I love Disney's Humphrey the Bear. He was a cute character from the 1950s that starred in a half dozen films--ones I loved to watch whenever they were shown on television. Why? Because they are fun--something some cartoons forget.The ranger is sad--all the tourists have left the park a mess. Instead of cleaning it himself, he comes up with a plan--to con the bears into thinking cleaning up is some sort of game! He divides up the property like a ball field and sings the bears a catchy tune--and they dance about cleaning litter. Seeing the silly bears dancing about is pretty cute--but it gets even better once the bears realize they've been had! So what is the poor ranger to do? He obviously needs to come up with a better plan--one that involves Chicken Cacciatore! Why did I like this cartoon (other than the fact that it has a catchy song)? Well, the bears were so adorable and expressive--possibly the best ones I've ever seen in a cartoon. And, on top of that, it's very funny. Well worth your time--and one of the better Disney shorts of the era.

This is my absolute favorite Disney Character. In The Bag is one of a few Humphrey cartoons that I loved as a kid. Humphrey and friends,are hilarious!! The bear characters' expressive faces are incredibly funny. The idiotic look on the bears' faces when they come to the realization they've been duped by the ranger...Just priceless. This cartoon is really the first Road Runner/Wylie Cayote scenario. Humphrey is always after food (remember the honey and fish in the Donald Duck/Humphrey cartoon?), and is always starving. But Humphrey, ever on the verge of a feast, never gets to eat. Poor bear... I saw all of his cartoons as a kid and watched them again with my girls when they were little. They still sing the song... first you pick it up put it in the bag; bump, bump.

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.

I saw this when I was about 3 years old. This was the only way my mother could get me to pick up my toys. We'd do the whole song and dance every couple of hours. So very cool that they can use cartoons to send positive messages, like "Be neat and clean up after yourself." If you can, find a copy for yourself.