What's wrong with " The Beary Family"

[Bugs Bunny]

Does anybody know what's so terrible about "The Beary Family". I know most people hate the series. I found Fowled-Up Birthday (directed by Jack Hannah) great lots of good gags with Goose Beary and Charlie funny. A Mouse in the House ( directed by Paul J. Smith) Charlie is a real tightwad in this, tough Betsy is mean to him in this one. (let Charlie Do It) this probaly is my favorite.

[rodney]

The characters are unappealing, and Paul J Smith was a genuinely terrible director. The layouts suck, and at that point a cartoon needed to be really well written to get past the budget cuts. The Lantz shorts at this time didn't meet that criteria in most cases during that time.

[cbrubaker]

What Rodney said. But I do have soft spots for the early ones. Especially the ones about Charlie vs. the Goose.

If Lantz got better directors to direct "Beary" shorts (like Sid Marcus), then it may have been watchable. I wonder why Lantz didn't hire new directors. He did hire new animators for the late 1960s/70s shorts, like WB vetern Virgil Ross. Sid Marcus still worked at Lantz writing "Chilly Willy" shorts.

[Ray Pointer]

The basic concept was based on THE LIFE OF RILEY, which had been a long running radio show starring William Bendix. The show made the transition to television in the 1950s, and was already an outmoded concept by the time THE BEARY FAMILY came along. The formula characters, situations, and slow pacing made the series boring. This and WOODY WOODPECKER were the only new cartoons that Lantz was releasing in the 1970s. And THE BEARY FAMILY made one wish for WOODY even in his 70s incarnation. It simply was not a good series.

[Daffysleftfoot]

I remember seeing The Beary Family a long time ago. I also remember being underwhelmed by it. It seemed like Lantz was trying to duplicate Chuck Jones' Three Bears cartoons but didn't quite pull it off. :(

[Thad]

What's wrong with the Beary Family is that they went on longer and starred in more cartoons than Andy Panda. Now THAT'S just creepy! :andy:

-Thad

[Ray Pointer]

They were in more cartoons than Andy Panda because they were produced on near-television budgets. There was less full animation, which made them faster to produce in a shorter period of time. I liked Andy Panda, but I'm afraid that he fell to the same fate as Mickey Mouse in that his character limited him as far as story situations were concerned. At least he was done during a period when good animation was being produced, and we did not have to see him devolve in the manner that affected Woody.:andy:

[Bandini]

The Beary Family was actually my favorite cartoon as a kid, and it's also what led me to start collecting cartoons. I spent a lot of time tracking them down, and now that I have them on dvd, I have to admit, they are not as good as I remember them to be, but I still like them a lot. Charlie Beary was a good solid character even if he wasn't completely original. The best Beary cartoon, IMO is "Bungling Builder," lots of nice little gags that work well.

[cbrubaker]

Believe it or not, me too. I actually did like "Beary" as a small child. Cartoon Network Japan used to air them a lot on their "Woody Woodpecker" block, and I remember enjoying it, until I saw it again at older age. I guess cartoons like "Beary" are better suited for kids in this case.