Set in the town of Jellystone, the series follows the misadventures of the town's eclectic residence consisting of Hanna-Barbera characters like Yogi-Bear, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, and more who each bring their own unique traits to the town's often self-destructive antics.
Jellystone marks the latest attempt by Warner Bros. To revive their Hanna-Barbera stable outside of Scooby-Doo that has been largely dormant. For most of these characters, save for some joke appearances on Adult Swim shows like Robot Chicken and Harvey Birdman, this is the first time in 30 years these characters have headlined a show since the '91 misfire Yo Yogi. Much like Yo Yogi the show re-imagines these characters in a more grounded sitcom-like setting with the characters having established roles and responsibilities as part of a community, but much more well-constructed. While the show doesn't adapt these characters to the format without hiccups, Jellystone more often hits than it misses.
Jellystone is created by C. H. Greenblatt a writer on cartoon benchmarks such as '99-'05 Spongebob Squarepants and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, as well as creator of shows like Chowder and Harvey Beaks. If you're at all familiar with Greenblatt's approach to humor on those shows it's very much on display here and will feel familiar to anyone whose even passively familiar with his previous work. With that said some of his humor works better than others. Some Hanna-Barbera characters are well better adapted to the setting than others. Characters like Yogi, Boo-boo, and Cindy as the quirky staff of Jellystone hospital score some big laughs with Cindy in particular getting great laughs fro her tightly wound tenuous hold on sanity, and Doggie Daddy and his daughter Augie get some good mileage from Doggie Daddy's "helicopter parent" taken to an amusingly insane degree that he builds his entire identity off of being a father while his daughter Augie takes it in stride. Easily the biggest revision is with The Banana Splits who are imagined here as a gang of loan sharks/petty crooks and that alone got me in just how charmingly surreal it was. I wish they'd tried to mimic the original voices such as Fleagle's Tigger-like voice to contrast their more antagonistic nature, but even though they don't take it as far they could I still really enjoyed it.
Other character reimaginings are more mixed. Jabberjaw has been swapped from a Curly Howard "Nyuk Nyuk" knockoff to more of a sassy, man crazy woman in a delivery similar to deliveries of Retta or Nicole Byer and for the most part I enjoyed the character in group settings, but I didn't think Jabberjaw was strong enough to carry an episode by herself. Magilla Gorilla has also been reimagined as a fastidious uptight tailor who specializes exclusively in bow ties and while that makes sense in terms of a show like this needing a straight man to serve as a counterpoint to zanier shenanigans, I didn't feel he was particularly well utilized. Shag Rugg who's basically this show's cocky, arrogant, slang spouting poser type. The character is all about superficiality and when complemented with a rather grating voice and way too much usage over the course of the first season I found him more annoying than endearing. But easily my least favorite was Peter Potamus' reimagining as an Otaku/Fanboy loaner stereotype complete with a creepy reference to a magical girl body pillow and emotional/romantic attachments to his action figures. I really didn't like the Peter Potamus gags because not only do they feel like low blows, but they're basically just tired rehashes on Comic Book Guy jokes from the 90s Simpsons episodes.
While not every element in Jellystone works, enough of it works to warrant a viewing. When the show hits its targets, it hits dead center, but when it misses it lands with a resounding thud.
