The Unbearable Bear

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Super-Rabbit	The Wise Quacking Duck

Airdate:	Runtime:
17 April 1943 Blue Ribbon reissue: 9 December 1950	7 min. 53 sec. (reissue)

MPAA Number:	Production Number:
8432	MM-14-12^[1]^[2] 1228 (reissue)

22 January 1971^[3]

Crew

Mel Blanc
June Foray
Marjorie Tarlton (all uncredited)^[4]

John McGrew (uncredited)

Gene Fleury (uncredited)

Treg Brown (uncredited)

The Unbearable Bear is a 1943 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.

Sniffles' talkativeness foils both a burglar and a tipsy Officer Bear, who's trying to sneak past his rolling-pin-toting, sleepwalking wife.

I Want A Big Fat Mama (by Lucky Millinder)
- Plays during the opening credits^[6]
Blues in the Night (by Harold Arlen)
- Played during the first shot of Officer Bear's wife.
Sidewalk Serenade (by Frank Weldon)
- Plays when Sniffles addresses the burglar.
Frat (by John F. Barth)
- Played on the radio
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (traditional)
- Played when Officer Bear walks in drunk
Good Night, Ladies (traditional)
- Played when Officer Bear goes to bed
Blues in the Night (by Harold Arlen)
- Plays again when the Mama Bear starts sleep walking
Sidewalk Serenade (by Frank Weldon)
- Plays again when Sniffles is talking to Fox a the clothes pin.

When the officer bear is talking to the burglar fox at gunpoint, the bear's eyes briefly turn green.

This cartoon marked a new direction in the Sniffles cartoon series; it has a zanier, faster pace and more humorous direction than previous Sniffles cartoons, as director Chuck Jones "learned to be funny" starting with "The Dover Boys". Prior to that, Sniffles cartoons were cutesy and slow-moving in pacing, direction, and timing.
This is the first cartoon where Marjorie Tarlton, who voiced Batty in "The Brave Little Bat", voiced Sniffles, taking over the role from Margaret Hill-Talbot.
Starting from this cartoon, Sniffles has been recast as an incessant chatterbox who serves more as a nuisance than a cute protagonist, borrowing influences from Friz Freleng's discarded Little Blabbermouse character.
The original titles had the song "Big Fat Mama" playing over them.^[7]
A cel of the original title card and a black-and-white photo of the same were posted on Facebook in 2021.
This is the first Warner Bros. cartoon on which June Foray worked, although she would not become a permanent presence until 1955.
Vitaphone release number: 995^[8]
As late as 2008, a 35mm print of this cartoon with original titles was known to exist.^[9]