HEY THERE, IT'S YOGI BEAR: Blu-ray (Columbia/Hanna-Barbera, 1964) Warner Archive

When Warner Bros. elected to dismantle their time-honored animation department in 1963, several of its most prominent artists elected to forge out on their own, in essence to create a new class of animation, primarily fit for the short subject or stripped-down Saturday morning cartoon on TV. This purge was preceded by the one at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, effectively to close its doors in 1957, but also, to inadvertently launch the second-act careers of two of its creative geniuses: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Beginning in 1937, Hanna and Barbera had been responsible for some very high quality, and Academy Award-winning art, creating Metro’s beloved silent comedy duo, Tom & Jerry. At the end of this tenure, it would have been so easy to simply retire from the fray. After all, animated shorts were fast becoming a thing of the past as the studios realized they could simply recycle their back catalog to each generation unaware of this past, and, without any further investment in time or money to put together something new. But Joe and Bill had something else in mind. Pooling their resources, they debuted Hanna-Barbera – soon to become, and thereafter to remain, a pop culture cartoon zeitgeist for decades. The trick was in the marketing. While the ambition to continue making theatrical shorts initially appealed, the decision to enter the ‘then’ fledgling television market would make Hanna-Barbera a household word. Among the new studio’s beloved creations, The Yogi Bear Show had a very brief, and not altogether auspicious launch, barely lasting 33 episodes from 1961 to 1962.  

So, perhaps it is even more of an oddity to find Joe and Bill pitching Columbia Pictures the idea for a brand-new Yogi, ripe for his big theatrical debut in Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear (1964). Even the Walt Disney Company, the dominant in theatrical animation, had seen a downturn in their output by the mid-60’s – their last big success (1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians) followed by a fallow period as the studio concentrated more heavily on live-action, and then, the disappointing box office returns for 1963’s The Sword and the Stone. With its concentration on bright and breezy, though largely forgettable songs, co-written by Ray Gilbert, David Gates and Doug Goodwin, Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear is transparently thrown to rival Disney’s supremacy as the king of cartoon features. Realistically, the stylistic finesse of Walt’s classical animation was a thing of the past after 1959’s Sleeping Beauty. So, Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear fits rather succinctly into the new streamlined UPA style.  That said, Hanna-Barbera has put its best foot forward here; the backgrounds, looking more detailed than those previously created for Yogi’s television franchise, and the animation contributed to Yogi and his cohorts a definite ‘step up’ from the usual TV loop of talking-heads. Paramount to the picture’s success is the reunion of vocal talents to reprise their memorable cartoon counterpoints on the big screen.

Daws Butler brings genuine warmth and sincerity to the vocal intonations of Yogi, the ‘smarter than the average bear’ hero of this piece. The purge at Warner Bros. also allows for Mel ‘the man of a thousand voices’ Blanc to partake of this exercise, while Don Messick – as both Boo-Boo and Ranger Smith, adds admirable charm and support. Interestingly, Yogi’s singing voice was borrowed from James Darren and Bill Lee, while Ernest Newton and Jackie Ward are inserted to supplement voice actors, Messick and Julie Bennett as the singing voices of Boo-Boo and Cindy Bear respectively. Hiring ex-Warner’s story-man, Warren Foster, Hanna and Barbera also turned to Warner alumnus, Firz Freleng as story supervisor, with Gerry Chiniquy and Ken Harris also coming aboard to work on the picture. The amalgam of talent blends into a seamless and highly enjoyable bit of escapist cartoon fluff, light on narration, and, occasionally, heavy on sight gags and well-timed jokes, inserted between the cheery tunes.

