A Bear for Punishment

Title Card

A Bear for Punishment

Short Information

Notes:

1.) This was the last The Three Bears cartoon.
2.) Unlike the previous four Three Bears cartoons, this cartoon didn't open with the standard narration introducing the three bears which reads as "Once upon a time, there lived three bears, Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear".
3.) This cartoon notably reveals Junyer's canonical age, where he is revealed to be seven-and-a-half-years old, implying that Junyer is only a child despite his huge adult-like appearance.
3.1.) Junyer still wears diapers even though he is seven years old.
4.) The joke where Junyer misspells tobacco as G-U-N-P-O-W-D-E-R would later be repeated in "Cat-Tails for Two" two years later, except that this time Benny the cat misspells water as P-E-T-R-O-L. Co-incidentally in both cartoons, this ultimately caused both Junyer and Benny to inadvertently cause explosive harm to both Pa and George respectively as the result.
5.) One of Junyer's comic books is Looney Tunes with Bugs Bunny on the cover; another is Porky Pig, but with no picture on it.
6.) The DVD extras for this short include Stan Freberg reminiscing about the short and reciting part of Junyer Bear's poem, "My Pa", in the bear's voice; and a clip of Chuck Jones stating that Papa Bear's growling, "I HATE breakfast in bed!" was taken from his own experience as a father when his children would try to serve him on Father's Day.
7.) The march, "Father", performed by Junyer and Ma, is a special vocal written to the tune of "Frat", a long-standing Warner cartoon staple.
8.) For unknown reasons, the restored print first present on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 plasters the original opening music with the 1955-64 version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down". The original 1946-55 theme can be heard on the music/sound effects only track.
9.) Unlike other reissues in the 1959-64 season, this short's reissue uses the Looney Tunes ending card instead of the Merrie Melodies one and ends with the 1945-55 version of "Merrily We Roll Along", replacing the original ending theme.
10.) The cartoon was reissued in the 1959-1964 season, which removed both the original opening and ending titles with the red opening and ending titles. It, along with "Ballot Box Bunny", had the orange opening and ending titles with black backgrounds before they were reissued.^{[citation needed]}

Series:

Looney Tunes (Blue Ribbon)

Production No.:

1173

Animation

Ken Harris
Phil Monroe
Lloyd Vaughan
Ben Washam

Layouts

Robert Gribbroek

Backgrounds

Philip DeGuard

Uncredited Film Editor

Treg Brown

Uncredited Voice Characterizations

Billy Bletcher (Pa Bear)
Bea Benaderet (Ma Bear)
Stan Freberg (Junyer Bear)

Musical Direction

Carl Stalling

MPAA No.:

14192

Preceded by

Ballot Box Bunny

Followed by

Sleepy Time Possum

External links
IMDb page

A Bear for Punishment is a 1951 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.

Plot[]

It's Father's Day, and Junyer and Ma have a bunch of big surprises in store for good ol' Pa, including a pipe filled with gunpowder, all which often result in Pa getting all the bad luck and losing his temper as the result, mainly due to Junyer's stupidity. There's also a gala Father's Day pageant, and Pa sits cringing through Junyer's recitation and aghast at Ma's tap-dancing rendition of "I'm Just Wild About Father".

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

The Bugs Bunny Show version of this short on ABC edits the "Let's Give a Cheer for Father" song to remove the two times Ma and Junyer Bear fire shotguns.^[1]
Nickelodeon left in the gunfire in the "Let's Give a Cheer for Father" song, but edited two scenes:^[1]
- Early in the short, when Pa is trying to shut off Junyer Bear's alarm clocks, he yells, "How do you turn these blasted things off?!" Junyer shushes the clocks and they all stop. Rather than congratulate his son, Pa slams a clock in Junyer's face and Junyer is shown with a broken alarm clock for a face before it cuts to Ma saying, "But Henry..."
- The scene where Junyer mistakes gunpowder for pipe tobacco by misspelling it ("'G-U-N-P-O-W-D-E-R'. Duh, 'tobacco'") and congratulating himself on being a good speller ("I am a good speller, I am. C-A-T, dog. B-A-T, Rhode Island."), although a similar misspelling scene from "Cat-Tails for Two" was left uncensored on Nickelodeon.