The Bear That Couldn't Sleep

The Bear That Couldn't Sleep is a 1939 animated short film, directed by Rudolf Ising for MGM as part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Barney Bear series. Released with the movie 6,000 Enemies by MGM on June 10, 1939, the short is notable for featuring the first appearance of Barney Bear. Ising created the character Barney Bear in the late 1930s for MGM at this time, basing the sleepy-eyed character partially on himself.

Plot

As autumn draws to a close, and the first gentle blanket of snow covers the great brown forest, Barney Bear happily prepares for his nice long winter's hibernation. But water leaks, a loose shutter, a noisy fire, a teakettle left on, and some stray embers all get in the way and keep him up until spring.

After Barney puts a "Do Not Disturb until Spring" sign on his front door, he locks it and sets his alarm to go off at Spring. When he finally heads to bed, he ties up a leaking root but his hot water bottle starts leaking as well. Before he is able to cry about it, the leaky root he tied up also bursts, pouring water all over him. Soon afterwards his window bursts open, thanks to the wind, and blows a bunch of snow all over him. Barney finally boards the window up, and tries to go to sleep until the fireplace cracks and makes the kettle whistle. Barney removes the kettle, only to have some coal fly up from the fireplace and down his pants from behind and set his rear end on fire. Barney madly dashes outside and cools his backside down on some snow, but finds he can't get back inside his house because the door gets automatically locked and his window was boarded up from earlier. Barney crashes through his boarded up window and is still insomniac, mainly because of his record player which he destroys in seconds. With Spring closing in, Barney tries counting sheep and finally goes to sleep, only for his alarm clock to go off and looks outside his window to see that Winter is over, and realizes Spring has arrived.

Soundtrack

• Lullaby (Cradle Song)

Written by Johannes Brahms
Played in the score

• Frühlingslied (Spring Song) Op.62 #6 (1842)

Written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
In the score for the spring sign
Reprised when spring arrives

• My Grandfather's Clock

Written by Henry Clay Work
Played in the score

• Sleep, Baby, Sleep

Music by Jimmie Rodgers
Played and sung on a record

• Sleepy Head

Music by Walter Donaldson
Lyrics by Gus Kahn
Played in the score

• Boola Boola

Written by Allan M. Hirsch
Played on a record

See also

• The Rookie Bear
• Bah Wilderness
• Goggle Fishing Bear
• Wee-Willie Wildcat
• Bird-Brain Bird Dog
• The Fishing Bear

External links

• The Bear That Couldn't Sleep on IMDb
• The Bear That Couldn't Sleep at the Big Cartoon Database