A very charming made-for-TV movie.
In this movie, Yogi is a tour guide leading a group of Hanna-Barbera cartoon animals (Boo-Boo, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie, Doggie Daddy) on a tour that includes going to see the legendary airplane, the Spruce Goose. However, they soon find themselves trapped in the airplane. On their attempt to find a way out, they end up traveling the world with Yogi as the pilot. The gang decides to use the Spruce Goose to help various animals that are in trouble. On one of their adventures, they run into the villainous Dread Baron and his dog Mumbly. They pretend to be reformed but they are really after the Spruce Goose for themselves.
There is a lot to enjoy about this movie for Hanna-Barbera fans. Like many cartoon fans, I simply get a warm feeling when watching these movies that include many of the Hanna-Barbera characters. It gives me the feeling of visiting old friends. It also helps that these characters play off each other very well. I very much enjoy the little exchanges between Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw. This made me wish that these characters got to play off each other more often. I also love the little touch of Augie Doggie's hero being El Kabong and that he never catches on that he is really Quick Draw McGraw. This perfectly capture that beneath his genius Augie Doggie is still a little kid. The environments that they visit are a lot of fun and there are some great atmospheric backgrounds in these scenes. The Dread Baron and Mumbly are wonderfully fun villains. There is always something that is so enjoyable about villains that simply enjoy being villains. These characters are especially a lot of fun in over the top and gleeful villainy. It doesn't hurt that they get the best comedic moments in the film. Most of the humor here is not as laugh out loud funny as the original cartoons with these characters, but it is charming. This is more the type of humor that will make you smile or chuckle rather than laugh out loud. While this may keep it from reaching the comedic heights of the best adventures of these characters, the very silly sense of humor is still a quite a bit of fun for Hanna-Barbera fans. The storyline (which is somewhat similar to an episode of the TV show, Yogi's Gang) may be simple but it is also quite charming.
The main problem with this film is that the episodic nature can make it feel a little overlong at times. The whole artic segment adds little to the main story and can feel a bit like padding.
The movie's supervising director is Ray Patterson. Patterson was a former Disney animator having worked on the Disney feature films, Fantasia (1940) and Dumbo (1941). He first worked with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera on the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts. In the 1960's he would once again work for Bill and Joe at the Hanna-Barbera studio. He would stay at Hanna-Barbera for many years and become a director for many of the studio's movies and TV shows. The film's writer was Dennis Marks. This was the first of three feature films he would write that starred Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. The other two would be Jetsons: The Movie (1990) and Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992). Unlike this movie, both those films would be released theatrically.
All in all, this is a very fun little movie.
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