“The Simpsons Movie” was inevitable. An animated series 
with such cultural importance deserves nothing less than a silver screen adventure. Looney Tunes, South Park, The Flintstones, and SpongeBob Squarepants have all earned big screen features for this reason (the name “SpongeBob” doesn’t even trigger a red spell-check squiggle in Microsoft Word.)
But who the hell has been waiting for a movie about Hanna-Barbera’s Yogi Bear?
Warner Brothers has been developing a 3D live-action/CGI adaptation of the series, scheduled for a release on December 17, 2010. This constitutes the eighth major film production based on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, the most recent one being (cough) “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.”
While we’re on the subject of movies featuring universally forgotten celebrities… Warner Brothers has enlisted pastime SNL star Dan Aykroyd to play the titular character. This makes perfect sense, as Yogi’s signature ever-crescendoing, semi-New-Yorker, drunk sportscaster voice falls within the wide vocal range which Aykroyd has demonstrated in his extensive past of animation projects.
What doesn’t make sense is the casting choice for Yogi’s miniature buddy, Boo-Boo. This sidekick was presented in the original series as a bowtied tagalong with a drowsy, intellectually monotonous voice. So how does pop personality Justin Timberlake fit? Unless there’s such a thing as post-adolescent puberty, Timberlake can only offer the voice of late-teenage boy, which will strip Boo-Boo of his wise but passive voice-of-reason charm.
Warner Borthers has released the following plot synopsis about the film: “Everyone’s favorite pic-a-nic basket-stealing bear comes to the big screen in YOGI BEAR. Jellystone Park has been losing business, so greedy Mayor Brown decides to shut it down and sell the land. That means families will no longer be able to experience the natural beauty of the outdoors — and, even worse, Yogi and Boo Boo will be tossed out of the only home they’ve ever known. Faced with his biggest challenge ever, Yogi must prove that he really is ’smarter than the average bear’ as he and Boo Boo join forces with their old nemesis Ranger Smith to find a way to save Jellystone Park from closing.”
Granted, that synopsis doesn’t sound like the greatest stretch of the imagination, but it does offer some interesting blending of real and animated realities. Anna Faris (Observe and Report) will play a nature documentarian who tracks Yogi and Boo-Boo’s exploits, as Tom Cavanagh will portray Ranger Smith. It might not be “District 9” in Jellystone Park, but documentary footage of the iconic cartoon duo might separate this film from previous Hanna-Barbera cinematic atrocities (The “Scooby Doo” movies, “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas,” etc.)
Shooting began in New Zealand in November 2009, with the filmmakers aiming for a spring wrap-up in order to release the film in December.
Those are all the details right now. Be sure to check out the Reel Deal next week for more movie info. Until then, here’s a brief taste of the endearingly cheesy jokes and notoriously simple plot sequences “The Yogi Bear Show” offered back in 1961.
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