skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Saturday I went to see the new CGI Yogi Bear Movie (I didn't see it in 3-D, I find those glasses annoying). I found the movie to be pretty good, funny in places that used classic cartoon slapstick and the bathroom humor kept to a minimum (it seems that new versions of classic cartoon charaters always have to fart, burp or vomit, I guess producers think that is the only way to get laughs out of kids).
The plot of the movie is that Jellystone Park is losing money. It isn't a national park like in the TV series (this took away one of Yogi's classic excuses when caught by Ranger Smith threatening punishment, "I'm a government protected bear!"). So is the adjoining town so the corrupt Mayor wants to sell the rights to Jellystone to a logging company. This will make the Mayor look good in the voters eyes (and voting ballots) because it will get the town out of debt and give the townspeople an extra $1000 bucks.
Meanwhile in Jellystone Yogi is up to his usual picnic basket stealing schemes. In this film Yogi and Boo Boo act like Yogi and Boo Boo and in my opinion, this is what you what from this type of film. Yes it is a little off-putting seeing the two bears with fangs and claws, but going for a somewhat realistic look they still maintain their cartoon characteristics. Justin Timberlake does a great job of voicing Boo Boo, he sounds very close to the original version done by the great voice artist Don Messick. Yogi on the other hand, well I don't remember who wrote this but it sounds like Dan Aykroyd (who voices Yogi in the movie) imitating Rodney Dangerfield imitating Yogi Bear. It doesn't really sound like the original voice provided by Daws Butler, the great voice artist who gave voice to many of the great characters created by Hanna-Barbera.
A young documentary filmmaker named Rachel (played by Anna Farris) comes to the park to study "the two talking, upright standing bears". She becomes smitten with Ranger Smith (played by Tom Cavanagh) when she finds out they share a love of all things in forestry.
Cavanagh plays the ranger as kind of bumbling and clumsy, especially when he is around Rachel. This goes against the personality established in the cartoon series. Of course in the TV show he was always exasperated because of Yogi's actions which he still is in the film.
Mr. Rangers assistant, Ranger Jones (played by T.J. Miller) is an over-eager ex-boy scout who wants to be head ranger and questions everything Smith does. I found this character to be completely annoying and over the top especially when he becomes a pawn of the corrupt Mayor in his plan to take over Jellystone.
The Mayor tells Ranger Smith that the park is in debt and if he dosen't come up with twenty grand, he will take over the park. Ranger Smith comes up with a plan to get the money by throwing a big celebration picnic celebrating Jellystones' 100th Anniversary. The big payoff will be a big fireworks display. The picnic goes great but thanks to the evil Mayor's prodding, he convinces Jones to "step things up" by getting Yogi to perform his water skiing act. This of course turns into a disaster and ruins the picnic. Smith is out and Jones is in, unaware that the park is going to be nothing a forest of stumps. Yogi and Boo Boo find out the evil Mayor's plan and travel to the city to find Ranger Smith to save Jellystone.
The film moves a little slow but none-the-less is entertaining. I thought it could use a lot more picnic stealing gags but it cuts to the main plot pretty quick. (The movie only lasts 80 minutes)
On a scale of 1 to 5 stars (1 being bad, 5 being good) I'd give it a 3. This is the first time in many years of anything being done with Yogi and Boo Boo and I would have to say it was a good movie - not great but good.
By the way before the movie, one of the new Road Runner CGI shorts was played. The plot centered around Wile E. Coyote souping up a Segway Rider to chase the Road Runner which of course continuously backfires on him. I found this short to be very funny. My only problem with it was that it was only three minutes long. Chuck Jones established in his cartoons that their would always be eleven gags per each short which usually lasts seven minutes. And this is the first time the gags were centered around one theme (the Segway). Still it was very funny and I hope to see more in the future.
On this date back in 1919, Elzie Segar's "Thimble Theatre" made it's debut in the Hearst papers. At first the strip was a parody of silent movie melodramas of the time but soon Segar dropped this concept and gave Olive Oyl and her original boyfriend Harold Ham Gravy individual personalities.
