Yogi Bear

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Yogi Bear's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Yogi Bear completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 17 January 2011.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Yogi Bear contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Jellystone Park is under threat as dastardly Mayor Brown (Andrew Daly) threatens to close it down and sell it off to developers because the city has run out of money. Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) does all he can to keep the park open with the help of conservationist Rachel (Anna Farris) but to no avail. Yogi (voice of Dan Aykroyd) and Boo Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake) also try to help but their best intentions miserably backfire. All seems lost until the Boo Boo’s pet turtle comes to the rescue.

(The movie of Yogi Bear is preceded by Rabid Ride, a Roadrunner cartoon.) 

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

The destruction of natural habitats and national park for commercial gain.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of slapstick violence and accidental harm in this movie and the preceding cartoon, including:

• In the Roadrunner cartoon, Coyote crashes his bike, is run over by a truck, electrocuted and run over by the Roadrunner.
• Yogi crashes into trees, falls off a roof, gets a pie in the face
• Yogi burns his feet on a soldering iron
• Yogi bites his arm while trying to free himself
• Fireworks go off in all directions, scattering people and blowing up a bandstand
• Ranger Jones falls out of his car
• Rachel grabs Brown’s offsider by the tie and threatens to strangle him.

Material that may scare children

Under five

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• Yogi goes off to forage in the forest like a normal bear, looking thin and haggard. He eats a bug that then crawls out of his nose, is sucked back in and blown out again.
• The turtle gets thrown around like a ball.
• Yogi and Boo Boo fly in a home-made contraption that disintegrates and they fall into the sea in an inflatable raft. The raft then collects Smith and Rachel and they go over rapids and almost down a huge waterfall but are saved by a tree limb.

Aged five to eight

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned scenes.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

None of concern

Coarse language

There is some name calling such as ‘dumb’ and ‘pighead’.

The movie's message

Yogi Bear is a comedy that may appeal to children aged 5 – 10. There is a lot of slapstick comedy that children might enjoy but may also imitate, so parents may wish to emphasise that in reality these actions would hurt. The 3D effect doesn’t appear to contribute greatly to this movie.

Values that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include the conservation of wildlife and national parks