Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator and cartoonist, best known as the co-founder of the animation studio Hanna-Barbera.
Born to Italian Americans, Italian immigrants in New York City, Bar ...
and William Hanna, it was broadcast on ABC on September 16, 1972 as part of '' The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie'', and served as the two-part pilot for '' Yogi's Gang''.
Aside from its environmental message, the film marked a milestone in Hanna-Barbera's history: a wide range of the studio’s characters were united in one story for the first time. This set the tone for future series and specials, such as '' Laff-A-Lympics'' and '' Yogi's First Christmas''.
Plot
Concerned about the terrible state of the environment, the entire animal kingdom from Hanna-Barbera gather for a meeting in Jellystone Park, chaired by Yogi Bear. They decide to leave their homes and search for "the perfect place" — a legendary and trouble-free place free of pollution, deforestation, and other forms of mankind's despoilment and has a few simple problems. Though Boo-Boo Bear states to Yogi that Ranger Smith will not like it. Jellystone maintenance man Noah Smitty helps them build a flying ship (which looks like Noah's Ark with a
propeller
A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...
on top and retractable wheels) for their journey, and they decide to name it after him. Because "Smitty's Houseboat" is too long to paint on the bow, they name it "Noah's Ark." With Yogi at the helm, they travel to places around the world, searching for "the perfect place" as the ark is powered by Magilla Gorilla running on a treadmill to get to his bananas.
They start by driving down the highway into the ocean, where they soon end up on the back of a sleeping
Moby Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
. Huckleberry Hound is sent down to wake him. They then end up stranded in the Sahara Desert which they originally mistake for a beach. The desert sun causes Yogi to hallucinate and believe he is the
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
King Tut and his friends are his slaves until Boo-Boo and Noah Smitty arrive. Some moments later, So-So the monkey spots an
oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentLambsy spots a "
dragon
A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
" which turns out to be a construction vehicle developing a new city. Yogi and the crew then take their leave of the area.
They arrive in
Antarctic
The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole.
The Antar ...
territory, which is a brand new "perfect place." They begin settling there until a similar situation happens like at the oasis.
Next, Yogi and the crew wind up in outer space upon going up too far, which is a new and improved "perfect place." It isn’t long before Earth ejects its "junk" (missiles, satellites, etc.) into space.
With the Ark back on earth and sailing the sea, morale has dropped among the animals: Huck throws water down a pipe which causes
Dum Dum
Dum Dum is a city and a municipality in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Author ...
to emerge and throw water at him, Quick Draw McGraw insults Snagglepuss' slicing of salami, Peter Potamus insults Magilla Gorilla by telling him "he looks like a gorilla", and Lippy the Lion grows tired of Hardy Har Har's complaining. Yogi Bear becomes aware of this just as So-So spots a
typhoon
A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...
coming. The animals struggle to survive the typhoon like Dum Dum roping Huck and Lippy saving Hardy. The typhoon lands them on top of a mountain, and the animals almost believe that they’ve found what they’ve been looking for....only to be disappointed again when Yakky Doodle returns with an empty tin can and the animals notice a deforestation occurring.
At this point, the younger animals (consisting of Atom Ant, Augie Doggie, Baba Looey, Benny the Ball, Boo-Boo, Ding-a-Ling Wolf, Lambsy, Pixie and Dixie, Shag Rugg, Touché Turtle, and Yakky Doodle) decide that they should all simply go back home and clean up the messes that they were trying to escape. This decision is met with unanimous approval, and the animals all head for home so that they can start turning it into "the perfect place".
During the credits, Wally Gator and Squiddly Diddly are cleaning the rivers, Paw and Shag Rugg are picking up garbage around their house, and Yogi Bear picks up a recently discarded hamburger wrapper.
* Although this was the pilot for '' Yogi's Gang'', some changes were made for the series:
** Noah Smitty was written out and only the animals were on the ark.
** The vessel's name was changed from "Noah's Ark" to "Yogi's Ark".
** Top Cat and his gang, Lambsy, Ruff and Reddy, and Sawtooth the Beaver were also written out, thus giving the ark a smaller crew.
* This one-hour feature was later turned into two half-hour episodes of '' Yogi's Gang'' with new intro and concluding sequences for each episode as well as a reference to Noah Smitty building the ark. To fit the feature into these new time frames, some of its sequences were shortened or edited out.
* The song "The Perfect Place" is sung six times throughout the film, and would later be remade as the theme song for '' Yogi's Gang'', with different lyrics.
Voice cast
* Daws Butler as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, Wally Gator, Peter Potamus, Augie Doggie, Lippy the Lion, Dixie, Baba Looey, Lambsy, Top Cat
* Henry Corden as Paw Rugg, Truck Driver #1
* Walker Edmiston as Squiddly Diddly, Yakky Doodle
* Allan Melvin as Magilla Gorilla, Truck Driver #2, Man
* Don Messick as Boo-Boo, Atom Ant, Touché Turtle, Pixie, So-So, Moby Dick
* John Stephenson as Benny the Ball, Doggie Daddy, Hardy Har Har
* Jean Vander Pyl as Flo Rugg, Maw Rugg, Woman Passenger
* Lennie Weinrib as Cap'n Noah Smitty
Home media
''Yogi's Ark Lark'' was released on the ''Yogi's Gang: The Complete Series'' DVD from the Warner Archive Collection on February 19, 2013.
''Yogi's Ark Lark'' was included as a bonus feature for the
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...