Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: Yogi's First Christmas (1980)

A smarter than your average made for TV movie, starring a smarter than your average bear.  

 I love Hanna-Barbera cartoons. So, seeing all these characters together as almost one big family, and in a movie centered around Christmas, just makes me feel warm inside. It doesn't hurt that this is an excellent film in its own right.

The songs used in this film were used in previous Hanna-Barbera Christmas themed work.  The songs Christmas Time is Here Again and Making Much Ado About This Christmas both come from the TV special Casper's First Christmas (1979), while the song Hope was previously used in both A Christmas Story (1972, Not to be confused with the popular live action movie) and A Flintstones Christmas (1977), however here they do work much better. They fit in the movie perfectly and only enhance the audience's enjoyment in the film.

The film's director was Ray Patterson, who had worked as an animator for William Hanna and Joseph Barbera since the days of Tom and Jerry. He became one of the first non-William Hanna and non-Joseph Barbera directors for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He directed many other made for TV movies for the studio, and even the theatrical feature GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986). Nearly all of the already existing characters were voiced by their original voice artists Daws Butler and Don Messick.

This film is fantastic. The characters are very lovable. The writing (by Willie Gilbert) is great. The humor is quite good. However, it does have faults. For instance, the villains are not that interesting, and feel like they have been done before too often. However, the rest of the film is so good that any problem won't get in the way of you enjoying the movie a lot. Overall, this is an excellent film and a Christmas tradition for me.

For more Michael's Christmas Movie Guide, click here.