Roosevelt vs the 'Foreign Invaders'?  Or is it an experimental film?

This is a bizarre sit. It's supposed to be, from what YouTube told me in the video description, a 'satire', but of what? It's one of those tall tales around the great Theodore Roosevelt that he got his name 'Teddy', and in conjunction with this the 'Teddy' bear, because while he was hunting and killed a mother bear, he didn't shoot the bear cub. This is mixed in with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Goldilocks breaks in, eats the Porridge, goes to bed, and then the three bears come home to get the little girl out and, you know, kill her.

It combines these two stories so what you get is 10 minutes of the Goldilocks tale told with some degree of competency - that is, you can follow it - with one rather surreal digression where Goldilocks looks through a room into where four or five or six teddy bears are doing dance movements in stop motion(!) And as others have noted, this is the best part of the short, and reminds me of the zany exuberance of something like Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' video, and for the time it holds up rather well. The people in the bear costumes... not so much. And then the last three minutes is this Roosevelt-bear story, only here he kills both the Mama Bear and Papa Bear and lets the Baby Bear live so... the Baby Bear is spared I guess.

I don't know what Edwin S Porter's politics were, but I'm suspecting this was *against* Roosevelt for some reason (was Porter pro-bank or something? Might make sense given the Great Train Robbery, though that proves nothing). I just didn't get the "satire" part of it; what does the Mama and Papa bear represent here, as far as them being shot and killed? Is it a satire on American imperialism, as the little girl is invading a foreign territory and yet the Americans end up killing the foreigners anyway after f***ing up their s***t? It might take a few drinks to really get into what the deeper meaning is here.

For now I'd say it's worth watching simply for the wild spectacle of seeing these actors in bear costumes and this girl peering in on these stop motion little bears. It's a nice dose of WTF that won't make sense without fuller context - and even then you may be confused!

The satire subgenre uses humor, irony, exaggeration, and parody to critique and comment on various aspects of society, culture, politics, institutions, and human behavior. Satires aim to provoke thought, highlight absurdities, and expose hypocrisy by presenting familiar situations in a distorted or exaggerated manner. They entertain while also providing social commentary and encouraging viewers to reflect on the subjects being criticized.

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

The comedy genre refers to a category of entertainment that aims to amuse and entertain audiences by using humor, wit, and comedic situations. Comedies are created with the primary intention of eliciting laughter and providing lighthearted enjoyment. They encompass a wide range of styles, tones, and themes, appealing to various tastes and audiences.

Will Ferrell, Angela Grillo, and Lap-Gei Cheung in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

The family genre features stories specifically created to be suitable for a wide range of age groups within a family. Family-oriented content is designed to be enjoyed by both children and adults, often providing entertainment that is wholesome, relatable, and appropriate for all members of a family to watch or experience together.

Drew Barrymore and Pat Welsh in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

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Seven toy teddy bears of varying sizes suddenly come to life, getting in all sorts of merry misadventures.

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The 'Teddy' Bears

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