The Movie
The problem with Yogi Bear kind of creeps up on you. It's briskly paced and surprisingly witty, but we soon realize that they might as well have called it "Ranger Smith 3D," because that furry dude in the hat, collar and tie has been downgraded to the human's supporting character.
Nice-guy Smith (easy-going Tom Cavanagh) fights the good fight to keep his beloved Jellystone Park safe, but a rotten mayor with eyes on the governor's mansion has a very different agenda. He intends to quietly sell logging rights for the park, unless Smith can raise a lot of money in a little time. Prolific picnic basket thief Yogi and loyal sidekick Boo Boo (voice by Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake, respectively) want to do their part to help, but schemes hatched by talking bears seldom turn out as originally planned.
The ranger also becomes smitten with a lovely young documentarian (Anna Faris), and it's all fine really, but by forcing the popular title character into the background--and borderline irrelevance--the movie ultimately winds up feeling somewhat trite.
The Picture
Yogi does however make fun use of the 3D technology at his disposal. The effect is evident in almost every shot, even when two folks are standing around talking, with stretches of trees behind them. The composition of shots within the 16:9 frame very deliberately exploits the differences between foreground and the distance beyond, as when we look over a cliff from which Yogi is going to launch his latest contraption. Lots of stuff flies right up in our grill too, which is gimmicky yet appropriate for a cartoon-inspired romp.
Even in 2D (there are separate 2D/3D Blu-rays in the package), colors are vibrant and the picture quality is quite strong, with the CGI characters showing lots of detail, while leaves and blades of grass are well-delineated in the real locations.
The Sound
The over-the-top antics of bears and people extend gleefully into the rears as they whiz past our heads, sometimes the gags paying off with discrete rear tidbits. The forest setting also provides lots of nice little touches in the surrounds. A fireworks display gone wrong offers just about everything we could hope for: a busy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundfield marked by the directionality of rockets backed by respectable bass. No complaints here.
The Extras
The 3D disc offers several of its own unique bonuses, all in the two-to-three-minute range. "Fun on the Yogi Bear Set" takes us behind the scenes, Rangers Smith and Jones give us a "Tour of Jellystone Park," and "Jellystone Park Jewel: Yogi's Secret Hiding Spot" serves up more goofy fun. "Visitor Pic-a-Nic Demo" is the proof-of-concept reel created to sell the film, featuring Judy Greer and Diedrich Bader, who don't even appear in Yogi Bear. The brand-new Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote short "Rabid Rider" is also preserved in 3D from Yogi's theatrical presentation.
The 2D Blu-ray keeps the Looney Tune but all of the other extras are different. These include "Spending a Day at Jellystone Park," an interactive map that takes us to little comedy clips and featurettes, and the Yogi Bear "Mash-Up" which intercuts classic cartoon footage, movie scenes and filmmaker soundbites, about three-and-a-half minutes, in HD. Are You Smarter than the Average Bear? is a little memory game we play with the remote.
Disc Three is a hybrid DVD containing the movie in standard definition plus a Digital Copy for iTunes and Windows Media.
Final Thoughts
In the end, it's a talking forest animal: Yogi Bear never takes itself too seriously, and the in-our-face 3D (and lighthearted extras) will likely appeal to the movie's very young target demographic.
Product Details
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