Life's a pic-a-nic

December 13, 2010 12:11 PM

Excited for the 3D Yogi Bear movie this holiday season? Me too. Here's an alternate ending! (Possibly NSFW.)
posted by naju (83 comments total)

I laughed when I realized what it was going for, but then the "HAHA THIS IS LAUGH TIME" music at the end kinda killed it for me.
posted by katillathehun at 12:16 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I will be watching this movie every day for a year, and blogging my progress. Check me out at blogibear.blogspot.com

or maybe yogiyear.blogspot.com
posted by Think_Long at 12:17 PM on December 13, 2010 [9 favorites]

I would seriously pay money for this movie if it actually ended like this, and I can't rightly say that I ever imagined anything would be enough to get me to say that.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 12:20 PM on December 13, 2010

god I hope this doesn't become some sort of meme!
posted by HuronBob at 12:24 PM on December 13, 2010

The movie may be garbage, but the poster (and tagline) is one of the most hilariously creepy/suggestive things I've ever seen.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:28 PM on December 13, 2010 [56 favorites]

That certainly makes-up for the desecration of yet another childhood memory by the Hollywood marketing machine.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:30 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

. . . is one of the most hilariously creepy/suggestive things I've ever seen.

.holy shit. how? don't people like, proof those things?
posted by Think_Long at 12:30 PM on December 13, 2010

always hated that bear
posted by philip-random at 12:30 PM on December 13, 2010

I also came in to post the poster.
posted by dobbs at 12:31 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

The movie may be garbage, but the poster (and tagline) is one of the most hilariously creepy/suggestive things I've ever seen.

Egads, this movie is going to be banned in Japan under the new anime laws.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:32 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well that's just Hanna-Barbaric.
posted by defenestration at 12:33 PM on December 13, 2010 [30 favorites]

That poster is so perfectly awful that I'm calling fake. If it's real, I apologize for giving movie promotion studios that much credit.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:33 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't think the ranger is gonna like that Yogi.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 12:34 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I hope I don't offend anyone who legitimately wants to see this movie, because I know opinions vary wildly from one moviegoer to the next... but this is by all appearances the very definition of "dreck." It's Garfield, it's Marmaduke, it's Alvin and the Chipmunks, it's The Smurfs. It's the continuation of a long tradition of reviving beloved old franchises in the most base and tasteless manner possible for the latest generation of kids. But I mean, hey, if that's your thing. Who am I to criticize you for it?
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:36 PM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Booboo?
posted by sharkitect at 12:37 PM on December 13, 2010 [11 favorites]

Boy this tongue-in-cheek alternate ending really makes me want to see the movie
posted by phaedon at 12:38 PM on December 13, 2010

America's funny man Mister Neil Hamburger has had many things to say about the Yogi Bear movie on with an informational pamphlet and on his twitter:

• NADW (National Association of Dunce Writers) defends "Yogi Bear" screenwriters in front of angry mob of disgusted third-graders.
• (CNN): Popov Vodka to sponsor asphyxiation of children heard complaining about Yogi Bear movie on school playgrounds.
• Glenn Danzig to reunite with Misfits to urinate on cast and crew of new "Yogi Bear" movie in Hollywood December 16.
• George W. Bush in "Decision Points": "Say what you will, but no Yogi Bear movie was released during my 8-year Presidency". #true

posted by wcfields at 12:38 PM on December 13, 2010 [5 favorites]

There would be no eulogies for Boo Boo. No photographs of his body would be sold in sundry stores. No people would crowd the streets in the rain to see his funeral cortege. No biographies would be written about him, no children named after him. No one would ever pay twenty-five cents to stand in the rooms he grew up in. The shotgun would ignite, and Cindy Bear would scream, but Boo Boo would only lay on the floor and look at the ceiling, the light going out of his eyes before he could find the right words.
posted by cirripede at 12:40 PM on December 13, 2010 [11 favorites]

I just wonder who did this and how they did it.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:40 PM on December 13, 2010

Faint of Butt: "That poster is so perfectly awful that I'm calling fake. "

Totally real, unless every movie blog on the web has been bamboozled.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:41 PM on December 13, 2010

I was hoping for a Timothy Treadwell subplot.
posted by now i'm piste at 12:43 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

I don't know what reality you guys live in, but in my reality, Hollywood never makes a movie with a sad ending (despite the upbeat closing credits).
posted by crunchland at 12:49 PM on December 13, 2010

The movie may be garbage, but the poster (and tagline) is one of the most hilariously creepy/suggestive things I've ever seen.

