“Now for real, happy new year ya’ll. To be honest, its taking all my willpower to sit here and write this now. I ran out of reasons to postpone buying Glee Karaoke Revolution and now Im itching to play it. But procrastinating the first write ups of the year is not a good way to kick off 2011, so here we are.
I had my original plan for today, then when I woke up, I went thru about a dozen other possible permutations of the plan for the next three days and ultimately decided to just stick with the original. Mostly cause I couldnt go back to sleep, so the early(ish) start plan ended up being the best. First up, was Yogi Bear 3D
I approached this one with the utmost apprehension. I LOVED Yogi Bear growing up, and I was scared he was falling the way of the Chipmunks. Two things finally made me go see this. First off, yeah I had the time and exhausted all other movie options. And then I really was intrigued to hear Justin Timberlake voice Boo Boo. And y’know, Im kinda glad I went.
As I was sitting in the theater, I was already writing in my head a whole rant about how I never notice 3D anymore and the whole depth thing doesnt do it for me. Then something jumped out from the screen at me. Then something else. And I was a happy little five year old. For the most part, the 3D was no specialer than any of the other 3D kiddie films. However, this is one of the few that actually used some of those out into the audience gags, and for that it was worth it. Before this whole wave of extra dimensions, that’s what I always associated with 3D. The first few that didnt utilize that disappointed me, and now Im just jaded.
Another thing that made me happy was the father/daughter duo sitting on the other end of the row from me. She was bite sized, prolly around 5. He was telling her stories from his childhood, including how he loved Yogi Bear. Just reminded me of the kinda thing my Daddy woulda done.
Oh and there was a Wile E Coyote/Road Runner cartoon at the beginning. While that was the most pleasant of surprises, I dont know how I feel about them having been computer animated.
As for the rest of the movie, I actually did enjoy it. Yeah it was some of your typical kiddie drivel, but it wasn’t phoned in or half assed like a lotta them are. It was no Pixar flick, but it beat the pants off some of the other recent crap. The voice talent was clearly having fun, and the human actors were great as well. Usually they’re too over the top trying to hard, or totally dont give a crap in these type of films, but I didnt get either sense with the Yogi Bear cast. So props to them.
Im not saying this was the greatest kiddie movie of the year or anything. Not even close, by a long shot. But the whole “”low expectations”” going in thing really played a factor because it way surpassed those. If you find yourself in the same boat I did, with all other viable movie options exhausted (some of which had been better than others when I saw them), Yogi is worth a watch. Also worthwhile if you got munchkins. But its not somethign to go outta your way for
Yogi Bear – \m/ \m/ \m/