Yogi Bear

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.

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.

Not an awful movie. Not one that I would take a date to go see, though. Odd...one of the jokes was talking about getting a date with a young woman, and Yogi mentions urinating on her. I was wondering why that had to be included. Really don't want to talk to my kids about urination. To throw that into a movie that is so obviously a kids movie seems out of place, like a sex scene in a Dr. Seuss book. Or day care advertisements in Penthouse. At the very least, it was odd. But the plot is predictable and easy on the mind. There is very little deviation or subplots that play out, and the ending is easy to guess. But, again, it's a kids movie. So, I took my 5 and 3 year old, and the 5 year old giggled, and the three year old played with my smartphone. I napped. I do have one other flaw for this movie...why do they think that using Dan Akroyd or Justin Timberlake increases the sales for this movie? Or any movie out there that uses big name stars for a cartoon? What's the point? Dan was just fine, and Timberlake was very good as boo-boo, but there are hundreds of voice actors in Hollywood. This could have been a huge film for one of them. Instead, the producers overpaid two big stars that could have literally phoned in their parts. Is that why I pay 20 bucks for popcorn? Because of overpaying big stars for parts like this? I think it might be...

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

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.