''Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!'' is a 1964 American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

musical

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

produced by

Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

and released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. The film stars the voices of

Daws Butler Charles Dawson Butler (November 16, 1916May 18, 1988) was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for the Hanna-Barbera animation production company where he originated the voices of many familiar characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry H ...

, Don Messick,

Julie Bennett Julie Bennett (January 24, 1932 – March 31, 2020) was an American actress and later talent agent and realtor. Early years Bennett was born in Manhattan, New York, on January 24, 1932. Acting career A native of Hollywood, Bennett worked as a ...

, Mel Blanc, and J. Pat O'Malley. Based upon Hanna-Barbera's syndicated animated television show ''

The Yogi Bear Show ''The Yogi Bear Show'' is an American comedy animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that centers on the misadventures of forest-dwelling bear Yogi in Jellystone Park. The show debuted in syndication on January 30, 1961 ...

'', ''Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!'' was the first theatrical feature produced by Hanna-Barbera, and the first feature-length theatrical animated film based on a television program. In keeping with the

limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...

of the television series, the film was not fully animated, but did contain more detailed animation work than the show.

Plot

Boo-Boo Bear Boo-Boo Bear is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character on ''The Yogi Bear Show''. Boo-Boo is an anthropomorphic dwarf bear who wears a blue bowtie. Boo-Boo is Yogi Bear's constant companion (not his son, as sometimes believed), and often acts as hi ...

wakes up from winter hibernation, excited about the new Spring. Then

Yogi Bear Yogi Bear is an anthropomorphic animal character who has appeared in numerous comic books, animated television shows and films. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in '' The Huckleberry Hound Show''. Yogi Bear was the first ...

wakes up, his only interest finding some food to eat.

Cindy Bear Cindy Bear is a cartoon character created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. She is one of the primary supporting characters of the Yogi Bear franchise as well as a regular in the stable of frequently appearing Hanna-Barbera animated personalities. C ...

unsuccessfully tries to woo Yogi. After

Ranger Smith John Francis Smith, more commonly referred to as Ranger Smith (and known as Mr. Ranger by Yogi and Boo-Boo), is a fictional park ranger first appearing in the 1958 ''Yogi Bear'' cartoon series. The character is Yogi's main antagonist, and appears ...

thwarts Yogi's latest attempts to grab some food, Yogi gets angry and convinces the Ranger to transfer him out of Jellystone National Park. Smith prepares Yogi to be sent over to the

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...

along with an identification tag. Yogi first says goodbye to everything, but tricks another bear named Corn Pone into going to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

instead of him and Boo-Boo and Cindy remain unaware of this, thinking Yogi has departed for good. Soon, Yogi is stealing food from all over the park under the alter ego "The Brown Phantom", but Smith believes it is another bear. He threatens whoever it is to be sent to the zoo. Cindy, wishing to be with Yogi at the zoo, angers Smith into mistakenly sending her away. However, she gets sent to the St. Louis Zoo by train instead, as the San Diego Zoo does not need any more bears. When she realizes her true destination, she gets very sad, crying since she knows she would be far from Yogi now. Late that night, Cindy falls out of the train and becomes lost. A traveling circus, run by the Chizzling Brothers, is looking for a great act to raise their ratings, when suddenly, their dog Mugger runs off and scares Cindy into walking on the telephone wires, the perfect act to save their circus. Yogi has recently missed Boo-Boo and, above all, Cindy. Yogi goes to Ranger Smith and hears about her disappearance. Soon, Yogi and Boo-Boo escape from Jellystone to find Cindy. Meanwhile, Ranger Smith decides to let them find their way home to avoid trouble with the Park Commissioner. After an extensive travel, Yogi and Boo-Boo locate Cindy, who is being kept a prisoner, forced to perform her high-wire act for the Chizzling Brother's circus. As Yogi confronts the manager, Grifter Chizzing, he is tricked into joining Cindy in her cage, where Grifter tells him he's now in "show biz." Boo-Boo releases Yogi and Cindy and they make their exit. As they make their way home, they crash a barnyard party, somehow escaping afloat a river with the barn's door. Then, while Cindy & Yogi dream about a honeymoon in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, they find themselves suddenly being chased and hunted by the police, as they somehow became fugitives, but make their escape. They hitch a ride in a moving van, but find themselves in the middle of a busy city (later revealed to be New York City) and make a run from the police to the top of a hotel and across to a high rise under construction. The next morning, Ranger Smith sees the three bears on television and decides to pick them up in a helicopter. All the commotions have made great publicity for Jellystone and Ranger Smith gets promoted to Chief Ranger by the Park Commissioner. He brings all three bears back to Jellystone, where they promise to be "good bears" from now on.