Surprise pickinik basketz?
posted by maryr at 12:50 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't know about you. But I didn't have discerning taste in movies when I was in the age group this is being marketed at.
posted by Joe Beese at 12:51 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Totally real, unless every movie blog on the web has been bamboozled.

Jesus Christ.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:52 PM on December 13, 2010

That's a sad ending?
posted by ardgedee at 12:53 PM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

I just wonder who did this and how they did it.

I too wonder this...is it official? If so, bravo to whoever they hired to do publicity for the movie after firing whoever approved that poster. If the video had broken into Imgoen Heap right as the gun went off I might have bought a ticket just out of gratefulness for the Lol. And then I would have thrown the ticket into the garbage.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:53 PM on December 13, 2010

It's the continuation of a long tradition of reviving beloved old franchises...

I do not live in a world where Marmaduke is a "beloved old franchise."
posted by griphus at 12:54 PM on December 13, 2010 [18 favorites]

The poster is totally real - I've seen it in the theater - heck, 2-3 months ago.

(Why do I remember it so well?, I was commenting to my wife about the internet controversy about said movie, and upon turning around... voila, there it was... talk about timing...)
posted by jkaczor at 12:56 PM on December 13, 2010

I do not live in a world where Marmaduke is a "beloved old franchise."

Would you believe "established old franchises"?

</maxwellsmart>
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:58 PM on December 13, 2010 [6 favorites]

Apparently, I live under a rock. I had no idea that they were raping the corpse of yogi bear.

I'm appalled

but if they made a "Wacky Races" movie, I'd totally go see it, there's no possible way to ruin it.
go fig
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:02 PM on December 13, 2010

It's not as though Ackroyd has ever been known for doing a particularly good Yogi Bear voice, and it's not as though his name is in any way bankable, so this whole thing really baffles me.
posted by anazgnos at 1:03 PM on December 13, 2010

This is, in it;s own way, quietly brilliant.

I wonder how long until it gets taken down...
posted by Quasimike at 1:08 PM on December 13, 2010

I just wonder who did this and how they did it.
I would wager that the animators put it together for the wrap party or somesuch. There's a great, grand tradition in creative circles of producing "alternate" versions of whatever project you're working on.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:09 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I had no idea that they were raping the corpse of yogi bear.

They aren't. And the original show was terrible. I fail to understand people's complaints when something wretched is remade as something wretched. People were up in arms about the Karate Kid remake -- go back and watch the original again. It's no great shakes.

Just because you thought something was awesome when you were 10 doesn't mean your childhood is being violated when it's remade decades later. This isn't the 1083 television series based on Casablanca, starring David Soul and Scatman Crothers. Which actually wasn't that bad, either.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:10 PM on December 13, 2010 [12 favorites]

1983, rather. David Soul isn't that old.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:11 PM on December 13, 2010

It is deeply sobering that more people will watch this clip from Yogi Bear than will see any moment of the amazing movie it comes from, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. On the plus side, though, it reminds me of how much I need to buy that movie so I can foist it off onto friends who haven't seen it.
posted by Schismatic at 1:13 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

This must be the part of the devil's pact where Justin Timberlake pays his due.
posted by munchingzombie at 1:13 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wonder how long until it gets taken down...

Methinks this could be one of those viral "leaks" to get the jaded media types talking about a movie that none of them had cared about. Even so, though, kudos to whoever did this.
posted by TheWash at 1:16 PM on December 13, 2010

1983, rather. David Soul isn't that old.

