Yogi, The Easter Bear

Premiered April 3, 1994.

"Easter is a celebration.  It celebrates Springtime, with life starting anew.  It also happens to be the start of Camping Season. 
-Yogi Bear

It's Easter morning in Jellystone State Park and Ranger Smith (Don Messick), the park's chief ranger, is busy preparing for the annual Easter Jamboree.  In addition to celebrating the holiday, this event also marks the beginning of camping season.

Ranger Smith has prepared Easter baskets and ordered a truckload of candy for the buses for of children that are attending the jamboree.  Smith himself plans to dress up as the Easter Bunny.  

The ranger is under a lot of pressure, because the Supreme Commissioner (Ed Gilbert) of state parks will be arriving any minute with his grandchildren.  The commissioner doesn't suffer fools and has a history of shutting down state parks he doesn't like.  Smith believes his career will end if anything goes wrong.

The ranger tells Yogi Bear (Greg Burson), Jellystone's most notorious food thief, to stay away from the Easter Jamboree.  Smith threatens to send Yogi to a circus in Siberia if he causes any trouble. 

Yogi ignores Smith's threats, steals his Easter Bunny costume and eats all of the Easter candy.  

The ranger then chases Yogi all over Jellystone and the bunny suit is wrecked in the process.  It looks like Yogi has ruined everything.  The children will have no Easter candy and Ranger Smith has reached the end of his rope and decides to send Yogi to Siberia.

Yogi's friend Boo-Boo (Messick) feels bad for Ranger Smith says he and Yogi will make things right by bringing the real Easter Bunny to the jamboree.  They visit the Grand Grizzly (Gilbert)...

...who tells them to look for "the big ears in the sky" if they want to locate the Easter Bunny.

When Yogi and Boo-Boo arrive at the Easter Bunny's HQ, they find it ransacked and empty.  Boo-Boo sees "Help Me" spelled out in jelly beans, which makes them believe the Easter Bunny is in danger.  Fortunately, they find a trail of jelly beans and hope it will lead them to the Easter Bunny. 

The Easter Bunny (Rob Paulsen) has been captured by gangsters named Paulie (Charlie Adler) and Earnest (Jeff Doucette).  Paulie owns a factory that makes fake plastic Easter Eggs.  The gangsters plan to steal the Easter Bunny's eggs so that the world will be forced to buy Paulie's fake eggs.

Boo-Boo and Yogi free the Easter Bunny and pay a visit to the Easter Henhouse, home of the Magical Chicken, who lays eggs for the Easter Bunny.  

She is capable of laying chocolate, cream, candy and regular eggs.  They plan to bring these eggs to the Easter Jamboree and save the day.  However, they'll have to get away from Paulie and Ernest, who are in hot on their tails!

Will Yogi, Boo-Boo and the Easter Bunny reach Jellystone in time to save Easter?  Will Ranger Smith get fired?  

J.A. Morris says:

This is a generally enjoyable special.  Yogi Bear cartoons were a staple of my childhood and I've always enjoyed the Hanna-Barbera characters.  It was fun to watch these familiar characters interact with the Easter Bunny and (SPOILER ALERT) save Easter.  

This version of the Easter Bunny is a likeable character.  He's accidentally injured by Yogi several times, but never loses his optimistic outlook.  However, there's a bit too much going on in Yogi, The Easter Bear.

For starters, it's 46 minutes long, or an hour long with commercials.  I felt that a lot of the dialogue was there to fill time rather than move the story along.  For instance, when Paulie tells the Easter Bunny about his plans for plastic eggs, he rants for several minutes about it.  This could've taken one sentence to cover.  There are other scenes that feel dragged out to pad the running time.

There are also a bit too many subplots that don't add a lot.  Ranger Smith says he doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny because he never got what he wanted on Easter.  Later, the Easter Bunny recognizes Smith's name when it's mentioned and says "he never believed in me."  What came first?  The disbelief or the lack of the desired Easter candy?

On a more positive note, the voice actors in Yogi, The Easter Bear all deliver solid performances.  Don Messick was the original voice for both Boo-Boo and Ranger Smith and he does a great job.  This special turned out to be the last time Messick voiced the characters.  Greg Burson is good as Yogi Bear and Charlie Alder provides a great, manically evil voice for Paulie.  Legendary comic actor Jonathan Winters has a small role as Ranger Mortimer.  

Yogi easily fools Ranger Mortimer (Jonathan Winters) into letting him have Easter candy.

The animation also looks great.  The script has some good lines that are (probably) aimed at adults.  

Yogi, The Easter Bear is recommended to all Yogi Bear fans.  As we've mentioned here before, there aren't a lot of Easter specials (compared to other holidays) so it's nice to find something else to watch this time of year.  I think there's a great 25-30 minute special here buried in the over-long scenes and distracting sub-plots.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 and a half Easter eggs.

RigbyMel says:  

Yogi The Easter Bear is an agreeably goofy Easter special.  Even though Yogi is his own worst enemy in the story, he does work hard to try to make up for his mistakes.  (Even if sometimes the hard work is reluctant.) 

As J.A. Morris says above, there is way too much going on in this special and the multiple subplots weigh it down a bit, preventing it from being a true classic.   

That being said, it's always fun to see Yogi in action antagonizing Ranger Smith and the Easter Bunny and Easter Chicken are cute. The voice work is great too! 

I also find it interesting that the special is set on Easter itself rather than the days leading up to Easter as is more typical for this sort of holiday entertainment.  I guess the Easter Bunny being snatched by the gangsters held up his delivery schedule? 

