Review of Yogi Bear (2010) by Philip S — 22 May 2011

Some things simply should NOT be turned into movies. And 'Yogi Bear' is one of them. All this movie did was take the charm of the first 'Alvin and The Chipmunks' movie, and turn it sour. Younger audiences who know little to nothing of the original cartoon series will obviously enjoy the jokes, and gags. But there is one major glaring problem with the story that makes the whole thing useless.

The one thing that cancels out the entire movie is the fact that a city's mayor, who is running for governor, wants to shut down a national park. Hmmmmm...major plot hole here. A national park cannot be shut down by a city's mayor or a governor for that matter. Only the federal government can do that. For that matter, how close to the sprawling expanse of Jellystone is the unnamed city in the movie?

Yes, there are some funny jokes and gags through the movie--which doesn't even hit the 90-minute mark--and the scenery of the park (what little is shown) is beautiful. But that's about all this lackluster movie has going for it. The storyline itself takes liberally from 'Alvin and The Chipmunks', what with the romance subplot between Ranger Smith and his love interest. Having Yogi trying to fix them up only bears even more resemblance between the two. And even Boo Boo is made out to be eerily similar to Theodore, personality-wise. What's more, some of the gags are even a little reminiscent of the equally bad Brendan Fraser big screen adaptation of 'Dudley Do-Right'. And it goes without saying just how predictable the story is, too.

Yogi bear is among the most memorable of all the characters in television history. Given, his cartoon show was short lived. But it was fun. And that's what keeps him such a popular character today. But sadly, like so many other big screen adaptations of cartoons, this movie does absolutely nothing but dishonor the legacy that Hanna Barbera created with the original cartoon series. One can only hope that it will serve as a blaring reminder to Hollywood that as dry as it is in terms of creativity, things like this only make it that much drier.