Yogi Bear

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

Yogi (voiced by Dan Aykroyd) and Boo Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake) are two brown bears who have a penchant for stealing picnic baskets from visitors to Jellystone Park, while park rangers Smith (Tom Cavanaugh) and Jones (T. J. Miller) try to prevent them from doing so. Meanwhile, Mayor Brown (Andrew Daly) realizes that his city is facing a financial crisis due to profligate spending on his part. To solve it and fund his election campaign to be the next state governor, the mayor decides to “find some place losing money so he can earn it”, and he picks Jellystone, the park where the bears live. The park is selected as a logging site, and Jellystone is shut down. Now seeing that their home is in danger of being destroyed, it’s up to Yogi and Boo Boo, along with Ranger Smith and a documentary-shooter named Rachel (Anna Faris), to save the park.

To save the park from being shut down, Ranger Smith holds a Centennial festival where he hopes to make a profit selling Season Passes. To sabotage the effort, Mayor Brown plays on Ranger Jones’ ambition to be head ranger and promises him the position if the funds are not raised. Yogi had promised Smith to stay out of sight during the festival, but Jones convinces him to go ahead with a plan help. Yogi tries to please the crowd with a waterskiing performance which goes awry when he inadvertently sets his cape on fire. In the ensuing chaos, the fireworks Smith set up are knocked over and ignited prematurely, launching them into the assembled audience who flee in a panic. After Jellystone is shut down, Ranger Smith is forced to stay in Evergreen Park, a small urban enclave choked with litter and pollution, but not after he tells Yogi that Yogi is not as smart as he thinks he is. Smith, Rachel, Yogi, and Boo Boo plan to stop the sale of Jellystone. They learn that Boo Boo’s pet turtle is a rare species, which means that the Park cannot be destroyed with the turtle there. Mayor Brown finds out and orders his guards to kidnap the turtle so that he can cut down all trees of Jellystone and confesses to Yogi, Smith, Rachel, and Boo Boo, that he doesn’t care about the law and wants power more than what is best for the people and the environment.

However, Rachel had previously put a video camera in Boo Boo’s bow tie as part of the documentary which later recorded Mayor Brown’s confession. The turtle escapes Mayor Brown’s assistant by using his frog-like tongue to pull itself into the forest from the car. Yogi and Boo Boo keep the guards distracted so that Ranger Smith can upload Mayor Brown’s unintended confession to the jumbo screen. When the confession is replayed, the police arrest Mayor Brown and his Chief of Staff, who lies that there is no rare turtle when the turtle reveals himself to the people. Smith tells Yogi that he really is smart and thanks him for saving Jellystone. Jones loses the position of head ranger and Smith takes it back, but Jones still works there, giving out papers about how Jellystone has a rare type of turtle.

REVIEW:

Remember back in the day when cartoons actually came on television, and that they were hand-drawn, not computer animated? Well, that was when Yogi Bear rules the airwaves. Well, maybe not ruled, but he surely carved out a niche for himself. A big enough one that, in 2010, this live-action film was made.

In a manner similar to other cartoons that have been brought to the big screen and changed to live-action, such as Scooby-Doo, Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Mr. Magoo, and to a lesser extent, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Yogi Bear does its best to maintain the spirit of the original, while making it accessible to modern (read=younger) audiences.

Does the film succeed at that task? Honestly, I think it does, but since most of the film takes place in the park, there really isn’t much that had to do with society, except for stuff involving the humans, who, with the exception of Ranger Smith, his love interest, the unnecessary Ranger Jones, and of course the villanous mayor (and his minions).

The plot here, as with every Yogi Bear, cartoon starts off with Yogi and Boo Boo attempting to pilfer a pic-a-nic basket. After some hilarious hijinks, we meet the other characters in the film, the rangers, and then the mayor and his lackey, who have discovered the city is near bankrupt. This causes them to search for ways to get some money for the city. They come up with the idea of selling off Jellystone since it doesn’t meet its operating costs.

This flick was released in 3D. A friend of mine actually wasted the money he didn’t have to see it in “glorious 3D” (note the sarcastic tone). I didn’t see anything that would warrant shelling out the cash to see this in 3D. Hell, I didn’t see anything here that would warrant seeing it in the theater.

I have to say, though, that I had low to no expectations for this film. I surely wasn’t expecting to be entertained as much as I was. Having said that, I think it did get a tad bit formulaic. A soon as they introduced Ranger Jones (don’t ask me why they felt the need to create another ranger), it was obvious he would do something boneheaded that would impact the film. Couple that with the way the film just ended up playing out, you could pretty much tell what was going to happen.

Was I expecting some kind of weird twist? No, but I did think that perhaps it would have been something not so obvious.

The casting of Dan Akroyd and Justin Timberlake as Yogi and Boo boo worked much better than I thought it would, especially Timberlake. Akroyd sounded exactly like theo riginal Yogi, as did Timberlake. I don’t know if any voice altering was done to get that effect, or if that is true talent, but it is impressive.

Tom Cavanagh is ok as Ranger Smith. The guy doesn’t really have to do much, though. This is a character who is secondary to Yogi, but the filmmakers did all they could to make him almost the focal point of this film, and that is what hurts. He may have been great on Ed, but as a leading man on film, he just doesn’t cut it.

Anna Faris has nothing to do here but look hot (when does she not?), and chime in with some knowledgeable insights. I would say this is a waste of her talent, but this is one of those films where the humans are secondary, so its ok.

T.J. Miller suffered from having a character that just wasn’t worth seeing. This guy was annoying, forced in the film, and really didn’t warrant any reaction from the audience.

Andrew Daly did a pretty good job as the mayor. His sarcastic tone and swagger made this evil mayor character memorable.

What is the final verdict on Yogi Bear? Well, it is surprisingly good. The action and comedy mixed together makes it really fun to watch. If you’re in the market for a good film to watch with the kids, then this is one of the films you should seriously consider. It isn’t perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is worth the viewing. Who knows? You may even like it!

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

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