Scatman was.
posted by Mcable at 1:21 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm still trying to figure out Timberlake. I bet his parts were recorded years ago and have just been in the can ever since. He probably cashed his check and just thought the project was dead.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:22 PM on December 13, 2010

I couldn't really care less about the original Yogi Bear cartoon, but I thought it was strange, watching the trailer in the theatre recently, that the theft of picnic baskets - by virtue of the picnickers being live action - changed the whole dynamic entirely.

If the cartoon picnic theft of the original just made me sort half-smile (because I don't really care, remember), the theft of live action picnic baskets by animated bears made me think: whatsoever is funny about this? It's just theft, they're ruining those people's day. If the bears were stealing their cars instead, going for joyrides, using up their gas, trashing their vehicles, would that be funny?
posted by stinkycheese at 1:24 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

This would have been a little better if they didn't give away the ending in the title.
posted by orme at 1:24 PM on December 13, 2010

And since the YouTube description doesn't say, here's the scene the video is based on.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:24 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

YouTube kind of sucks now since it likes to put ads up over the last two seconds of a video for me, but if you pause at the very end, (like 2:49 into the video), it says it's a parody created by Edmund Earle (possible homepage, who looks somebody who'd be able to render a video like this by themsleves) and that all the models and textures were created by him by looking at released posters and videos for the movie, from scratch.

Related to the movie, when I was visiting family for Thanksgiving, I asked my 6 year-old turning 7 nephew if he wanted to see this movie since an ad had just been on. He simply replied "No" very definitely. And he likes movies, but I guess since it's not Star Wars, Toy Story, or about skate boarding he doesn't want to see it.
posted by skynxnex at 1:28 PM on December 13, 2010

...desecration of yet another childhood memory by the Hollywood marketing machine.

I was 4 years old when the original Yogi Bear cartoons started airing, and there is nothing that this movie could do that would be worse than "Yogi's Ark Lark" or "Yogi's Laff-a-Lympics" in the 1970s. In fact, I saw the first Yogi Bear movie, "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear," when I was 10 and cringed. Yogi Bear has been one of the most consistently misused and abused cartoon franchises of the 20th Century.

And I was actually pleasantly surprised in seeing the previews that the tone and content (at least of the previews) were actually closer to the original seven-minute cartoons than almost anything "Yogi-based" in the last 45 years. Seriously. I was even pleasantly surprised by how Aykroyd and Timberlake actually sounded like the original Yogi & Boo Boo voices (for the record, Daws Butler & Don Messick).

Now, any attempt to expand a seven-minute cartoon to a feature length film is a near-certain disaster (just as expanding SNL sketches to feature films has produced 2 good ones and several dozen disasters), but no matter what they do, at least it won't involve a dirigible full of crossover characters and Captain-Planet-style environmental themes.

Trying to do the same visual stunts that had been originally done with simply-drawn 2D characters but now using 3D fully-rendered-and-textured CGI is an extreme long shot at best, but I have to give them some credit for trying (if it turns out that is what they are indeed doing). Still, CGI-ing Hanna-Barbera characters from the '60s means going from the Uncanny Valley into an Uncanny Chasm (yeah, those bear eyes do creep you out). But, having also watched Alvin and Bullwinkle and AstroBoy in their original runs, I can say that there is still hope that this childhood memory will remain unraped. (The Rocky & Bullwinkle movie was almost tolerable, with June Foray still doing Rocky's voice and the Narrator hitting the right tone, but it was ruined by Jason Alexander's Boris and especially Robert DeNiro's Fearless Leader)
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:29 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I just wonder who did this and how they did it.

The original animators because they hate the movie as much as I do.
posted by GuyZero at 1:30 PM on December 13, 2010

I promised myself I'd never watch "Monster's Ball" again and this clip made me break that promise!
posted by cjorgensen at 1:34 PM on December 13, 2010

Also, about who did it Reddit thread by a claimed co-worker of the animator Earle and a saying it was Earle.

