Ballad of Smokey the Bear

Many of us are aware of Smokey the Bear with his slogan of “Only YOU can prevent forest fire!” He has made his brief appearance in commercials and in cartoons. His own film, Ballad of Smokey the Bear is where to review from here.

His older brother, Big Bear (voiced by James Cagney of Yankee Doodle Dandy) tells the Ballad of Smokey the Bear from his childhood. Smokey as Sonny (Original young voice I swear is Billie Mae Richard, but later he's voiced by a young Barry Pearl, who would later be Doody in Grease.) was a naive little bear with a girlfriend, Delilah. In a peaceful forest, he had neighbors of bees, beavers, foxes, a turtle, rabbits, and all those cute animals. One day, a fire happened in the forest as it scarred Smokey, including his mom and the assuming that Delilah died as we never see them after the forest fire. (Where his father went? Who knows? Maybe he’s dead, out further in another acre, or scaring people of Kidsville.) After physical recovery, they discovered footprints of a threat to the animals and forest. It’s not man, but its close in the animal kingdom, yet rose by it, which you’ll have to see for yourself.

The song was written by Johnny Mark, who wrote the music for Rudolph. Where in Rudolph, the music either moved or expressed the story.

The music numbers are nice to listen, but is pointless and stops the film too much. When it does move the story, it does sound better. My favorite is the opening theme as it sounds legendary as folklore could be in musical form. Either the older brother is singing in his story for padding, or his kids listen to the story are dosing off thinking a musical number for fun.

The story is less about Smokey and more about the brother, Big Bear, since little Smokey was mostly scared and brooding in the second act of the film. Much of an ego, but it makes more or less sense since he witness most of it. Though how he knows what happened when he wasn’t around was more connections to the other characters in the story. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense.

The side characters are generic, but purpose to show some life in the forest. Beavers are kind of annoying with the constant snickering at the beginning of their sentences, the fox is sort of Comet the Reindeer, and the turtle is generally wise and old.

I don’t get into the environmental films, since majority is the same with nature or man dooming the world as the main characters try and will survive, as proven with Ferngully, Power Rangers Wild Force/ Gaoranger (the most of the series that tackle the environment, with Power Rangers Megaforce/ 2^nd part of Goseiger, and few episodes of Mighty Morphin as runner up.), CGI Lorax, Captain Planet, Cars 2, Once Upon Forest, and Norm of the North. It’s usually more effective when the world starts as damage, but over the course of the film and series will find ways to bring the world to peace. This can be done right in Avatar: The Last Airbender (not James Cameron’s Avatar), Sonic SAT AM, Wall-E, and Power Rangers RPM. This film fit somewhere close to the middle.

If you want to know the history of Smokey the Bear, this is a close film to know the basic of him, while there could be some documents about him. There’s an animated series with Smokey, but that’s another Ballad of a review for another time.