Loved Yogi Bear as a child, and still have a soft spot for it now. It is a funny and charming show with appealing, funny and smart humour and likable characters, plus the characters are well voiced.
'Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper' was a very enjoyable way to spend 24 minutes or so. It is a big improvement over the bland disappointment that was 'Yogi's Great Escape' (made afterwards, but saw 'Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper' after that), and is a lot closer to what is appealing about Yogi Bear in the first place. 'Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper' may not be one of my favourite Christmas specials, or specials in general, but as far as specials from Warner Bros and Hanna-Barbera go it fares better than most.
The story may be standard and with a good deal of familiar elements (quickly in its defence however it is not as episodic or as strung together as 'Yogi's Great Escape'). The appearances of other Hanna-Barbera characters were an absolute delight, and they were memorable and true to character but some of them did deserve more screen time, a few of them are a little too on the brief side.
So much is done right however in 'Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper'. It is bright and breezy in pace without being rushed, while for made for TV animation the animation is more than serviceable with a lot of vibrant colours and smooth detail in the backgrounds. The music is luckily not cheap-sounding and isn't heavy in repetition.
Writing is good too, with some funny moments that is closer to the style of the original Yogi Bear show and some genuinely touching and never sentimental sentiment that are balanced well. The special is very heartfelt and sincere in its representation of Christmas, no mean-spiritedness here, while it adheres close to for example the humour what is appealing about Yogi Bear and Hanna-Barbera in general. The short length was much more ideal than struggling to find material to suit feature length.
Loved the characters, Yogi and Boo Boo are irresistible and the numerous cameos from other Hanna-Barbera characters are delightful though some appearances are too short. As to be expected from such enormously talented voice actors, the voice acting is terrific, people like Daws Butler and Mel Blanc never fail to amaze with their ability to voice multiple characters and give them wildly varied personalities.
Overall, very good special. 8/10 Bethany Cox
