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Star cast: Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake (voices), Tom Cavanagh, Andrew Daly.
What’s Good: The quality of animation; the simple humour that will appeal to kids.
What’s Bad: The absence of high-octane action; the slow pace of the film.
Verdict: Yogi Bear will fail at the Indian box-office.
Loo break: None really, if you are a kid; if you are an adult, you will be bored.
Watch or Not?: Go only if your children insist.
Warner Bros. Pictures, Sunswept Entertainment and De Line Pictures’ Yogi Bear is a live action- animation film about a talking bear who resides in Jellystone Park in the US.
Yogi Bear (voice of Dan Aykroyd) is a talking bear, who makes it his business to steal the picnic baskets of all the visitors who come to the park , in spite of repeated warnings by Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) and Boo Boo (voice of Justin Timberlake), Yogi’s faithful pal.
So when the mayor of the town, Mayor Brown (Andrew Daly), decides to reallocate the whole land of Jellystone Park as agricultural land because the Park has been losing money, Ranger Smith is faced with a problem. He has to come up with the money to fulfill the deficit in the park’s income, failing which he will lose the park to the greedy mayor. Smith, with the help of a documentary filmmaker, Rachel (Anna Faris), comes up with an ingenious plan to celebrate the park’s 100th anniversary with festivities, so as to attract as many paid visitors as possible. He asks Yogi to keep away from the festivities and not to steal any picnic baskets.
But prompted by Ranger Smith’s stupid assistant, Ranger Jones (T.J. Miller), Yogi tries to entertain the park visitors, and instead ends up showering them with deadly, misdirected firecrackers. The whole program turns into a mess. Soon, the Mayor takes over the park and starts cutting trees to make money. A dejected Ranger Smith is transferred to a small park in the middle of the city. Yogi loses hope and decides to live life as a normal bear, but Boo-Boo prompts Yogi to wear his thinking cap. Incidentally, an endangered species of turtle is discovered inside the park by Rachel. The turtle, if found, can save the whole park itself. Mayor Brown also learns of the turtle’s existence and wants to get to it first. Is the turtle found? Are Ranger Smith and Yogi able to save the park? The rest of the film reveals it all.
Yogi Bear Review – Story & Screenplay
Jeffrey Ventimilia, Joshua Sternin and Brad Copeland’s script, based on the famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon, is quite simple and straightforward. The story and the characters are cute, mildly funny and will appeal to children. The story begin and moves at a leisurely pace, which turns out to be a negative point as the film drags at many places. Apart from one sequence in the climax, there are hardly any action sequences to excite the kids. Moreover, as the current generation of Indian children is not so exposed to Yogi Bear and his exploits, be it through TV or comics, how much they will take to the characters is a moot question.
Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake do well as the voice-artistes for Yogi Bear and Boo Boo respectively. The actors, Anna Faris, Tom Cavanagh, T.J. Miller and Andrew Daly, provide able support. Josh Robert Thompson’s narration is fair.
Yogi Bear Review – Direction
Eric Brevig’s direction is good. He has managed to make a fairly believable film, as, in reality, the bears, Yogi and Boo-Boo, are animated, while the rest of the characters are human. To his credit, the merging of the live-action and animation footage has been well-executed. John Debney’s background score is appropriate. Peter James’s cinematography is okay. Kent Beyda’s editing is good.
The Last Word
All in all, Yogi Bear provides entertainment in small dollops, but its poor promotion will adversely affect its box-office fortunes in India.
