The Yogi Bear Show

The Yogi Bear Show
The Complete Series
Voices by Daws Butler, Don Messick
33 Episodes
2 DVDs and 2 double-sided DVDs
Hanna-Barbera 1961
Warner Home Entertainment 2005

The Yogi Bear Show, The Complete Series features 32 Yogi Bear half-hour cartoon show. Each show features a Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss (of “Exit, stage left” fame), and Yakky Doodle. The Complete Series also features the three-part Yogi’s Birthday Party. Anyone who enjoyed Saturday morning cartoons (and the compulsory bowl of Cocoa Puffs that went with it) will enjoy this 4 DVD (2 single-sided, 2 double-sided) set.

The Yogi Bear Show, much like all the other Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows, was the delight of a generation or two of kids. Plenty of baby-boomers and post-boomers will want to get their hands on at least one of the Hanna-Barbera sets Warner Home Entertainment has released. It is the kind of safe family cartoon you can enjoy with your kids and that your jaded, much more media savvy kids will also enjoy watching with you. The Yogi Bear Show, The Complete Series is the kind of thing memories are made of.

Personal favorites on The Yogi Bear Show, The Complete Series are Droop-a-long Yogi where Yogi and Ranger Smith star in a western. As the director tells them, “Make it look adequate, this is for TV you know.” Missile Bound Bear is also pretty cool. The special feature on disc 4 of Yogi Bear, The Complete Series featuring scenes from an episode in various languages is definitely interesting.

A banal episode is the three-part (three seven-minute cartoons) Happy Birthday, Yogi. The first part, involving setting up Yogi Bear for a surprise birthday party is funny but the rest is just a series of flat animation walk-ons by various Hanna-Barbera stars.

One thing that Warner Brothers should be careful about is the 2 double-sided DVDs in this set. It is absolutely impossible to tell them apart, even the printing on the thin band in the center does not help. In future cartoon DVDs it would be advisable to have at least a different colored band so you know which is disc 3 and disc 4.

Anything you read after this is just an adult’s take on this funny cartoon set.

Hanna-Barbera is to Looney Tunes as the golden arches are to sirloin. Both are good, one is a bit more refined, one is fast and filling but not necessarily nutritious. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera opened their own studio after MGM closed theirs. MGM itself was not known for doing the greatest of cartoons and Hanna-Barbera were competent animators who did develop many great and classic cartoon characters like Fred Flintstone and George Jetson. Yogi Bear is also one of the Hanna-Barbera classics, perhaps because he definitely sounds like Ed Norton on The Honeymooners or perhaps because he was more original a cartoon character than Yakee Doodle who basically was a Donald Duck voiced Tweety Bird rip off. Snagglepuss, the pink lion (and you can bet some televangelist, moral majority quack would now say Snagglepuss promotes the gay lifestyle, what with his being pink and his erudite vocabulary and all) was also a pretty original cartoon animal.

The weakness of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon was not the flat animation where only the character’s legs, head, or arms moved and the same three bits of scenery scrolled by in the background. The real weakness was in the writing. Few cartoons on The Yogi Bear Show, The Complete Series feel like complete stories. Instead you get the feeling the writers had a couple three gags, strung them together, set a stopwatch, and ended the cartoon at the allotted time. Case in point is Yogi In The City (DVD 4 Side A). Basically, Yogi retires to hibernate, there’s a leak in his cave, he finds refuge in a trailer, the trailer goes to the city, Ranger Smith rescues Yogi by dangling a picnic basket from his helicopter. Another example is Bears And Bees (DVD 2) where Yogi competes for the heart of Cindy Bear.

Granted Hanna-Barbera did write a majority of pages in the modern book cartoon musical backgrounds, especially with The Flintstones. They did however go overboard on many of the Snagglepuss cartoons where every single musical cue is dumped haphazardly into the cartoon as filler music.

Track List: Yogi Bear – Snagglepuss – Yakee Doodle

Disc 1:
Oinks and Boinks – Major Operation – Out of Luck Duck
Booby Trapped Bear – Feud For Thought/Hop – Duck, and Listen
Gleesome Threesome – Live and Lion – Dog Flight
A Bear Pair – Fraidy Cat Lion – Easter Duck
Spy Guy – Royal Ruckus – Foxy Duck
Do or Diet – The Roaring Lion – Railroaded Duck

Special Feature: Time Capsule Yogi: The pilot episode as originally aired

Disc 2:
Bears and Bees – Paws for Applause – Duck Hunting
Biggest Show – Off on Earth/Knights and Daze – Whistle-Stop and Go
Genial Genie – The Gangsters All Here – Duck the Music
Cub Scout Boo Boo – Having a Bowl – School Fool
Home Sweet Jellystone – Diaper Desperado – Oh Duckter
Love-Bugged Bear – Arrow Error – It’s a Duck’s Life
Special Feature: Cartoon Tracks: The Art of Hanna-Barbera Sound

Disc 3 Side A:
Bare Faced Bear – Twice Shy – Happy Birthdaze
Slap Happy Birthday – Cloak and Stagger – Horse Collared
A Bear Living – Remember Your Lions – Ha-Choo To You!
Disguise and Gals – Remember the Daze – Foxy Proxy
Touch and Go-Go-Go – Express Trained – Count To Tenant
Acrobatty Yogi – Jangled Jungle – Shrunken Headache

Disc 3 Side B:
Ring-a-Ding Picnic Basket – Lion Tracks – The Most Ghost
Iron Hand Jones – Fight Fright – Stamp Scamp
Yogi’s Pest Guest – Lions Share Sheriff – All’s Well That Eats Well
Missile Bound Yogi – Cagey Lion – Foxy Friends
Loco Locomotive – Charge That Lion – Mad Mix Up
Missile-Bound Bear – Be My Ghost – Beach Brawl
Special Feature: Stills Gallery

Disc 4 Side A:
A Wooin’ Bruin – Spring Hits a Snag – Duck Seasoning
Yogi in the City – Legal Eagle Lion – Hasty Tasty
Queen Bee for a Day – Don’t Know It Poet – Nobody Home Duck
Batty Bear – Tail Wag Snag – Dog Pounded
Droop-a-Long Yogi – Rent and Rave – Witch Duckter
Threadbare Bear – Footlight Fright – Full Course Meal

Disc 4 Side B:
Ice Box Raider – One Two Many – Baddie Buddies
Bear Foot Soldiers – Royal Rodent – Judo Ex-Expert
Yogi’s Birthday Party Parts 1, 2, and 3
Special Feature: Yogi Gets Global: A Yogi Bear Episode in A Variety Of Languages

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