The 9 Most Scathing Critical Responses to Yogi Bear

Normally, Movieline reserves this feature for the dreck populating movie theaters during the warm summer months. If Hollywood has taught us anything, however, it's that bad movies can get released into the wild at any time. With that in mind, let's take a look at what the critics are saying about Yogi Bear, the dreck-iest of the dreck-y in theaters this weekend. Enjoy?

9. "Preteens may not hate Yogi Bear. It's barely 70 minutes long without the end credits. But if Aykroyd contributed any of his own wisecracks to the voice work I'd be surprised, followed by stunned, followed by bargaining, acceptance and not laughing." -- Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

8. "A mix of live-action and digital animation, Yogi Bear is meant to hit the same commercial sweet spot as the recent Alvin and the Chipmunk movies. Sadly, it's not even that mediocre. [...] Picture Timberlake in the booth recording his lines and you have the best joke in the movie." -- Ty Burr, Boston Globe

7. "Director Eric Brevig (Journey to the Center of the Earth) doesn't seem to know how to handle the humans, eliciting performances replete with grimaces and wide-eyed, open-mouthed gasps as if this were a grammar school production of Winnie-the-Pooh. There is an utter disregard for urgency." -- Kimberly Gadette, Indie Movies Online

6. "An uninspired studio product that demands as little from the audience as it did from its writers, directors and actors, the 3-D Yogi Bear mixes anodyne live-action nature with animated animal hijinks. The result? As is so often the case, the satirical newspaper the Onion's sight-unseen take is as incisive as any review could hope to be: 'Yogi Bear Movie Introduces Boring Cartoon Character To New Generation,' a recent headline proclaimed." -- Dan Kois, Washington Post

5. "Spoiler alert: The way the park is finally saved is that they realize the turtle that Boo Boo keeps as a pet is an endangered species, and so Jellystone must be federally protected. You know what else is an endangered species? Bears that can talk." -- Eric D. Snider, Cinematical

4. "It is hard, in mere language, to explain how heavily Yogi Bear lays upon the soul. A new 3-D kids film bringing the hungry, (ostensibly) hi-larious animated Hanna-Barbera cartoon bear to the modern big screen, it is somehow both cheap-looking and garishly expensive. It is rushed and thin and yet eternal in its grinding tedium. It feels like the direct-to-video sequel of itself, featuring the return of a cartoon character that debuted in the 1960s for the benefit of possibly no one except the copyright holders. It has a startling number of poop, pee, burp and bottom jokes. It features talented people (Tom Cavanagh, Anna Faris, T.J. Miller and Andrew Daly) who are left stranded with almost nothing to do." -- James Rocchi, MSN Movies

3. For whatever reason, Warner Bros. has sprung for (apparently) several hundred thousand dollars and persuaded Tom Cavanagh and Anna Faris to play Yogi's human friends, enticed perhaps by the offer of a working vacation to the New Zealand location (other roles are taken by nobodies resembling more familiar actors who had more sense than to be in this turkey). The result is 79 minutes of 3-D garbage, directed (poorly) by Eric Brevig and written (worse) by Jeffrey Ventimilia, Joshua Sternin and Brad Copeland. Theaters should keep the glasses and recycle the film." -- Jim Lane, Sacramento News & Review

2. "The animated bears aren't even onscreen half the time (which is about 70 minutes before the credits roll), not that I much missed them. I was a little scared by their vacant serial-killer eyeballs, the Charles Manson stares that suggest that after they devour everything in your pic-a-nic basket they'll probably offer a brief thank-you prayer to Satan." -- Kyle Smith, New York Post

1. There's a plot, but so what? Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake voice Yogi and his young sidekick, Boo Boo. Anna Faris is the romantic interest, proving that it's time for her to shoot her agent once again. Seeing her wasted is yet another reason to hate this steaming heap." -- Jason Heck, Kansas City Star