Review by Calista
Review by Hag and Con
Out on DVD, Blu-Ray and 3D Blu-ray 27/6/11 (U) 5 Stars
Parent view:
Great Kidz live action adaptation for the classic Hannah Barbara TV show. Kidz will love this in the same way they love the Chipmunks. Great Fun!!
The 3D Blu-Ray is possibly the best on the market – certainly for a live action film. Also Kidz will love the extra 3D content in the special Features.
Exclusive Clips from the Film:
Safety belts
Safety Manual
Yogi Bear Games for Kidz:
Game 1:Sandwich Stacker Click Here
Game 2:Sandwich Napper Click Here
Game 3:Bear to the Air Click Here
Dan Akroyd & Justin Timberlake (Yogi Bear & Boo Boo) DVD Questions and Answers
What is it about the appeal of Yogi and Boo Boo has made them last for over 50 years and appeal to people of all ages?
DAN AKROYD: I think it’s the quality of their friendship, their relationship. It’s a classic comedy duo, like Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Felix and Oscar, maybe even the Blues Brothers.
They’re friends, they’re buddies, they’re roommates, they need each other to survive. It’s full of warmth and heart and affection. The greatest movies are those that just bring home the heart.
I think the Yogi and Boo Boo relationship, even in the original cartoons and now in our re-tribute, the heart and the sweetness of the relationship is there.
You were able to do your voice recordings together. Did that really help establish their relationship and allow you some freedom in how you performed your roles?
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: A number of the sessions, we were able to record together, and it was a huge advantage. I think we both came into it as fans. Dan said something earlier about it being subliminally infused into our systems; and it was the same for me. I grew up with this cartoon as a Saturday morning cartoon, so I had the voice, both of the voices, in my head ever since I was a kid. We both came in knowing the value of our individual characters.
Every comic duo has a banter back and forth, and it’s all about timing and rhythm, and that’s where we were able to really hone everything in, with the timing and the rhythm of each beat. Recording together gave us that opportunity.
We found a lot of great stuff in there, because we were playing back and forth with these voices. I don’t know that it would’ve come out that way if we were isolated by ourselves recording.
The film has an environmental message. What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
DAN AKROYD: I hope they take away a feeling of having a great time and watching a great comedy and walk out with a good feeling, and then the message to the younger generation, we’ve got treasures out there.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: Preserve what we have, that was here before us.
DAN AKROYD: We are custodians for the future. We don’t own it, and it’s got to be passed on.
Eric Brevig (Director) DVD Question and Answers
What was it about Yogi Bear that made you want to make this film?
ERIC BREVIG: I’ve always loved the characters. I grew up when Yogi was still a cartoon on TV, and I had these fond memories of the characters. When I was contacted by Warner Bros. to discuss directing a feature, I thought, this could really be something that would be both nostalgic, and the people of my generation would remember the characters, but, also, we could introduce these two wonderful characters to a whole new generation of young people.
We got a good writer who wrote a very smart script. My approach was just to make a comedy in which two of the characters happen to be bears, and it worked out very well, because the movie plays for adults just as well it plays for kids.
The movie has a real innocence to it. How does that play in a more modern age?
ERIC BREVIG: I think it plays really well in that you don’t always have to take a classic character and try and make him hip, try and make him today and give him either the technology of today or have him rap or whatever the current fashion fad is. If you can avoid that, and I think we did in the film, it gives the movie a little more sense of being a classic, a little more timeless.
I was very careful when we were designing the look of Jellystone Park. We were designing what the characters are doing, to avoid any contemporary electronics. You don’t see a cell phone, you don’t see a Blackberry in the film, and that helps this film sort of fit any age. Any time you see the film, whether it’s today or in ten years, I think it’ll be just as current.
How did you go about casting both Yogi and Boo Boo?
ERIC BREVIG: Dan Akroyd actually came to us. He heard that the movie was being developed, and he was a lifelong Yogi fan. So he came in, and he read an audition for us, like anybody else. He came in with a couple pages of the Yogi dialog, and he performed them.
We knew in about three seconds how good he was at embodying that character, but also bringing to the character his own comic antic charms that would really take Yogi from where he used to be and make him a more fully realized character and more modern for the current generation.
And Justin Timberlake?
I first had a breakfast meeting, the producers and I did, with Justin, and, in the course of that hour or so, he probably said one or two words in a Boo Boo voice, and I know I sighed a big relief, because we’d already decided he’d be great, but nobody had actually asked him to do the voice, so I knew that he could do it.
When we first got together to record the dialog, I had Justin and Dan come in at the same time, and I recorded them together and got them to sort of workshop the characters. This allowed them, as actors, to develop the relationship between the two characters and kind of work out the business, work out the humor and so forth. I think you can really tell in the movie that those two characters are very fond of each other.
I know, as actors, they really liked being able to work together, so I feel like we started with a good idea, and it just kept getting better and better as the talents of the performers were brought into the project.
How do you shoot a movie where your two main characters are CGI?
ERIC BREVIG: It’s very challenging for the actors on camera, because they’ve got to pretend that the bears are there. My job, as the director, is to help them understand at all times what’s going on so that they can give a full performance. The way I would do this is I would shoot the scenes with the actors after rehearsing it once or twice with stand-ins.
We had a six-foot stand-in and a four-foot stand-in who were acting the Yogi and Boo Boo parts for the rehearsals, and the cameramen could see where they moved, and the actors could get used to what the characters were going to do. Then, when we would film it, it’d be up to the actors to continue that same performance even though there was nobody there.
You’ve been working on 3D for a very long time. How do you expect the 3D format to come into the home, because this will be a 3D Blu-Ray release?
ERIC BREVIG: I just saw the 3D Blu-Ray of this yesterday, and it looks great. It’s as sparkly and clear and dimensional as the film that I made for the big screen. If you have the right equipment, it really does look spectacular.