The following January, Segar introduces Olive's brother Castor into the strip and starts to tell ongoing stories along with his "gag-a-day" regular strips.
Of course "Thimble Theatre" would become famous in 1929 when Segar would introduce Popeye the Sailor into the strip during the "Dice Island" storyline. Popeye would go on to conquer newspaper strips, radio, cartoons, TV, etc. and take Olive, Wimpy, Swee'pea, Alice, Eugene, Bluto, the Sea Hag and the rest of the cast of the strip with him.
But Olive Oyl has been there from the start. So Happy Birthday Olive!!!
Debuting this day back in 1933! (Popeye #165 - cover by George Wildman)
Have a Goon(y) day!
Comic Book Panel of Huckleberry Hound from his first Comic Book appearance in Dell Four Color #990, drawn by Harvey Eisenberg.
Happy Birthday to one of the funniest shows ever on television "Rocky and Bullwinkle".
It was on this date in 1959 that "Rocky and his Friends" debuted on ABC and introduced us to a heroic moose and flying squirrel as they fought those rotten no-goodniks Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. The show also featured "Fractured Fairy Tales", Peabody's Improbable History" and segments featuring Bullwinkle, "Mr. Know-It-All" and "Bullwinkle's Corner".
In 1961 the show moved to NBC and was retitled for it's new prime time slot, "The Bullwinkle Show". We got all our old friends plus two new features, "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties" and Aesop Fables".
In my opinion "Rocky and Bullwinkle" was one of the funniest shows ever written and this classic show has stood the test of time and will endure forever.
"And now, here's something we hope you'll really like!"
I do and it's "Rocky and Bullwinkle"!!!
Happy Birthday to the great voice artist, Daws Butler. Daws had a very prolific career working in radio, movies, comedy records, kids records, puppetry and where his talents are known the best, television.
He also had an acting workshop where he taught his trade to up and coming voice artists. Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson (and many of the shows other characters) is Butler's most famous student.
First working with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at MGM, Daws joined Bill and Joe at their newly formed animation studio that made cartoons for television. He was the voice of Reddy the Dog on Hanna-Barbera's first syndicate show, Ruff and Reddy.
With the success of this short run children's series, Bill and Joe produced and made the "Huckleberry Hound Show" for prime time TV. Daws was hired to speak for the shows blue-furred hound dog star, Mr. Jinks and Dixie Mouse of "Pixie and Dixie" and that smarter than average bear, Yogi.
Daws worked for Hanna-Barbera for the rest of his career and many other animation studios including The Jay Ward Studios (most famous for Rocky and Bullwinkle), Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker) and making comedy records with Stan Freberg.
Above is a sketch I did that I use as a birthday e-card that I send to my friends online. Seems appropriate to use this drawing to wish a Happy Birthday to the man who gave voice to Huck and Yogi.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAWS!
In honor of the brave men and women who have served in all the branches of America's military, I present Sgt. George Bakers classic comic strip soldier, Sad Sack.
Thank You for keeping us safe and preserving Liberty.
Before Mickey there was Felix! Felix the Cat made his debut on this date (Nov. 9) back in 1919 in the Pat Sullivan Cartoon "Feline Follies".
Felix was the Silent Era's animation star famous for his imaginative adventures using his tail as anything from a gun to a bicycle and more. His famous walk was imitated by kids all over the world and in England a popular song was written about it.
Sullivan came up with the idea for the little black cat but the man who really breathed life into him was animator/director Otto Messmer. Messmer redesigned Felix to be more attractive and easier to animated using circles and "pipes", something other animations studios would soon adopt. Messmer also drew the Felix the Cat Comic Strip and later Comic Books long after the Felix cartoons were being made.
Felix didn't make it into the sound era of shorts but had a very successful career comeback in the early days of television. Felix's show centered on his adventures with his bag of magic tricks that he had to protect from The Professor, an evil scientist.
Felix the Cat is an animation icon and even though he was over shadowed by the introduction of Mickey Mouse, Felix was there first to pave the way!
