Barney Bear - "The Flying Bear"

Here's the Rudy Ising Short, "The Flying Bear" and a model sheet to go with it. I stumbled across the model sheet while reading Michael Barrier's book Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book.

The Flying Bear

Uploaded by klangley

Dick Lundy - "Bird-Brain Bird Dog"

Another great Barney Bear short directed by Dick Lundy and animated by Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons. I've been way to busy to post but I'm going to try and pick up the pace a little over the next few weeks.

Bird-Brain Bird Dog
Uploaded by klangley

Dick Lundy - "Impossible Possum"

I've mentioned before that Michael Lah is one of my favorite animators, and "Impossible Possum" has some great Lah animation in it. Particularly the dance scene. I might be in the minority on this one, but I really love Lundy's Barney Bear shorts. Maybe it's because it's basically Tex's unit.

Impossible Possum

Uploaded by klangley

Barney Bear - "Heir Bear"

Another fine Dick Lundy short with the usual great animation by Grant Simmons, Michael Lah and Walter Clinton.

Heir Bear - Dick Lundy

Uploaded by klangley

Barney Bear - "Unwelcome Guest"

Here's another of the six shorts that George Gordon directed for MGM. I may be mistaken but I believe this was the last one he directed. Theres some beautiful backgrounds here and some great animation from Michael Lah, Ed Barge, and Jack Carr. This cartoon also has one of my favorite scores by Scott Bradley. Enjoy.

The Unwelcome Guest

Uploaded by klangley

Barney Bear - "Barney's Hungry Cousin"

I'm going to interrupt these Screwy Squirrel posts to throw in one of my favorite Barney Bear shorts directed by Dick Lundy, "Barney's Hungry Cousin". Though Lundy's shorts aren't on the comedic level of Tex Avery's I think they're real funny and he at least had Tex's great animator's working on them. I love the bear's design in this one. He reminds me of the "hick" wolf in Tex's "Little Rural Riding Hood". Here's some model sheets I found online some time ago. Though they're not from Lundy's unit, they're most likely from one of Rudy Ising's shorts or possibly even George Gordon's.

Barney's Hungry Cousin

Barney Bear Model Sheets

Here's a couple of model sheets of the lovable Barney Bear. The first is the design used in the Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising shorts for MGM and also when George Gordon took over the director's chair for the series in 1944. I'm sure that this complex design must have been a bitch to animate which is probably why he was streamlined when Preston Blair and Michael Lah co-directed three shorts in the late forties and used later when Dick Lundy revived the series in the early fifties. It's a shame that the Blair/Lah unit didn't last long as their shorts were quite good. I've also uploaded Busybody Bear which was directed by Dick Lundy when he took over Tex Avery's unit during his year long hiatus. I've posted Barney Bear cartoons in the past but those have since been taken off of YouTube. I'll try and get around to uploading them again and fixing those old posts.

1952 MGM-Barney Bear-Busybody Bear
Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery Layouts and Backgrounds

Here's some pictures of the original pencil drawings along with the finished backgrounds from Tex Avery's Blitz Wolf and Red Hot Riding Hood. Though I love the stylized and cartoony backgrounds in my earlier posts on Montealegre my favorites are the ones from the MGM's late 1930's Harman-Ising shorts all the way through to Dick Lundy's mid 50's Barney Bear shorts.

More Dick Lundy

I've been going back lately and watching more Dick Lundy cartoons and he's fast becoming one of my favorite directors. The pace of his cartoons at MGM is much slower than Tom and Jerry and Tex Avery but he seems to still load up on the gags. Plus, he had some great animators working for him, Michael Lah and Walt Clinton from Tex' unit. Coincidentally, Mark Mayerson has posted a letter from Dick Lundy on his blog that he used for a history of MGM cartoons article he wrote. Check it out here. Here's two of my favorite Dick Lundy cartoons, Woody Woodpecker in Drooler's Delight and Barney Bear in Sleepy Time Squirrel.

A Preston Blair Cartoon

With all the talk of Preston Blair's Animation book posted on the Animation Archive recently I figured I'd share a cartoon of his. This time he's not animating, he's co-directing with fellow Tex Avery animator Michael Lah in this 1948 Barney Bear cartoon "The Bear And The Hare". Enjoy.

Barney Bear

Here's a Barney Bear cartoon I uploaded titled Cobs and Robbers, released in 1953 and directed by Dick Lundy. I enjoy his Barney Bear cartoons the most, though Preston Blair and Michael Lah's are quite good also. Dick Lundy directed a lot of cartoons for Walter Lantz including my favorite Woody Woodpecker cartoon, Drooler's Delight. I'd like to thank Amid at Cartoon Brew for the plugs. The cartoons I've posted for the most part aren't available on DVD and unfortunately it seems likely they'll stay that way for some time. A lot more people watched them through Cartoon Brew than here so it makes sharing them worthwhile.