Yogi Bear Follows Chipmunks to the Big Screen

Nobody thinks about it in these terms, of course, but when you take your kids to an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie you know is going to miserable, you're enabling studios to make more movies just like it, and I don't just mean the direct sequel to that film due out this Christmas. Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Brevig will direct a 3-D live action/CGI update of Yogi Bear. ...And away I go! The classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon has been the subject of movie rumors off and on for years, but now Warner Bros. is making it a reality, a reality that will probably put it squarely in between the two Flinstones movies, if it's lucky. There's no timetable mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter story, so you have time to build that bunker. The 3-D makes sense, although why they're mixing live action and CGI kind of loses me. Wouldn't just a 3-D cartoon work better? I guess they want a human foil in the form of Ranger Smith and then they can give the Yogi and Boo Boo characters more sizzle with computer animation. There's also a Tom & Jerry movie headed to theaters in the next couple of years, proving both the livelihoods of these classic characters and the knee-jerk reaction of studios to follow the leader.