Cast

, Airplane Pilot, Ranger Tom **

James Darren James William Ercolani (born June 8, 1936) known by his stage name James Darren, is an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had notable starring and supporting roles in fi ...

as Yogi Bear (singing "Ven-e, Ven-o, Ven-a") ** Bill Lee as Yogi Bear (singing "Ash Can Parade", "Whistle Your Way Back Home" and "Yogi Loves Cindy") * Don Messick as

, Ranger Jones, Mugger, Yogi's conscience, the blonde-haired policemen, TV Reporter, Airport Manager **

Ernest Newton Ernest Newton (12 September 1856 – 25 January 1922) was an English architect, President of Royal Institute of British Architects and founding member of the Art Workers' Guild. Life Newton was the son of an estate manager of Bickley, Ke ...

as Boo-Boo Bear (singing) *

Jackie Ward Jackie Ward (born Jacqueline McDonnell, 1941), better known as Robin Ward, is an American singer, regarded as a "one-hit wonder" of 1963 million-selling song "Wonderful Summer". However, using her real name she was highly accomplished and s ...

as Cindy Bear (singing) * Mel Blanc as Grifter Chizzling, Southern Accented Bear in Train, Mugger The Dog (grumbling sounds) *

Jean Vander Pyl Jean Thurston Vander Pyl (October 11, 1919 – April 10, 1999) was an American voice actress. Although her career spanned many decades, she is best known as the voice of Wilma Flintstone for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon ''The Flintstones''. In ...

as the Barn Dance Woman * Hal Smith as Corn Pone, Moose * J. Pat O'Malley as Snively Chizzling

Uncredited

Allan Melvin Allan John Melvin (February 18, 1923 – January 17, 2008) was an American actor and impressionist, who was cast in hundreds of television episodes from the 1950s to the early 1990s, often appearing in recurring roles on various series. Some of th ...

as the Police Sergeant * Jonah and the Wailers as the singing voices of the zoo-bound bears performing "St. Louis" *

Thurl Ravenscroft Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (; February 6, 1914May 22, 2005) was an American actor and bass singer. He was known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also ...

as the black-haired policemen

Production

The animated musical film was produced and directed by

William Hanna William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator and cartoonist who was the creator of ''Tom and Jerry'' as well as the voice actor for the two title characters. Alongside Joseph Barbera, he also founded the anim ...

and Joseph Barbera, with a story by Hanna, Barbera, and former Warner Bros. Cartoons storyman

Warren Foster Warren Foster (October 24, 1904 – December 13, 1971) was an American writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera. Early life He was born in Brooklyn, New York to Marion B. Fos ...

. Another Warner Cartoons alumnus, Friz Freleng, served as story supervisor. When the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio closed in 1963, several of its animators, including Gerry Chiniquy and Ken Harris, also joined Hanna-Barbera to work on this film.

Release and reception

A review from the May 27, 1964 issue of ''Variety'' pointed out that the scarcity of theatrically released feature animated films made ''Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!'' highly marketable. The review called the film "artistically accomplished in all departments". The review commented that the script was a bit redundant, but that the songs were "pleasant, if not especially distinguished". After its 1964 release, the film was reissued on January 17, 1986, as part of

Atlantic Releasing Corporation Atlantic Entertainment Group, also known as Atlantic Releasing Corporation, was an independent film production and distribution company founded by Tom Coleman and Michael Rosenblatt in 1974. History Their initial releases were mostly geared ...

's short-lived Clubhouse Pictures label.

Home media

The film was released on VHS a few times in the United States by

Paramount Home Video Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global. The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...

, KVC Home Video, and GoodTimes Home Video respectively in the 1980s and 1993. These releases use the 1986 Clubhouse Pictures reissue version, but it is not known if it contains the Columbia references. In 2000,

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

included this film on its VHS Bumper Collections (with several other TV shows) in Australia. This release also lacks the original Columbia Pictures card and credit references. A later release in the United States was branded after the ''

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning ...

'' television network in promotion of its debut. On December 2, 2008,

released the film on DVD in North America. However, like a concurrent DVD release of another Hanna-Barbera feature, '' The Man Called Flintstone'', this release alters the opening of the film by removing the

logo and its credit references. Unlike the former, it is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

(both films were animated in 1.33:1 and matted to 1.85:1 for theaters). A R2 DVD was released in the UK on January 31, 2011 and is also presented in 1.78:1.

References

Notes

External links

* * * * * {{H-B films 1964 films 1964 animated films 1964 musical comedy films 1960s American animated films 1960s children's animated films 1960s English-language films American adventure comedy films American musical comedy films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated comedy films American children's animated musical films American road movies Animated films about bears Animated films about trains Animated films set in New York City Animated films based on animated series Circus films Columbia Pictures animated films Columbia Pictures films Films directed by Joseph Barbera Films directed by William Hanna Films scored by Marty Paich Hanna-Barbera animated films Yogi Bear films