Review: 'Yogi Bear'

Timberlake's channeling of the young bear is as good as when legendary voice talent Don Messick originated it in the '60s. But Aykroyd's attempt to mimic voice talent Daws Butler's Yogi voice is uneven - from dead-on to dead wrong.

Director Eric Brevig's big-screen "Yogi Bear" blends live action and computer-generated animation. The real actors and computer-generated characters work together seamlessly. It's what they are doing together that's the problem. The script is as heavily slanted toward Jellystone Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) and his love interest (Anna Faris) as it is to the antics of the mischievous bear.

"Yogi Bear" should focus on the anti-establishment view of the bear, which manifests itself through Yogi's larcenous assaults on the Jellystone campers. Instead, the film makes Yogi and Boo Boo supporting players.

There's an additional distraction - a vastly overused corrupt politician story line. It's an effort to create a villain, but the plot device is as stale as six-month-old bread.

A little more creativity would have gone a long way toward covering up the movie's flaws. And it'll cost you extra to see those flaws because of the 3-D.

"Yogi Bear" is the latest 3-D release that fails to provide enough added entertainment value - coupled with a scant running time of 79 minutes - to warrant the extra ticket charge for 3-D glasses. Making the film in 3-D was a major boo boo.

'Yogi Bear'

Our grade: C

Genre: Adventure

Running Time: 80 min

MPAA rating: PG

Release Date: Dec 17, 2010