Better Than The Average Review

As you know (or probably could have guessed) I really enjoyed the new Yogi Bear movie in theatres now. The film has been getting alot of bashing from various internet sites, but it was nice to see Entertainment Weekly give the film a favorable and completely honest review of the movie. I liked the review so much I had to run it here for more to see...

"Those of us who grew up on Yogi Bear cartoons can breathe easy: In his new movie — featuring a 3-D computer-animated Yogi (voiced by Dan Aykroyd) and Boo Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake) alongside live action actors — our beloved pic-a-nic thief isn't asked to whore himself by rapping, farting, or dropping pop culture references the way some of his animated brethren have in recent years. (Our condolences, Chipmunks.) Instead he's plopped unharmed into a sweetly frivolous storyline about a park ranger (Tom Cavanagh) trying to save Jellystone Park from the grips of an oily politician. There's nothing particularly inventive in the plot or grade-school humor, but the movie skates by on the timeless, undemanding charm of watching a tie-wearing bear try to steal people's lunches. B-" -Adam Markovitz


Well put and well said!

Yogi Watch 2010

The Yogi Bear movie is a little over four months away. Today I saw the poster for the first time...

My thoughts....the poster is actually pretty awesome. It's bright and colorful and it stands out from most of the other movie posters for current movies. I'm sure somewhere along the brainstorming sessions somebody came up with a poster featuring a close up of Yogi and Boo Boo's face tinted blue with a tag line of something like "Pic-a-nic Happens". But the poster does focus in on pic-a-nic baskets which should be the main theme of any Yogi Bear project.

The design of the two main characters is probably what is going to off-set most people. When I first heard of the film, I was expecting them to use real bears or at least CGI realistic looking bears but these designs are pretty dead on to what Yogi and Boo Boo would look like in real life. They are much more on-target with their classic counterparts then say Alivn and the Chipmunks or Garfield were in their big screen epics.

What has me most excited about the possibilities of this movie is an interview I read with director Eric Brevig. Alot of times these pre-film interviews with directors are just all hype and they say what ever they think will help to sell the movie, but other times I read these articles and I'm thinking, "Are you %&$# kiddin' me!?" Like the director of the new Tom & Jerry live-action film who said something along the lines of, "Yeah, I watched a few of the old episodes with my kid but we're going in a whole new direction." What!?!

Yogi Bear director Eric Brevig says, "I wanted to make a movie that's a comedy in which some of the characters are bears, as opposed to a kid's film." That's somewhat refreshing...if it's true. What I really liked was: "Well, I think the world of Yogi is a timeless world, and I've gone to great lengths to avoid specific things in the movie that tell you the time period —for example, people don't use cell phones in the movie, [the park rangers] use walkie-talkies. The things we take for granted — BlackBerrys and so forth — they don't really exist in the Yogi world; it will have a classic feel to it." That's some smart thinking, my friends.

This dude sounds like he might be smarter than the average director. You can read the whole interview here.

Yogi Watch 2010:First Teeny Tiny Glance

I was pretty darn excited to find this cell phone picture on Facebook that someone had snapped on the set of the Yogi Bear movie. The movie is currently filming in New Zealand. Another movie currently in theatres called Avatar, was also filmed in New Zealand. So, from this broad connection we can only assume that Yogi Bear will be one of the highest grossing movies of all time!

Yogi Watch 2010

The new year of 2010 will most likely be remembered, by me, as the year I sit and wait for the live-action Yogi Bear movie to be released on December 17. I'm soooo excited to see the movie and have Yogi Bear once again become an active participant in pop culture, yet on the other paw I'm worried that there is so much that they can get wrong with this movie there's a good chance they will disappoint me. So, we're starting a new department here at WWoB called Yogi Watch 2010 so we can keep track of all the developments with the film as they become public.

Here's what we know so far:
-The Cast Tom Cavanagh, best known for his title role in the NBC series Ed, has been cast as Ranger Smith. I like that they didn't just go for a big name star. This Cavanagh kid looks the part, I think he can pull it off.

The wonderful Anna Faris is also cast as a nature documentary film maker. Faris is a very gifted comedic actress and she'll add a little star power to the cast - I like her addition to the cast.

When I first read that Dan Aykroid and Justin Timerlake were hired to voice Yogi and Boo-Boo I almost hung myself. But then I stopped and thought...I can hear the two of these guys nailing the voices of Yogi and Boo-Boo, so if they are actually going to mimic the cartoon voices I think it will be an interesting choice. If Dan Aykroid and Justin Timerlake are just going to voice the bears with their regular speaking voices...I might considering jumping into a bear den at a local zoo in protest.

-The Director Eric Brevig directed the recent money making Journey To The Center of the Earth in 3-D, and was brought onto the Yogi Bear project when it was decided that the big screen adaptation of the two-dimensional cartoon be shot in eye-popping 3-D. I'm not sure what to make of the 3-D decision. I guess after Avatar, 3-D has a whole new appeal to everyone, so maybe it will help the movie at the box office. If Yogi Bear swings in on a rope to steal a picnic basket (and he better!) and then flies out over the audience...I'm so in!

-The Plot From the Warner Bros. press release: Jellystone Park has been losing business, so greedy Mayor Brown decides to shut it down and sell the land. That means families will no longer be able to experience the natural beauty of the outdoors -- and, even worse, Yogi and Boo Boo will be tossed out of the only home they've ever known. Faced with his biggest challenge ever, Yogi must prove that he really is "smarter than the average bear" as he and Boo Boo join forces with their old nemesis Ranger Smith to find a way to save Jellystone Park from closing forever.

Sounds promising as long as they don't have Yogi and Ranger Smith being best friends or some nonsense like that. As long as they have Yogi Bear in his green tie and porkpie hat, they are half way home!

Stay tuned to WWoB for more exciting updates from Yogi Watch 2010!