Hey There It’s Yogi Bear (1964)

In the 1960’s American animated feature films were starting become more prominent. When the American animated feature began, nearly everyone was done by the Disney studio (An exception being that Fleischer Studios had made Gulliver’s Travels (1939) and Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)). One of the movies that helped expand the amount of studios doing animated features in the U.S.A., was Hanna-Barbera’s Hey There It’s Yogi Bear (1964). Hey There It’s Yogi Bear was not only Hanna-Barbera’s first theatrical feature, but also the first theatrical feature based off an animated TV show. 


In 1963 the Warner Brothers animation studio had closed. Because of this certain artists went to Hanna-Barbera for jobs, and these people would work on Hey There It’s Yogi Bear. These people included master animators Ken Harris and Gerry Chinquey, as well as Friz Freleng himself. Friz would serve as the film’s story supervisor. Still most of Hey There It’s Yogi Bear’s crew were those who had worked on the Hanna-Barbera’s TV shows. These included writer Warren Foster, voice artists Daws Butler, Don Messick and Julie Bennet, composer Hoyt Curtain, animation director Charles Nicholas and animators Ken Muse, Ed Bardge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Don Lusk, Jerry Hathcock, and Don Patterson. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera themselves are credited with directing the movie. There is no doubt that this great crew lead to this movie working so well.

This is an excellent film and one of the best Hanna-Barbera features. The characters are as likable as ever, the background work is beautiful to look at, the songs are great and the voice work is equally great. The movie has a story that is really simple, but is very charming in its simplicity. However the thing that makes it stand out among other films of its kind is that the feature length enhances the movie rather than holding it back. The crew understood how to use the feature length to the movie’s advantage. Hey There It’s Yogi Bear has quite a bit more character development than the show did. This is especially true of Cindy Bear. Here she not only has a better design, but a much more defining personality. This version of Cindy would be the one who would appear in here later TV appearances. This movie is certainly better than your average movie based off a TV show.

A review for the New York Times stated “And any parent who denies this thor­oughly delightful treat to the children should be spanked”.

However Hey There Yogi Bear wasn’t the first feature film, the Hanna-Barbera studio planned on making. In an article written by Bob Thomas dated June 21st, 1963, Thomas wrote “Coming up: ‘Whistle Your Way Back Home.’ An animation feature starring the stalwart hound, Huck.” While I don’t know why this film was dropped I think part of it might have to do with Yogi Bear having a supporting cast (Boo-Boo, Ranger Smith, and Cindy Bear), while Huck cartoons were pretty much a one man show (ok one dog show). It is much harder to make a feature that is a one character show than a show with a full cast. Still the studio would make another one of its funniest feature films with The Good, The Bad and The Huckleberry Hound (1988).

Don M. Yowp's amazing Hanna-Barbera blog, has done multiple posts on this movie and to read two of them click here and here.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources UsedThe Animated Movie Guide by Jerry Beck