It also appears that the studio Earle works at is unconnected to the production of the actual movie. As much fun as that might have been.
posted by skynxnex at 1:35 PM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

I will give Timberlake credit for what sounds like a spot-on Boo Boo voice in the trailers. I bet he does a bunch of impressions. That hip-hip tribute he did was bursting with talent. On the other hand, Aykroyd's attempt at Yogi is a bit wanting.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:45 PM on December 13, 2010

Wow, this video hit the internet only a few hours ago and the WSJ has already posted an interview with the creator, Edmund Earle.
posted by naju at 1:45 PM on December 13, 2010

Sorry about my protuberance in 3D, Boo boo!
posted by cjorgensen at 1:57 PM on December 13, 2010

This is freaking me out a little: Yogi's eyes are definitely MOVING during the ending credits.
posted by naju at 1:59 PM on December 13, 2010

The best Yogi Bear 'toons I ever saw were done by John Kricfalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame

Boo Boo Runs Wild is a awesome.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:04 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes, they do, naju. It struck me as a "we now return you to the world of cartoons" moment.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:05 PM on December 13, 2010

On a completely irrelevant note, here's something I always wondered -- why doesn't Yogi Bear talk anything like Yogi Berra?

Is it because that would have actually been funny and made sense?
posted by kyrademon at 2:24 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

When animator Edmund Earle first saw the trailer for the coming 3-D film “Yogi Bear” back in September, he knew he was watching something that was ripe for parody. The 25-year-old Rhode Island School of Design grad instantly decided that he wanted to do a parody video and create an alternate–and much darker–ending for the children’s film.

naju beat me. the internet moves quickly. only 300 views on YouTube and already on WSJ? weird.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:28 PM on December 13, 2010

There's no possible way the video is only at 300 views. There's actually a YouTube support thread about videos being "stuck" at 300. In addition to the fact that YouTube view counts don't update in real time for any video.
posted by skynxnex at 2:32 PM on December 13, 2010

Yeah, as the post skynxnex links mentions, view counts aren't always up to date, especially when something rockets up like this. You'll see a big pop at some point in the day.
posted by wildcrdj at 2:42 PM on December 13, 2010

I will pay good money to see any movie where Dan "I only work with superstars" Aykroyd gets shot.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:00 PM on December 13, 2010

It is deeply sobering that more people will watch this clip from Yogi Bear than will see any moment of the amazing movie it comes from, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

FWIW, it reminded me that I want to watch that movie every day for a year.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:01 PM on December 13, 2010

"Hey there, it's Yogi Bear!" was the second movie I ever saw*. I remember running down the street screaming with joy because I loved Yogi so much from TV. Toddlers today have no idea who Yogi is, so I wonder if they'll enjoy it.

*_{The first movie I ever saw was "Mondo Cane" because my parents thought I would fall asleep at the drive-in. So my first movie was X-rated. I remember it more vividly than Yogi Bear.}
posted by acrasis at 3:01 PM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

There was something like 40 new YouTube comments posted while I watched it.

This could probably break 'viral video records'.
posted by panaceanot at 3:02 PM on December 13, 2010

I can't believe I'm typing this, but after looking at the movie's IMdb page, I said to my wife in all seriousness, "I thought Justin Timberlake was better than that."
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:09 PM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

My husband's response to this was to filk it with the Ballad of Jesse James.

Now Yogi was a bear who never learned to share
He robbed the Jellystone camps
He stole from the campers and he took to their pic-a-nick hampers
He'd a paw and a hat and a brain

Well it was little Boo-Boo Bear who shot him in the rear
I wonder now how he feels
For he slept in Yogi's lair and he ate with him there
And he laid poor Yogi in his grave

Yogi's girl, Cindy Bear, has shed many a tear
Three cubs, now, they were brave
Well the bear that fired the shot, Boo-Boo Bear the little snot
He laid poor Yogi in his grave

Now Yogi he was smarter (and louder and much larger)
Than the average bear, by far
There never was a ranger who ever had a prayer
of taking Yogi Bear in while alive

posted by immlass at 3:41 PM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

If the bears were stealing their cars instead, going for joyrides, using up their gas, trashing their vehicles, would that be funny?

