3D ‘Yogi Bear’ Movie On The Way

The strip-mining of our childhoods continues with the classic cartoon character Yogi Bear getting a big-screen adaptation. Not counting the animated flick from the mid ’60s called Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear, this will see the character make his debut in a live-action film.

Now those dropped mouths and widened eyes can go back to normal as when I say live-action I mean in the same way as Alvin and the Chipmunks and Garfield were live-action – so Yogi (and other characters from the show) will be animated and the world around will be real.

And unsurprisingly, this cartoon-to-movie adaptation will join the over-brimming bandwagon and be developed as a 3D project. Journey to the Centre of the Earth director Eric Brevig is set to direct the Yogi Bear movie, which is unsurprising since Journey (also a 3D movie) made Warner and Walden $230 million last summer.

Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia who both were executive producers on That’s 70’s Show, are writing the screenplay together for the film, which “will offer a new take on the half-century-old title character and his sidekick Boo Boo, who get into a series of misadventures in Jellystone Park.”

I can’t say I remember the Yogi Bear cartoon show all that clearly – I know I definitely watched it when I was younger (didn’t we all?) but I can’t recall specifics. However using what I can remember about it I honestly think it’s not the worst idea in the world to translate it to the big-screen.

However…

I think combining live-action with CG in the vein of Alvin and the Chipmunks is a flat out bad idea – I say just make it completely animated and do it in the style of Bolt and Kung Fu Panda. Sure, have it in 3D but I don’t see the direction they’re going with it working all that well with the popular technology.

Even though it may not be the worst idea in the world, I also can readily admit there is high potential for a real stinker here – after all following in the footsteps of Alvin and the Chipmunks and Garfield doesn’t exactly inspire positivity.

So is a half live-action, half CGI (and 3D) Yogi Bear movie a good idea? Or should they leave this character on the small and completely animated screen altogether?

The Yogi Bear movie is hoped for a 2011 release.

Sources: Cinematical and The Hollywood Reporter