“Yogi Bear” Getting Bashed by Critics

What did you expect? The Hollywood trades are out with their luke-warm reviews of the live action-CG Yogi Bear feature, which opens this Friday, Dec. 17th.

Justin Chang in Variety (review blocked by a pay-wall) says:

“Neither smarter nor dumber than the average family-friendly comedy, “Yogi Bear” is a bland and innocuous small-fry outing that retains a measure of the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon’s charm, though scarcely enough to justify the time, expense and visual-effects trickery it must have taken to inflate an endearing 2D cartoon into a dopey 3D extravaganza….

“…Aykroyd and Timberlake do fine approximations of their characters’ distinctive cartoon voices and speech patterns; teens and adults in particular can keep themselves amused by imagining Timberlake, in one of his more self-effacing career moves, having to record lines like “I have a problem with baked beans” in Boo Boo’s trademark nasal delivery. By comparison, the not-quite-photorealistic, borderline-alien look of these CGI bears is off-putting, the technological advancements of lifelike fur and detailed eye movements being no match for the clean, expressive lines of hand-drawn animation.”

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter says:

“Poor Yogi Bear. At 52, he finally gets his first movie role and the film is likely to send viewers over the age of 10 into hibernation. The only worse 2010 animated feature also came from Warner Bros., Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, which only confirms the great irony that Warners, home to the greatest cartoon characters of all time, has lost touch with its own heritage…

“…the Bottom Line: A live-action/cartoon mix that’s misguided in just about every way.