Plot wise: Yogi (Daws Butler) and Boo-Boo (Don Messick) awaken from hibernation. While Boo-Boo is exceedingly optimistic about Spring, Yogi can only think of his stomach. Meanwhile, Cindy Bear (Julie Bennett) tries, rather unsuccessfully, to pitch a little woo on the side. After Ranger Smith (Messick, again) sandbags Yogi’s ruse to pose as a park ranger, demanding a gratuity of food from all visitors before they enter Jellystone National Park, a disgruntled Yogi convinces Smith to transfer him to the San Diego Zoo. But Yogi has other plans, feigning his departure, while conning another bear, Corn Pone (Hal Smith) to go in his stead. Unaware of this, Boo-Boo and Cindy bid Yogi a tearful goodbye. Not long thereafter, Jellystone experiences a rash of food theft from ‘The Brown Phantom’ – Yogi’s alter ego. Meanwhile, Cindy, longing to be with Yogi, angers Smith in order to follow her beloved to San Diego. Alas, this plan goes awry when Smith ships Cindy to the St. Louis Zoo instead.

On route, Cindy takes a tumble off the train and becomes lost, later snatched up by the disreputable Chizzling Brothers (Mel Blanc and J. Pat O’Malley) traveling circus as their new high-wire act. Missing Cindy and Boo-Boo, Yogi departs to search of them. Smith allows for all this backstage drama, hoping to avoid a skirmish with his boss, the Commissioner.  Taken hostage by Grifter Chizzling, Yogi and Cindy are freed from their cages by Boo-Boo. The trio narrowly escapes the Chizzling brothers, but are now hunted down by the police as fugitives. Eventually, cornered atop a New York high rise under construction, Yogi and Smith reach a détente. Smith, along with Yogi, Boo-Boo and Cindy return to Jellystone with optimism renewed.

Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear was a sizable hit for Hanna-Barbera, also garnering favorable reviews from the critics. Interestingly, this theatrical renaissance for the company was short-lived with only 1966’s The Man Called Flintstone, and 1973’s Charlotte’s Web to follow its success. In the interim, Bill and Joe found their creative niche and true outlet for profitability making severely streamlined Saturday-morning kiddie fare for television. Throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s virtually every major cartoon airing on network TV was made by their studio, the list – long and distinguished. Mid-decade, rivalry from other fledgling companies resulted in a steep decline in profits, and then, a complete sell-off of Hanna-Barbera to Turner Broadcasting in 1991, later to merge with Time/Warner in 1996. The standalone status of the company ceased, with Warner using Hanna-Barbera primarily as a marketing brand to create further TV-based and theatrical releases, derived from several of Bill and Joe’s most enduring creations, including Scooby-Doo and The Jetsons.

Viewed today, Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear remains a joyful and solidly-crafted standout release – a testament to Bill and Joe’s refusal to go quietly into the night after the corporate structure at MGM that had fostered their talent for so long, as unceremoniously pulled the proverbial rug out from under the creative feet as part of their cost-cutting measures. While no one could confuse the Hanna-Barbera style with Walt’s time-honored tradition of high-end animation, the artistic aptitude on display in Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear is sufficient to make one forget Bill and Joe’s immediate past, and foreseeable future lay in craftly cheaply made/assembly-line cartoon fodder for the small screen.

Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear arrives on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive (WAC), and, true to form, this release is a quality affair. For the first time in several decades, the Columbia Pictures logo preceding the movie has been restored. Rights issues of yore prevented its appearance when this movie was aired on Cartoon Network. But here, the Columbia lady bears her torch, heralding the arrival of a gorgeous, bright and detailed image, with spot-on colors, excellent contrast, and virtually no sign of age-related damage. What a smartly turned-out image it is! Curiously, there appears to be a total lack of film grain. The image is smooth, but gives no hint untoward DNR has been applied to homogenize its consistency. Subtle imperfections in the original cell animation remain intact.  The 2.0 DTS stereo was created from audio stems remastered for a mid-80’s theatrical reissue. Curiously, the main and end titles remain in flat mono. One can only presume they were either recorded in this way or that original ‘directional’ audio stems did not survive the intervening decades. There is some subtle hiss during quiescent scenes, a byproduct of the limitations in the original mid-60’s audio mix. Otherwise, this is a beautifully rendered experience. Also included as an extra, Yogi’s Birthday Party – the finale to TV’s The Yogi Bear Show, looking considerably less refined, slightly faded, and a little rough around the edges. Bottom line: Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear is an excellent movie to temper the tots on a rainy afternoon. A great ‘blast from the past’ given renewed clarity in hi-def. Highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

1