Rugged Bear (1953)
Rugged Bear Review
Rugged Bear is a 1953 animated short film produced by Disney. It’s a phenomenal entry in the series and one of the best.
Humphrey the Bear hides in Donald’s cabin, pretending to be the bearskin rug. Donald then proceeds to put the poor bear to immense pain, but the bear perseveres and in the end leaves the house unharmed. But not before he finds out that a “rug” that he saw before is another live bear who was hiding in the house. That ending was brilliant and hilarious. The entire movie is superb and it undeniably deserved its Oscar nomination.
Rugged Bear is a proof that you can turn a simple concept into an animated short film if you have the right people behind the project. Everybody here fired on all cylinders, resulting in a visually polished movie that is also very well scored and voiced. I would have gone without that unnecessary narration and the beginning was flawed, but the rest of the film is so much fun. The bear trying to survive Donald sitting on him and then washing him in a washing machine was immensely entertaining and his facial expressions were priceless. Donald being a hunter made him unlikable for sure, but he was still very funny in his ever-amusing lines of dialogue.
