I have mixed feelings about the Dick Lundy Barney Bear cartoons. The shorts are always hybrids, sort of a trait d'union between the Tom and Jerry shorts and the Avery's entries. So, as a whole, the series failed to have its own characteristics.
Barney himself was basically too much passive and didn't achieve to reach even that little of personality Andy Panda or Porky Pig had in their solos shorts, resulting friendly characters on whom solid entries can be tailored. Even if he often acts and reacts in the cartoons, all his actions results in fact out of character.
Despite all this, however, the shorts are enjoable, with some entries being very good.
"Wee Willie Wildcat", for example, came so far to steal two major gags from "Senor Droopy" and "Wags to Riches" (giving Barney, in this last case, a hat, only for the execution of the gag: no comment!) but this does not prevent it from being one of the best in the series, up there with "The Impossible Possum" and "Half Pint Palomino".
I'm gonna show you "The Impossible Possum" today. The highlight is a great sequence in which Barney, using a female possum hand puppet, tries to seduce the title character. The way Barney reacts, at the end, and his closing line to the audience, explain at better his typical passive behaviour.
See Youse,
Andrea
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