Yogi l'ours

Yogi Bear is about Jellystone Park about to get closed down because the town is bankrupt. Due to this, Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) throws a party for Jellystone so more visitors come in, more visitors, more money. But Yogi screws it up. So now they must save the park somehow before it gets closed. Yogi (Dan Aykroyd) and Boo Boo (Justin Timberlake) do a good job at voice acting. Tom Cavanagh also does a good job, but everyone else does a bad job. ESPIALLY THE MAYOR (Andrew Daly) HE DOES NOT EVEN TRY. The 3D is pretty good, so if you have a Blu-ray 3D at home, try to rent this movie.

OVERALL: It's funny, great 3D, and pretty good. Go see it, you won't be disappointed.

Another classic cartoon character comes to the big screen, there was Popeye, Scooby Doo, Garfield, and now there is the mischievous picnic basket stealing bear named Yogi.

Now the CGI animation of Yogi and Boo Boo is pretty good, and the voice talents of Dan Ackroyd and Justin Timberlake is also good. But Tom Cavanagh as Ranger Smith is not funny, he comes across trying way to hard, it looked like he was telling the audience "I'm funny, please laugh at me". Anna Faris starts out as a dull character at the beginning, but she gets better as the movie goes on. And T.J. Miller is just wasting his talent here. But it does have good share of adventure at times. But I think the little kids will enjoy more than adults.

In the new animation Yogi Bear even the voices of Dan Aykroyd as Yogi and Justin Timberlake as Boo Boo aren't able to take a lumbering script and make it less than soporific for adults. But, then, this movie is for youngsters about 5 years old, no older, so it has found an audience that might be mildly amused, as mine was.

In this derivation from the once popular TV series, a documentary filmmaker, Rachel (Anna Farris), falls in love with Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) while she witnesses his struggle with nefarious forces that threaten the future and ecology of Jellystone National Park. Yogi and Boo are not a help even though they'd like to be because Yogi regularly disproves his boast that he's "smarter than the average bear." This comedy, magnified but not improved, by 3-D is not smarter than the average animation.

It's easy to slam a movie like "Yogi Bear"- just talk about how simplistic the script written by no less than three writers; or how childish the antics are of the titular character and his cautious sidekick, Boo-Boo; or even how repetitive pic-a-nic basket stealing gets. Yes, they are all fair observations of this live-action adaptation of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon, but I wouldn't go so far as to criticise the movie for these very traits.

If you've seen the Saturday morning cartoons, you'll find that this film actually stays extremely faithful to its source. In them, Yogi goes around doing perhaps one thing and one thing only- that's right, stealing pic-a-nic baskets and thinking to himself how he's "smarter than the average bear"- together with Boo-Boo, occasionally running into Jellystone National Park's head ranger Smith who yells at him for disturbing the peace.

We used to laugh at Yogi's foolish schemes (or at least I remember I did), so why is it so difficult to laugh at the same things all over again? Sure many of us who have enjoyed those cartoons may have grown up, but that's not a fault of the film, especially when those in the audience who were of the age when we were watching the cartoons were obviously having a great time.

Around the regular pic-a-nic stealing, writers Jeffrey Ventimilia, Joshua Sternin and Brad Copeland have spun an eco-friendly story of the unscrupulous town mayor (Andrew Daly) who aims to sell off Jellystone to the loggers to cover the city's deficit. Needless to say, it will be up to Ranger Smith, his love interest the nature documentarian Rachel (Anna Faris), and of course Yogi and Boo-Boo to save the day. Yes it's simple but the plot is just serviceable enough to be the glue this live-action treatment needs.

Ultimately, the stars of the show were always Yogi and Boo-Boo, and in this regard, both the voice actors and the animators have done a wonderful job. Dan Aykroyd does his best Daws Butler impersonation for Yogi Bear, most impressive for nailing his character's distinctive speech patterns. Just as outstanding is Justin Timberlake, clearly relishing the opportunity to disappear into the role of Boo-Boo, complete with the trademark nasal delivery. It's especially interesting to think how Timberlake sounds so uncannily like the classic Don Messick.

Director Eric Brevig (of 2008's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth") keeps the gags flying fast and furious, so even if some of the supposed verbal punchlines fall flat, there is always something visually appealing to hold your attention. An Oscar-nominated effects specialist, Brevig makes great use of the stereoscopy to deliver all sorts of visual gimmicks- whether something flying in your face or hurling you along- but it adds nicely to the fun.

And that's one word that sums up what it's all meant to be about- "fun", good clean harmless fun like how the cartoons were 40 years ago, and a trip down memory lane for those who have seen the originals. There'll be many tempted to ride the wave of criticism surrounding this movie, but if you know what you're in for, then "Yogi Bear" should just be the perfect family entertainment this holiday season.

Yogi bear, a piece of ancient history comes to life in a film that like the first Garfield film combines real life acting with computer animated action. The story is easy enough: living in a park with his friend Booboo his only "work" is attempting to steal food from people coming there for a picnic. His idyllic life is threatened though - first there's the ranger that is on their tail and then there is the governor who wants to tear down the forest to make money for the city. But Yogi is a versatile bear, and solutions are in the making.

This is a typical kids film, designed for kids of all ages with a bias towards kids around 4 to 8 years old. The story is light and even the most dark spots are sweetened with enough sugar to make a layer cake or two.

For the parents it is endurable. It's not quite as fun as some of the other films in the same age group out there as it lacks any of the harmless innuendo that makes such films so much better, but it is endurable. The worst would probably be having to see the scenes that combine the real actors with the animated ones - the interaction shows all too clearly that they were blue-screen acted with the actors looking into the distance or somewhere different altogether while the animation should be happening right in front of their noses.

5 out of 10 misshapen attempts at resurrection childhood heroes