Review: Yogi Bear

WARNING: This review may turn into or resemble a rant.

Sitting in the foyer of Warner Bros HQ, waiting for the YOGI BEAR screening to begin I watched one of the kids that has dragged along his nanny and was amazed to see how excited and captivated by the trailer playing for this film he was.  It gave me a slight hope that maybe someone tonight will be enjoying the film.  I was mistaken.

YOGI BEAR is a film that is following the trend of turning much loved children’s talking cartoon animals into fully CGI’d buffoons interacting with slightly known actors wondering what has happened to their once promising career.  This idea of reigniting a franchise has lead to bastardisations of some of my favourite cartoons growing up including GARFIELD (Twice !), ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS and SCOOBY DOO.  I know that this film and the previously mentioned ones are not made for me but for the younger generation so I am not looking at this as an existentialist masterpiece on the level of Bergman or a critique of modern day society and it’s murdering on the world’s natural beauty but I was watching this as a plain and simple children’s film.  But it’s just absolutely terrible.

The film starts by showing what the smarter than the average bear does best, stealing picnic baskets with the voice of Yogi by Dan Aykroyd and Boo Boo played by Justin Timberlake.  Quickly the film establishes that the Mayor (Andrew Daly, SEMI-PRO) of the city is a cheap and unfunny rip off of a Steve Carell character who is close to bankrupting the city and needs money to run for Governor.  He has the idea of selling the logging rights to Jellystone Park and making millions off it but only if the park fails to meet it’s operating budget which is a guarantee since no one goes there.  The Mayor informs Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh, ED) who decides with the help of  a documentary filmmaker, Rachel (Anna Faris, SCARY MOVIE(S)), that they will raise the money and save the park.  Of course Yogi messes everything up but just saves the day in the final minutes of the film for the happy ever after.

Some of the biggest problems of the film is purely technical, such as everyone’s eye line is off, which might seem a small thing but is increasingly annoying when Ranger Smith is talking to Yogi and looking in the completely wrong place.  Also if any of the CGI character are in a scene with a living person they stand out a mile and do not blend into their surroundings, looking as if the filmmakers were using Spectrum to render Yogi and the others as it looks incredibly dated, SHARKTOPUS is more advanced.  It was bad enough in 3D but it is even worse in 2D.

The story itself is simplistic, which is fine, it’s the type of story that you expect but it’s execution is abysmal.  Everyone tries to delivery the dialogue in a comedic manner but it seems everyone has just given up.  Anna Faris reminds everyone why she is the Wetherspoons of leading ladies with her withering looks and bargain basement laughs while Cavanagh (who I am a big fan of) might as well of been a Marionette puppet with his lifeless unnatural blue eyes staring into space. Dan Aykroyd is one of the best comedy actors and writers in cinema history with fantastic films such as GHOSTBUSTERS and THE GREAT OUTDOORS so why is he doing this?  Didn’t his pal Bill Murray not warn him after the GARFIELD fiasco?  Did he lose a bet?  Timberlake is actually great at simulating the Boo Boo voice but soon makes you want to find a knee high bear and see how far you can punt them with his hundredth line saying “Oh I don’t know Yogi”.  Oh and quick mention of the token comedy character of Ranger Jones (T.J Miller, CLOVERFIELD) is one of the worse examples of acting/comedy/human beings that I have ever seen.

The dialogue is flat and dull with no laughs in the slightest, and I closely listened to see if the kids two rows in front laughed at anything and they did not.  There was also no risksor parodies taken in the film that were successful in the first SCOOBY-DOO film, turning the universally hated Scrappy-Doo into a territory marking megalomaniac, much enjoyed by children, adults and stoners alike.

I know this review might seem harsh but there are two good reasons that I am so frustrated and angry about this film;

1 – People are going to dismiss my mutterings about the film and how bad it is because it’s only a kids film, but that is no excuse.  We should hold children’s films up to just as high standards as ever other piece of media that we consume.  If people didn’t we wouldn’t have Pixar, CORALINE, SPIRITED AWAY or any of the amazing kids films that can be enjoyed by all age.  What would the world be like if we didn’t have TOY STORY but another HIGH SCHOOL THE MUSICAL?

2 – This film, not including marketing, probably cost around £25 mill plus.  What if that money was used for good instead of crap like YOGI BEAR.  If Gareth Edwards actually did make his film MONSTERS for the reported £15,000 imagine how many great films we could of gotten out of the wasted £25 million this sorry excuse of a movie was made for.

So the story was weakly executed… the acting was phoned in… the CGI was poor…. there were no laughs… So your probably asking yourself if there was any redeeming features and you know what… there was one, right at the start with another new and funny Wile E Coyote & Road Runner cartoon featuring Segways of all things.  But of course thats probably on Youtube by now and isn’t worth the £10 or whatever price of admission is.

Of course this alternative ending that is doing the rounds, that is apparently made by some of the film’s crew, shows what even the filmmakers thought on the film. YOGI BEAR is out on Feb 11 2011.