bear's voice
02:29in his very first appearance
02:30was done by an actor
02:31named Kent Rogers,
02:32but here it's Stan Freeberg,
02:33who needs no introduction,
02:34and this is probably
02:35his most famous voice
02:36in the series.
02:37He's the father
02:38of the baby bear.
02:39He's the father
02:40of the baby bear.
02:41He's the father
02:42of the baby bear.
02:43He's the father
02:44of the baby bear.
02:45And this is probably
02:46his most extended
02:47and certainly
02:48his most virtuosic
02:49performance
02:50as junior bear.
02:51Make like this,
02:53and I will save you.
02:56Wait, pa!
02:57Wait!
02:58Wait, pa!
02:59And I will save you good!
03:06This cartoon,
03:07like other cartoons
03:08made by Chuck Jones's
03:09Warner Bros. cartoon unit
03:10in these years,
03:11benefited tremendously
03:12from the fact that
03:13Chuck Jones
03:14and his primary collaborators
03:15had worked together
03:16for years,
03:17who were certainly aware
03:18of each other's strengths
03:19and could take
03:20advantage of them.
03:21Much of this cartoon
03:22was animated
03:23by Ken Harris,
03:24who was an animator
03:25for Chuck Jones
03:26for many years.
03:27He was a great
03:28action animator,
03:29particularly good
03:30at animating action
03:31that was physically plausible
03:32but ridiculous
03:33at the same time,
03:34and you'll see
03:35a wonderful example
03:36of that later
03:37in this cartoon
03:38when the mother bear
03:39does an extended dance.
03:40It is one of the high points
03:41of certainly
03:42in Ken Harris's animation
03:43The Mother's Bear's Dance
03:44is a particularly
03:45good instance
03:46of how Chuck Jones
03:47worked not only
03:48with Ken Harris
03:49but with his writer
03:50Mike Maltese,
03:51how the three of them,
03:52there's this kind of
03:53give-and-take
03:54back and forth,
03:55which is true
03:56of other members
03:57of the unit too.
03:58Chuck Jones worked
03:59very closely
04:00with his layout artist,
04:01his background painter,
04:02the animator,
04:03other animators,
04:04everybody,
04:05and he was able
04:06to do that
04:07in a way
04:08that was not
04:09necessarily
04:10in the way
04:11that Chuck Jones
04:12was able to do
04:13with other animators.
04:14Everybody dragged around
04:15the sound effects man
04:16called Stelling,
04:17the musician,
04:18and all these cases,
04:19the collaborations
04:20extended over many years,
04:21and the people involved
04:22were very comfortable
04:23working together.
04:24It was a great deal
04:25of give-and-take
04:26and a great deal of respect
04:27for each other's abilities.
04:28Presenting
04:29a Father's Day poem,
04:30Henry.
04:31I spoke some years ago
04:32with Chuck Jones
04:33about how he
04:34and Mike Maltese
04:35and Ken Harris
04:36had worked together,
04:37particularly
04:38on The Mother Bear's Dance,
04:39which he'll be saying
04:40later in the cartoon.
04:41I'm going to play
04:42some of that
04:43telephone conversation now
04:44so you get a sense
04:45of how they really
04:46worked together.
05:11...while he was working there.
05:13I'll be darned,
05:14I didn't know that.
05:15But, as I say,
05:16an excellent dancer.
05:18Particularly
05:19how he knew time steps
05:20and all that stuff.
05:21That was also
05:23enormously helpful.
05:24When you're doing
05:25something like that,
05:26you've got to have somebody
05:27to work with the animator
05:28and with you.
05:29Yes, yes.
05:30And that's where
05:31Mike's fun little drawings
05:32on the storyboard
05:34helped enormously.
05:35Mm-hmm.
05:36Because he had a nice sense
05:38of the dissolute.
05:40That shows his
05:41characteristic of himself.
05:42Yeah.
05:43For 20 years,
05:44he looked more dissolute
05:45than Mike does now.
05:46Well, Mike always looked
05:47like he knew something
05:48about you
05:49that you didn't want
05:50him to know.
05:51Yes.
05:52He had that funny little look.
05:54I always drew him that way.
05:56He had that kind of
05:57funny little smile
05:58like somebody just dropped
05:59a pebble
06:00into a lava bed.
06:02One thing that may
06:03strike you is that
06:04even though several
06:05different animators
06:06worked on this cartoon,
06:07there's a uniformity
06:08in the drawing
06:09style.
06:10Basically,
06:11all the drawings
06:12look like they were
06:13made by Chuck Jones.
06:14What Chuck did was,
06:15as I indicated earlier
06:16in his own comments,
06:17was provide his animators
06:19with key poses.
06:20It was up to them
06:21then to integrate
06:22those poses
06:23into the animation,
06:24into the actual movement.
06:25Chuck said
06:26what he tried to do
06:27was demonstrate
06:28what the action should be
06:29and what the expression
06:30should be,
06:31but he expected his
06:32animators to go further.
06:33Here's a quote from him.
06:34He said,
06:35I did every one
06:36of the key drawings
06:37in that dance,
06:38because it was a dance,
06:39not a smudge
06:40of still drawings.
06:41The same is true
06:42to a large extent
06:43of all of Chuck Jones'
06:44cartoons.
06:45You have this anchor
06:46at the center
06:47of Chuck Jones' drawings
06:48and his timing
06:49of the action,
06:50his pacing
06:51and construction
06:52of the story,
06:53but other people
06:54he worked with
06:55built on what he gave them
06:56and expanded it
06:57and made it
06:58even more wonderful.
06:59Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada