Hey Hey! Yogi Bear Headed to the Big Screen
Posted by Erin Dunlap (erin@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 3, 2008
Warner Bros. is developing a feature version of Yogi Bear, the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon with its mischievous, pic-a-nic basket-stealing star. Ash Brannon is attached to direct while Josua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia of That ’70s Show are penning the screenplay.
Most of us would be hard-pressed to name any great moments from The Huckleberry Hound Show without a little help from Wikipedia. That said, in 1958 its breakout star, Yogi, first appeared on the program as a supporting character and soon got his own cartoon in 1961. The Yogi Bear Show, surpassing Huckleberry in popularity, has continued to air frequently in reruns for the past half-century, and the feature project is now planned as an action/animation hybrid along the lines of Fox’s 2007 hit Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Accompanying Yogi to the big screen will be his reluctant sidekick, Boo Boo, and their nemesis, Ranger Smith.
Yogi was certainly a star in his day but whether this generation’s young audiences will warm to him remains to be seen.
Do you think Warner Bros. will make a hit? Or a just a big Boo Boo?
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