The Bear That Wasn't facts for kids
.jpg)
Cover of the first edition of the book
|
|
| Author | Frank Tashlin |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Frank Tashlin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature, satire |
|
Publication date
|
1946 |
The Bear That Wasn't is a 1946 children's picture book written and illustrated by filmmaker and Looney Tunes alumnus Frank Tashlin.
In 1947, a new audio version was issued by MGM Records: 78 RPM, 25 minutes across two sides, narrated by Keenan Wynn.
Plot
A bear settles down for his hibernation and while he sleeps, the progress of man continues. He wakes up to find himself in the middle of an industrial complex, where he gets mistaken by the foreman for a worker and thus is ordered to get to work. When the bear responds that he is a bear and not a human, the foreman takes the bear to each of his successive bosses (general manager and a trio of vice-presidents, all of whom tell him their own version of him merely being a "silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat"), reaching all the way up to the elderly president of the factory, who concludes he cannot be a bear because "bears are only in a zoo or a circus; they're never inside a factory." Afterwards, the president and his employees take the bear to the zoo where he hopes to gain support from his own species, but even the bears there still claim that he is not a bear because if he were "he would be inside the cage here with us". Eventually, he concludes that he is indeed a "silly man" and promptly buckles down to work hard at the factory – much to the satisfaction of the foreman and the other bosses, all of whom shake hands happily as the bear works.
Months later, the factory closes for the winter and the bear finds himself turned out of doors in the cold snow, wishing that he were a bear. Finally, he realizes that he is indeed a bear after all and – whilst discarding the trappings of his human existence – seeks out a cave to hibernate, which he enters feeling comfortable and bear-like once more. While the bear sleeps, the narrator reflects on the events of the year and concludes that though neither the human bosses nor the zoo bears would believe that he was a bear, "that didn't make it so; no indeed, he wasn't a silly man...and he wasn't a silly bear, either."
Film adaptation
| The Bear That Wasn't | |
|---|---|
"You are not a bear; you are a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat."
|
|
| Directed by | Chuck Jones |
| Produced by | Chuck Jones |
| Story by | Frank Tashlin Irv Spector |
| Narrated by | Paul Frees |
| Music by | Dean Elliott |
| Studio | MGM Animation/Visual Arts |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | 31 December 1967 |
| Running time | 10:21 |
| Language | English |
In 1967, Tashlin's former Termite Terrace colleague Chuck Jones directed an animated short film based on the book for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Incidentally, The Bear That Wasn't was the final animated short subject made by MGM and its subsidiary MGM Animation/Visual Arts, and also the second-to-last animated project for MGM (The Phantom Tollbooth would be the last).
While mostly the same, the short features slight differences from the book, such as the elderly president of the factory being depicted as a dwarf whose face is never seen, as well as a bear cub also repeating exactly the same claim of the bear being a "silly man" when the bear is put in the zoo.
Despite being credited as a producer, Tashlin had no involvement in the short though Jones credited him only in the hopes of Tashlin receiving an Oscar for Best Short should the short win the Oscar, which it didn't (in those days, Oscars for Best Short were given to the producers, not the director). Overall, Tashlin was dissatisfied with this adaptation of his book, feeling that it didn't present its original message very well.
Influence
Tashlin's book inspired Swiss writer Jörg Steiner to create his children's book Der Bär, der ein Bär bleiben wollte (1976; German: "The Bear Who Wanted to Stay a Bear"), which was translated into English and published by Atheneum Books the next year as The Bear Who Wanted to Be a Bear, whose cover states "From an idea by Frank Tashlin".
A Belgian singer has also adopted the moniker "The Bear That Wasn't" for recording and released an album entitled And So It Is Morning Dew in 2010. The German book Der Bär, der ein Bär bleiben wollte on the other hand inspired German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey to write a song of that name, appearing on his 1978 album Unterwegs.
Book information
- New York, E.P. Dutton & co., inc., 1946 (1st edition), LCCN 46001683
- New York, Dover Publications [1962,c1946], LCCN 62004936
- New York : Dover Publications, 1995, ISBN: 0-486-28787-4
- New York : The New York Review Children's Collection, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-59017-344-2
Availability
The Bear That Wasn't is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc 3 on the "From the Vaults" section and on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 Blu-ray box-set on Disc 3 as a bonus feature. It is also available on the Boomerang subscription streaming service under Volume 6 of MGM Cartoons titled Bear That Wasn't.
