Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! is a 1964 American animated musical theatrical film, based on the syndicated program, The Yogi Bear Show. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Synopsis[]
After a misunderstanding, Cindy is sent to San Diego Zoo. Realizing he really does love Cindy back, Yogi, along with Boo-Boo, sets out to bring her back, and in the process save her from the villainous Chizzling Brothers and their hench-dog, Mugger.
Plot[]
In their cave, Boo-Boo wakes up from winter hibernation, excited about the new spring. Then Yogi wakes up, and his only interest is finding some food to eat. Cindy unsuccessfully tries to woo Yogi. After Ranger Smith thwarts Yogi's latest attempts to grab some food, Yogi gets angry and convinces Ranger to transfer him out of Jellystone. Smith prepares Yogi to be sent over to the San Diego Zoo along with an identification tag. Yogi first says goodbye to everything, but tricks another bear named Corn Pone into going to California instead of him; Boo-Boo and Cindy remain unaware of this, thinking Yogi departed for good.
Soon, Yogi is stealing food from all over the park under the alter ego "The Brown Phantom", but Smith believes its another bear. He threatens whoever it is to be sent to the zoo. Cindy, wishing to be with Yogi at the zoo, Ranger Smith into mistakenly sending her away. However, she gets sent to the St. Louis Zoo instead, as the San Diego Zoo doesn't need anymore bears. When she realizes her true destination, she gets very sad, crying since she knows she'd be far from Yogi now.
Late that night, Cindy falls out of the train and becomes lost. A traveling circus is looking for a great act to raise their ratings, when suddenly, their dog runs off and scares Cindy into walking on the telephone wires, the perfect opportunity for the 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 by to avoid trouble with the commissioner. After an extensive travel, Yogi and Boo-Boo locate Cindy, who is being kept a prisoner for the greedy manager's nest egg. As Yogi confronts the manager, he is made to join the circus, too. Boo-Boo releases Yogi and Cindy and they make their exit. As they are make their way home, they crash a barnyard party somehow escaping afloat a river with the barn's door. Then, while Cindy and Yogi dream about a honeymoon in Venice, they find themselves suddenly being chased and hunted by the police, as they somehow became fugitives, but make their escape.
They hitch a ride, but find themselves in the middle of a busy 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 a great publicity for Jellystone and Ranger Smith gets promoted to Chief Ranger.
Characters[]
Main
Villains
- Grifter and Snively Chizzling (only appearance)
- Mugger (only appearance)
Other
- Conductor Bear (only appearance)
- Zoo-Bound Bears (only appearance)
- Train conductor (only appearance, no lines)
- Corn Pone (only appearance)
- Yogi's Inner Self (only appearance)
- Pilot Charlie (only appearance)
- Pilot (only appearance)
- Air traffic controller (only appearance)
- Air traffic manager (only appearance)
- Clowns (only appearance, no lines)
- Sheriff (only appearance)
- Sam (voice only heard)
- Barn Dance Lady (only appearance)
- Mrs. Rutabaga (only mentioned)
- Snow White (mentioned)
- Goldilocks (only mentioned)
- Mack (only appearance)
- Police officers
- TV Reporter (only appearance)
- Cameraman Charlie (only appearance, no lines)
Locations[]
Jellystone Park
- Yogi's Cave
- Ranger Station
- Teetering Rock (only mentioned)
- Jellystone Lodge (known as Chalet Cafe)
- Watchtower
World
- China (mentioned)
- Hong Kong (mentioned)
- Italy
- Venice (only appearance)
- Naples (only mentioned)
- India (only indirectly mentioned)
- Bombay (only mentioned)
U.S.A.
- San Diego (only mentioned)
- San Diego Zoo (only mentioned)
- California (mentioned)
- Hollywood (mentioned)
- St. Louis (mentioned)
- St. Louis Zoo (mentioned)
- Colorado (only indirectly mentioned)
- Denver (only mentioned)
- Wyoming (indirectly mentioned and shown on a U.S. map with a green arrow)
- Cheyenne (only mentioned)
- Pennsylvania (only indirectly mentioned)
- Punxsutawney (only mentioned)
- Washington D.C. (only mentioned)
- White House (mentioned)
- Carolina (only mentioned)
- Clinton's (only appearance)
- State Airport (only appearance)
- Nordli Field (only appearance)
- New York City
- Chrysler Building
Other
- Barn (only appearance)
- Fine Foods Store (only appearance)
Objects[]
- Picnic baskets
- Life balloon
- Arrows
- Bow
- Toilet plunger
- Fishing pole
- Magician's hat (only appearance)
- Mysto the Magician's trunk (only appearance)
- Broom
- Lantern
- Golf club
- Mop
- Broom
- Windowpane (only appearance)
- Broken-down umbrella (only appearance)
- Tomato can (only appearance)
- Watering can
- Wheelbarrow
Food
- Vanilla cake
- Thermos bottle
- Apples
- Banana
- Mustard
- Sandwiches
- Chocolate cake
- Chicken
- Pizza
- Pie
- Pickles
- Cherries
- Punch
- Watermelon
Animals[]
- Bears
- Moose
- Rabbits
- Mockingbirds
- Ants
- Trout
- Cats
- Mice
- Giraffes
- Elephants
- Lion
- Sheep
- Goat
- Frog
- Turtles
- Donkey
- Doves
- Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers
Vehicles[]
- Tourists' vehicles
- Ranger Smith's jeep
- Train
- Chizzling Brothers Circus truck (only appearance)
- Sand truck
- Hay truck
- B.O.A.C. Cargo Service plane (only appearance)
- Clown car (only appearance)
- Rocky Mountain Van Lines moving van (only appearance)
- Transit Cement Co. cement truck (only appearance)
- Sheriff's Car 34 (only appearance)
- Ranger Smith's helicopter
- Police cars
Songs[]
- "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!"
