DVD Reviews

Yogi Bear - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 24, 2011, 14:10 GMT

Everyone’s favorite pic-a-nic basket-stealing bear brings his meal-mooching ways to movies in this live-action/CG-animated adventure starring Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Jellystone Park’s famed troublemaker Yogi Bear and Justin Timberlake as the voice of Yogi’s faithful pal Boo Boo. Jellystone has been losing business, so conniving Mayor Brown has decided to shut it down and sell the land. Faced with the loss of his home, Yogi must prove he ...more

I think it was Yogi Bear who said “you could learn a lot by looking.” Well, maybe it was the other fella. The Hollywood machine continues to churn out familiar figures of youth and this time they’ve gone to Jellystone to tackle the resident talking bear and I’ve had a look. What did I learn?

Yogi Bear (voiced by Dan Aykroyd) and his pal Boo Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake) are just bears concerned about snatching pic-a-nic baskets from park visitors, much to the ire of Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanaugh).

Smith is joined in rangering by Ranger Jones (T.J. Miller) who only wants to drive the park ATV. A pretty documentary filmmaker named Rachel (Anna Farris) shows up and wants to make a film about the bears and earns the eye of Smith. Speaking of earning, the city is out of money thanks to the fund wasting ways of Mayor Brown (Andrew Daly), not that he’s smart enough to realize that.

He and his shifty Chief of Staff (Nate Corddry) decide to sell Jellystone for the logging rights thanks to a loophole in the city rules. So now it’s up to Yogi, Boo Boo, and Smith to find a way to save the century old park from becoming timber.

Yogi Bear is pretty innocuous. We’re not exactly talking great cinema, but I doubt that anyone was expecting it. It was shot for 3D and several scenes in this flat version you see how they were set up for things to pop out at the audience. I’m familiar with the original cartoon but am not wed enough to it that I would be offended that it was being transferred to the big screen.

Certainly those more committed fans are not going to be happy with all the pop culture references and hip stylization. Yogi and Boo Boo are CGI creations, but everyone else is in the real world. Not that the world is real enough that anyone seems to question that Yogi and Boo Boo talk. When they’re trying to think of ways to save the park nobody seems to recall that they’ve got two talking bears. Heck, dancing bears have been known to draw in paying crowds.

Aykroyd and Timberlake seem to be having a ball as them though. It’s a very predictable romp, has some giggles, but it’s nothing that is too offensive – unless you’re a diehard Yogi fan. It certainly appears to be soulless in comparison but it will keep the kids happy.

Yogi Bear is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features are in high definition and include the “Spending a day at Jellystone” interactive map that hides about 30 minutes of featurettes, a 4 minute “Yogi Bear Mash-up” extended preview, the “Are you Smarter than the Average Bear” memory game, and the 3 minute CGI Looney Tunes short Rabid Rider. Disc two is a DVD/digital copy.

What I saw was that Yogi Bear (and Yogi Berra) was rather harmless - unless you’re a pic-a-nic basket or an uber-fan of the original. It didn’t prove to be a classic but it did entertain for its short running time.