Hooked Bear

Hooked Bear is a Humphrey the Bear short that was released on April 27, 1956. The short can be found on disc 2 of Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts: 1920s–1960s and also in a handful of cheap public domain VHS tapes.

Synopsis
It's fishing season! Ranger Woodlore is stocking the lake, much to Humphrey's delight as he tries to intercept a meal intended for the anglers.Fishing season has begun and park ranger J. Audubon Woodlore has decided to go out to the lake to catch some fresh fish. Humphrey the Bear is also making attempts to catch fish, but every time he finds one, he gets distracted and drops it, so instead he chooses to intercept the fish that the local anglers have caught. Woodlore sees the fish disappearing before his eyes, so he wonders what could be happening. Then, he finds Humphrey with a few fishing nets and rods, and asks him what he is doing; when the bear responds in his own unintelligible "bear-speak," the ranger commands him, "Go fish like a bear!" Woodlore then fills a tub with water and inserts fish eggs into it, causing a number of little fishes to pop up out of the water like plants pop up out of soil. When the ranger gets to the lake to dump the fish, he finds Humphrey in there, trying to eat one of the small fishes, which is then consumed by a much larger fish. Humphrey tries to remove the small fish from the belly of the large fish (and succeeds), and the bear clutches five other large fishes that jump out of the water, but then Woodlore appears to measure the fish, while at the same time punishing Humphrey by hitting him in the head with his boat and sinking him into the depths of the lake. When Humphrey grabs the fish (again) and emerges from the lake, he discovers a fish larger than any of the others; this turns out to be a fish balloon with which a young child is playing. Humphrey pops the balloon, and both the boy and Woodlore kick the bear in the knee. Humphrey thinks of some other way to foil the anglers, discovers the same boy from before walking on the shore of the lake with a toy boat, removes the bottom from the boat, ties it onto his head like a hat, and then submerges himself into the lake so that only the top of his hat shows, tricking the anglers into thinking that there is a shark in the water and causing them to flee in terror. He then steals all of the anglers' bags of fish, but then he loads the fish in these bags into Humphrey's airplane, giving him more of a full load than he was expecting. However, Humphrey decides to stuff himself into the plane, which proves to be too small for him, Woodlore and the fish, and then all of the fish in the plane, along with the bear, fall down into the lake. Woodlore gets a telephone call from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which tells him to stop fishing, as fishing season had ended the previous day. The ranger then takes out his scissors and cuts the rods of various anglers, trying to stuff some of their fish into his bucket, but then he finds Humphrey playing with various fish, and tells him "Fishing season's over!" He then paints a red X over the "Fishing Season" sign and flips it over to reveal the message "Hunting Season Open." After this, we see Humphrey being hunted, with shots fired at him from all directions, and running about as the cartoon irises out.

Characters

 * Humphrey the Bear
 * J. Audubon Woodlore

Television

 * Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, episode #14.22: "The Ranger of Brownstone"
 * Good Morning, Mickey, episode #38
 * Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #19
 * Donald's Quack Attack, episode #32
 * The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.9: "Woodlore & Humphrey"

Home video

 * Winnie the Pooh and Friends (VHS)
 * Donald Duck (public domain VHS)
 * Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities (DVD)

Trivia

 * The opening credits music in this cartoon would later be used as the opening music for both series of Walt Disney Cartoon Classics VHS tapes.