As long as it's not my car? Yes. Yes, that would be extremely funny.

Oh wait, do you mean those animated 3D monstrosities? 'Cause I was picturing real bears, and that would be great.
posted by maryr at 3:44 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I checked in this morning. 301 views. Now, hours later: 301 views. ? Ah, there's a recent comment regarding same -now we will get to the bottom of this-
posted by user92371 at 4:35 PM on December 13, 2010

All it's missing is Nick Cave.
posted by damonism at 4:36 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I believe YouTube updates viewcounts daily, not continually.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:25 PM on December 13, 2010

I believe YouTube updates viewcounts daily, not continually.

Not strictly true, but it's not real time either. Here's a good post as well.

Basically, most videos will update more or less in real time. But fast-rising videos are more likely to suffer viewcount freeze.
posted by wildcrdj at 5:35 PM on December 13, 2010

You mean this movie wasn't made for the Metafilter demographic? WTF?!
posted by Brocktoon at 6:20 PM on December 13, 2010

Hah, now they've added an annotation stating that it's not affiliated with the movie. And that it contains "adult themes"...
posted by wildcrdj at 6:25 PM on December 13, 2010

Sure, I'd be covering my ass too if I were suddenly risking the wrath of Warner Bros. Still, this was funniest and most unexpected when it was introduced to me by Paul Scheer as actually coming from the studio animators, and that I'd better watch it immediately before it's taken down for good.
posted by naju at 6:33 PM on December 13, 2010

Brocktoon: "You mean this movie wasn't made for the Metafilter demographic? WTF?!"

Pixar (and even Dreamworks, to an extent) proved long ago that you don't need to stoop to potty humor, pop culture references, clumsy innuendo, and pies in the face to make a decent movie aimed at kids. We're not mocking it because we're outside the target demographic, we're mocking it because it's utter crap.

stinkycheese: "It's just theft, they're ruining those people's day. If the bears were stealing their cars instead, going for joyrides, using up their gas, trashing their vehicles, would that be funny?"

^YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD
_A PICK-A-NIC _BASKET
posted by Rhaomi at 6:46 PM on December 13, 2010 [9 favorites]

WHEN IS THE LANCE LINK, SECRET CHIMP MOVIE COMING OUT ALREADY?
posted by Ron Thanagar at 6:49 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

just as expanding SNL sketches to feature films has produced 2 good ones and several dozen disasters

Oooh ooh, I know! It's Pat! and . . .

I've got nothing.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:33 PM on December 13, 2010

Stuart Smalley Saves His Family, of course.
posted by munchingzombie at 8:28 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Stuart Saves His Family is much better than it is credited as being.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:42 PM on December 13, 2010

That's some fucked up shit.
posted by mazola at 9:23 PM on December 13, 2010

I laughed when I realized what it was going for, but then the "HAHA THIS IS LAUGH TIME" music at the end kinda killed it for me.

Are you kidding? That's the most faithful part of the parody. It's far more likely that the actual Yogi Bear movie would actually end this way than that it would end without a lame pop song over the closing credits.
posted by straight at 9:49 PM on December 13, 2010

A video parody of “Yogi Bear” that’s much darker than your average episode of that vintage Hanna-Barbera cartoon – not to mention the coming Warner Brothers film adaptation – isn’t a viral marketing campaign gone awry. But the studio said on Monday that it wouldn’t try to take down the Web satire, either.

posted by zarq at 6:46 AM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

omg, that was soOoooOooooo wrong and so awesome. how the hell they did it?!?!?
posted by liza at 7:44 AM on December 14, 2010

The tuba is a sadly overlooked instrument.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:03 PM on December 15, 2010