- "Like I Like You"
- "St. Louis"
- "Ash Can Parade"
- "Whistle Your Way Back Home"
- "Ven-e, Ven-o, Ven-a"
Soundtrack[]
- Main article: Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! (soundtrack)
Cast[]
| Daws Butler | Yogi Bear Sam Bear #2 Pilot |
|---|---|
| Julie Bennett | Cindy Bear |
| Mel Blanc | Grifter Chizzling Conductor Bear Mugger (grumbling and talking sounds) |
| James Darren | Yogi Bear (singing voice) |
| Bill Lee | Yogi Bear (singing voice) |
| Allan Melvin | Ranger 2 Police Sergeant |
| Don Messick | Boo-Boo Bear Ranger Smith Ranger Jones Mugger Yogi's Inner Self Sheriff Pilot Charlie Air traffic controller Air traffic manager Chick TV Reporter |
| Ernest Newton | Boo-Boo Bear (singing voice) |
| J. Pat O'Malley | Snively Chizzling |
| Thurl Ravenscroft | Black-haired policeman |
| Hal Smith | Corn Pone Moose |
| Jean Vander Pyl | Barn dance woman |
| Jackie Ward | Cindy Bear (singing voice) |
Production[]
The animated musical film was produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with a story by Hanna, Barbera, and former Warner Bros. Cartoons storyboard artist, Warren Foster. Another Warner Cartoons alumnus Friz Freleng served as story supervisor. When the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio closed in May 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, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! was reissued on January 17, 1986, as part of Atlantic Releasing's short-lived Clubhouse Pictures program.
Videos[]
Gallery[]
Notes/Trivia[]
- It is the first animated theatrical feature produced by Hanna-Barbera, and the first feature-length theatrical animated film based on a television program.
- Mugger, the Chizzling Brothers' snickering dog, later became Muttley in Wacky Races and later the Yogi Bear franchise, including Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Fender Bender 500, and Yo Yogi!.
- Additionally, he also became Mumbly from Laff-a-Lympics and Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose.
- Several Sundays of the Yogi Bear comic strips during the fall of 1964 had a story line tying into the film's release.
- Some of the movie's scenes would later be used for the opening intro of The New Yogi Bear Show.
- The moose sounded no different to Quick Draw McGraw, another character voiced by Daws Butler.
- The vanity plate of one car says "HB120", a nod to Hanna-Barbera.
- Daws Butler uses his Huckleberry Hound voice for the unnamed pilot.
- Yogi calls himself the bear with a thousand faces, which is a reference to actor Lon Chaney's nickname, "The Man of a Thousand Faces."
- The gag of the policeman running away from a pole and yelling timber only to be hit by a said pole was copied from the same gag that first happened to Spike in the 1949 Droopy theatrical short Wags to Riches by Tex Avery.
- Nordli Field was named after art director Ernest Nordli.
Errors[]
- In one of the first few scenes of the movie, when the Ranger is queued up in his car while Yogi is "inspecting" picnic baskets, Yogi reads a card from the Ranger, identifying himself as "John Smith, Chief Ranger, Jellystone Park."
- When Cindy Bear falls out of the train and gets lost, she jumps out of the road to prevent being run over by an incoming car, and once she landed, she breaks down crying on the grass after realizing that she's lost without Yogi.
- Additionally, in the next scene, when Mugger jumps out of the Chizzling Brothers' circus wagon to investigate, it cuts to the next shot of Cindy sleeping and waking up to the noises of the dog's sniffing. However, she's repositioned near a wall of rocks in this shot.
- At the very end of the movie, as they're on their way back to Jellystone Park in the helicopter, the Ranger finishes a phone call from the Commissioner, telling the others that he's "just been promoted" to Chief Ranger. This means he obviously wasn't "Chief" Ranger at the beginning of the movie.
- The cats from the trash cans who react to Yogi singing in the alley, but when Boo-Boo starts singing, they're gone.
- When Yogi said "How about that?" after seeing a poster for the Chizzling Bros. Circus, he sounded identically like Snagglepuss.