“In The Bag” is a 1956 classic Disney short directed by Jack Hannah.
After visitors leave Brownstone National Park covered in trash, Ranger Woodlore tricks Humphrey the Bear and his fellow bruins to clean up the park by making it into a game. Eventually, the bears figure it out and quit, so Woodlore instead bribes them with food. Rather than clean the whole park, they just shove it all in Humphrey's designated plot, leaving him to deal with the mess.
This cartoon provides examples of:
- The Cameo: Smokey the Bear makes a brief appearance foiling Humphrey’s attempt to burn the trash pile with fire. Smokey even quotes his catchphrase, “Remember! Only you can prevent forest fires.”
- Can't You Read the Sign?: The short opens with people departing in their cars and leaving the park littered. A disgruntled Ranger Woodlore complains, “Can’t you people read signs?” Specifically, he is referring the sign that says, “Do Not Litter Park”.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Quoted by Woodlore as one of Humphrey’s attempts to dispose of the trash pile fails.
- The Compliance Game: Woodlore makes the bears clean the park by making a game out of it.
- Fence Painting: Woodlore tricks the bears into cleaning the park by making it into a game. He divides the park into squares for each bear to clean, then teaches the bears how to use a picker and bag by making it into a dance.
- Food as Bribe: The bears refuse to continue cleaning the park once they realize that Woodlore is making them do all the work while he lazes about. Still unwilling to clean the park himself, Woodlore bribes the bears with a batch of chicken casserole he made. He tells the bears that they can’t any of the casserole unless they finish cleaning the park.
- Instant Bandages: After finding out what Woodlore was doing, the bears turn their backs to him, revealing bandages all over their backsides.
- Lazy Bum: Ranger Woodlore manipulates the bears to clean up all the trash in order to avoid doing the task himself. He motivates them to clean up the park with the titular song. Once he gets the bears going, Woodlore lies down in his hammock.
- Old Faithful: In the end, Humphrey stuffs all the trash into a hole in the ground. Unfortunately, that hole is Old Fateful geyser, which spews it all out again, despite Humphrey's attempts to stop it.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When realizing that Woodlore tricked them, the bears toss their bags and pickers and storm off.
- Shaking the Rump: The dance done by the bears while playing involves bumping their butts together, and some scenes focus on them shaking their butts to the camera.
- Stuffed into a Trashcan: After finding out that Woodlore tricked the bears into cleaning the park, Humphrey drops him into a trashcan.
- Titled After the Song: This short is titled after the song Ranger Woodlore uses to motivate the bears into cleaning the park.
