Review of The Three Bears

Among Iwerks' non Disney work, Jack Frost(1934) is more popular among viewers, perhaps because of its seasonal appeal, and yet The Three Bears(1935) is crafted with the same expertise. This is a hip version of the favorite children's bedtime story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Goldilock's actually is not given a name in this film, and was not called thus in the earliest incantations of the story, but we'll use it here, nonetheless. She is shown dancing, the bears dance, and while she listens on the radio to a jazz version of "Three Blind Mice" complete with lyrics, 3 animated blind mice dance as well. The bears are given extra emphasis with their somewhat countrified vocabulary. The plot begins with Goldilocks playing hide and seek with her dog. She wanders off, enters the 3 bears unoccupied house and finds 3 of everything inside. There are 3 umbrellas, 3 pianos, 3 fish, etc. Then the familiar routine gets under way with the porridge then the beds. The ending is very funny and original. The music is a real highlight, with Carl Stalling at the helm. He had worked with Disney earlier as well, and of course later would move to Warner Brothers and do the Daffy, Porky & Bugs Bunny cartoons. This film must have been well preserved as the version viewed, a dollar DVD, had very good (non faded)color. In fact this would appear to be the 1st color movie edition of the famous tale that has been filmed over a dozen times. The story's popularity(it's origins going back long before it's first printing in 1831 by way of oral tales)is still high with many books in print as of 2009, e.g. James Marshall, Jan Brett, Little Golden Books, etc. Even the Flintstones had an encounter with the story in the Hanna-Barbera's cartoon series record album entitled Goldi Rocks and the Three Bearosauruses.