Yogi Bear is a live-action/animated hybrid that follows very closely in the tradition of the well-established sub-genre of Warner Brothers cartoons. Not without spunk and moments of wit, Yogi lacks the edge in a bid to be faithful to pre-established conventions. It’s fitting a Road Runner cartoon appears before the feature.
Dan Aykroyd voices the precious pick-a-nic basket stealing bear, with Justin Timberlake as his sidekick Boo Boo. In a bit of type-casting, Tom Cavanaugh again plays Ranger Smith, a nice man who has trouble talking to women. Smith’s relationship with Yogi is, interestingly enough, quite respectful: he’s a pleasant annoyance to Jellystone Park.
Cavanagh is probably a very nice guy in real life, he’s been playing this same role since he came on my radar with the extremely likeable NBC series Ed years ago. Perhaps he should take a role as a rapist or crystal-meth cooker to bulk up his resume.
Enter the cute-natured documentarian Anna Faris, working on a film about Jellystone, fitting Boo Boo with a point of view camera. The film needs a villain and Jellystone is under fire from the town’s conservative Mayor Brown (Buffalonians take note, he bares no relationship our mayor Byron Brown). Brown (played by Andrew Daly) plans to rezone Jellystone as agricultural so he can sell logging rights and have a deficit in the municipal budget. Thankfully this is all more interesting, fun and less insulting to the intelligence than last summer’s Furry Vengeance.
Brown enlists Ranger Jones (T. J. Miller from She’s Out of My League, also playing the same kind of role he usually does), a kid trying to make a name for himself. The only way to save Jellystone is for it to make money. So the park plans a 100th Anniversary party.
Technically Yogi Bear makes good use of the 3D, even if it plays it safe. The film contains beautifully-composed landscapes and bright images show in deep focus (perhaps a limit to 3D that filmmakers are starting to explore breaking). All and all, I must report it is not a bad time, a technically competent cartoon hybrid by Eric Brevig a visual effects guy also directed the technically superb Journey to the Center of the Earth which claimed to be the first live-action digital 3D film.
Digital 3D is a language that is still being learned and experimented with; some filmmakers are doing compelling things, others have yet to improve on the 2D experience and are greedily after that 2 to 5 dollar upgrade fee. Yogi Bear in 3D works. However, where it also works is the comic timing of the performers. They are likeable and that’s key to the on-screen fun. Where the performances feel flat are in the interaction between live-action and animation.
Where Yogi Bear falls short is in its reluctance to push the envelope for its core audience and adults. It partially succeeds as a pleasant and – at times – fun movie outing.
