Not Yogi Bear

I recently saw Yogi Bear, so one would expect I'd blog about it. But I don't really want to. So, I thought I'd blog about why I don't want to blog about it.

The problem is is that I don't really have anything to say. It's a children's movie, live action with CGI Yogi and Boo Boo. [BTW: Justin Timberlake is an excellent Boo Boo, Dan Aykroyd is not an excellent Yogi.] When kids shows are converted to a movie, they usually up the plot from the usual run around (understandably, otherwise you'd only have a few minutes of general goofiness), and in this case it's Jellystone Park that's under threat, and all the good guys need to band together, overcome their differences, and get the girl. (Yes, there is a girl to be got... okay, no, not really the plot focus.) The thing is... by and large, the movie has returned to status quo by the end (really? you think I'm spoiling this? what did you expect? the bad guys to win?). As with most movies of this ilk. You don't get huge changes to the core, otherwise you wouldn't get sequels.

I reached a point with documentaries that the movie model was the same, apart of content, from movie to movie. Introduce the issue, show the problem, show a solution, end. Now I've reached the point with kid movies. Of course they're not going to do anything dramatically amazing, that wouldn't be kiddy-safe, and wouldn't drag in the nostalgia audience.

Are producers just going through the motions and going for the cash? Do they care at all, or just consuming old shows and spitting them out nicely packaged? How long has it been since we had a movie based on an old cartoon that actually ended with the situation being significantly different to the normal set up?

Anyone?

[END]