"Rugged Bear" is a 1953 animated short film (6 1/2 minutes) from Disney, directed by Jack Hannah.
It's hunting season out in the woods. Humphrey the Bear is sleeping under a tree and misses the alarm that causes all the other bears to take cover. Awakened by the sound of shooting, Humphrey runs for it, eventually finding shelter in a cabin.
Unfortunately for Humphrey the cabin is a hunting cabin, filled with guns and the stuffed heads of bears on the walls. With no place to hide Humphrey rolls up and hides the bearskin rug on the floor and pretends to be the rug. The owner of the cabin, Donald Duck, returns home from a hunting expedition, puts his feet up on Humphrey...and much physical comedy ensues.
Tropes:
- Behind a Stick: A rare "seen from the front" version, as Humphrey hides behind an old tree, contorting himself to fit its shape. Hunters shoot at the tree anyway, and Humphrey makes a run for it just as a huge hole is blasted where his head was.
- Brick Joke: The "rug" that Humphrey rolls up and puts away earlier in the short revealing itself at the end to be a live bear.
- Dead Guy on Display: Or so it seems to Humphrey when he dives into a cabin only to find a bearskin rug on the floor and bear heads mounted on the walls.
- Fluffy Dry Cat: Humphrey's fur is all poofed out crazily after going through Donald's washing machine, which leads Donald to shave a bunch of it off.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Humphrey flops down on the floor and pretends to be a rug.
- Interactive Narrator: The bears (except for a sleeping Humphrey) hear the narrator talk about hunting season and run for safety.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The bears react like this when they hear that it's hunting season.
- Narrator: Heard at the beginning explaining that hunting season has begun, and at the end noting that it's over.
- Oddball in the Series: A rare example of Donald Duck not being the butt of the joke. It's Humphrey who takes a lot of physical punishment from pretending to be Donald's rug; Donald eventually leaves the cabin without ever realizing his rug was a live bear.
- The Reveal: The bearskin rug that Humphrey rolled up and chucked in a trunk was actually a second live bear, also hiding, who thanks a horrified Humphrey for saving him from hunting season.
- Traumatic Haircut: After Humphrey emerges from the washing machine with a spectacular case of Fluffy Dry Cat fur, Donald elects to shave all that excess fur off of his "rug". With a lawnmower.
- Verbed Title: Well, if one can changed the pronunciation of "rugged" and make it a verb...Humphrey pretends to be a rug and takes a lot of punishment in the process.
