This was the last cartoon produced by Disney's shorts unit before it closed down (although afterwards, the studio's feature animators would make one or two shorts a year, when they had the time, at least until Walt Disney's death). It's fitting that it was made by the studio's greatest director, Jack Hannah. By Hannah's standards it's good but not outstanding - which means that by other standards it IS outstanding. It's only the second cartoon to star Humphrey B. Bear (incidentally, that name was later adopted by an insipid man-in-a-bear-suit fixture of Australian children's television, which is an insult - I don't know why Disney let them get away with it), a character Hannah introduced as a supporting player in the 1953 Donald Duck cartoon, "Rugged Bear". (Of the six cartoons in which Humphrey appears the first of them is the only one I haven't seen. It was nominated for an Oscar, not that that means anything.) Humphrey is an inspired character. Like all of Hannah's creations he has adult human intelligence, give or take, but is beast, not man, at heart. He is the greatest of all animated bears.
These days "In the Bag" is mainly used as a way of letting children know that they should tidy up after themselves, but put its dubious propaganda value to one side: it's a first-class, charmingly dotty, very funny piece of animation.
These days "In the Bag" is mainly used as a way of letting children know that they should tidy up after themselves, but put its dubious propaganda value to one side: it's a first-class, charmingly dotty, very funny piece of animation.