The Ballad of Smokey the Bear tells the story, or a story of Smokey the Bear. The premise has Smokey’s big brother, voiced by James Cagney, telling the story of how his brother got his name. It’s a long winded and rambling tale that has very little Smokey and a great deal of a cranky Jimmy. The story has the animals trying to find out who set a forest fire and is poisoning the water. Its not giving anything away to say it’s an escaped circus gorilla that smokes cigars..