While this is not a holiday special for the ages, it's certainly festive and worth sharing with new Yogi fans or fans of long standing.

RigbyMel's rating: 

2 Easter eggs

Reindeer Games

Premiered February 25, 2000.

This year's edition of "Oscar Takes A Holiday" concludes with our review of the Christmas-themed action movie Reindeer Games, which features two Academy Award Winners.

Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar for Monster (2003).

Ben Affleck has never won an Academy Award for acting.  However, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for co-writing Good Will Hunting (1997) with Matt Damon.  Affleck later won the Best Picture Academy Award for co-producing Argo (2012) .

And now, here's our final Oscars-themed review of 2020!:

Car thief Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck) and his cell mate Nick Cassidy (James Frain) are two days away from being released from prison.  Rudy is looking forward to hot chocolate, pecan pie and watching sports with his father.  

Nick has been corresponding with a woman named Ashley (Charlize Theron) and he plans to spend the upcoming Christmas season with her.  Unfortunately, Nick is killed in a prison riot just before his release date.

When Rudy is released, he sees Ashley waiting outside the prison and decides he will pretend to be Nick. They immediately fall for each other.  Rudy decides to wait until Christmas is over to tell her he isn't Nick.

Rudy's plans change when he's ambushed by several men.  The leader of the attack is Ashley's brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise), who is also known as "Monster."  Gabriel knows Nick worked as a security guard in a casino and thinks "Nick" will help him pull off a casino heist on Christmas Eve. Rudy attempts to tell Gabriel that he's not Nick and that he knows nothing about casinos.  However, Rudy changes his tune when a gun is pointed at his head.  He pretends to know about the casino's schematics and agrees to be part of the robbery.

Ashley confesses that she knew Gabriel would do this to Nick, but she expected Gabriel to wait until New Year's Eve.

Will Rudy go through with the robbery?  Will Gabriel discover that Rudy isn't Nick?   Will Rudy survive and make it to Christmas?

J.A. Morris says:

I really like the idea of a movie like Reindeer Games.  I have no problem with a "shoot-em-up" action/heist Christmas movie with a high body count.  There is room for every genre at Christmas time. The problem with Reindeer Games is that it's an idea that’s poorly executed and the story is a mess.  

Reindeer Games has lots of problems. One of the biggest problems is that Rudy's lie (about being Nick) leads to the death of an innocent ice fisherman when Rudy attempts to escape from Gabriel's gang.  Rudy later seems to forget about it.  That's just bad storytelling.  Reindeer Games also features multiple expositions where characters explain what there going to do while pointing guns in each other's faces and lots of double and triple-crosses.

It's too bad Reindeer Games wasn't better, because the talent in front of and behind the camera is amazing.  Director John Frankenheimer helmed a bunch of good movies, most notably Birdman Of Alcatraz, Seven Days In May and The Manchurian Candidate.  Sadly, Reindeer Games was Frankenheimer's last theatrical film.  

In spite of my general negative opinions about Reindeer Games, I don’t want to spoil the ending.  Let’s just say there’s a revelation late in the movie that’s a bit hard to believe even in the context of a big dumb action movie.  

In addition to the leads, the cast features a "Who's Who?" of great character actors: James Frain, Clarence Williams III, Danny Trejo and Donald Logue, Dennis Farina and Isaac Hayes. Unfortunately, these actors can't elevate the material they have to work with.

Reindeer Games features a great cast that is sadly wasted. It’s not recommended and I’m giving it our lowest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

A stocking full of coal.

The Preacher's Wife

Premiered December 13, 1996.

The Preacher's Wife is a remake of The Bishop's Wife, which we reviewed yesterday.  Let's look at this movie's connection to the Academy Awards:

Denzel Washington won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Glory (1990) and later won Best Actor for Training Day (2001).  

Denzel Washington wins his first Oscar on March 26, 1990.

The Preacher's Wife features music by Hans Zimmer, who won an Oscar for his Best Original Score for The Lion King (1995).

It’s also worth noting that Zimmer's music for The Preacher’s Wife received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Music.  

Here's our review:

Reverend Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance) is pastor of St. Matthew’s Church, which is located in a neighborhood that has fallen on hard times.  The church itself is also in a state of disrepair and dire financial straits.  

Local predatory real estate mogul Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines) wants to buy the church so he can replace it with expensive condominiums.  The church’s boiler explodes a week before Christmas and a parishioner is jailed for a crime he didn’t commit.  Henry is being pulled in all directions while trying to save his church and the community. 

Since he’s busy and distracted all the time, Rev. Biggs’ wife Julia (Whitney Houston) feels like Henry has been taking her for granted.  Julia serves as St. Matthew’s choral director and is busy producing its annual Christmas pageant.  

Their son Jeremiah (Justin Pierre Edmund) is upset because his best friend has moved away to live with a foster family.  With so many problems to face, Henry prays to God for help.  

Help arrives in the form of an angel named Dudley (Denzel Washington).  He tells Rev. Biggs he’s the answer to his prayer and that’s he’ll help him manage the church.  

Henry is VERY skeptical when Dudley tells him he’s an angel.  Rev. Biggs comes around when Dudley demonstrates some supernatural abilities, like magically starting Henry’s stalled car.  

Julia is charmed by Dudley and the feeling is mutual.  They spend lots of time together since Henry is always busy, which creates more tension in their marriage.

Joe Hamilton continues to pressure Henry into selling his church to make way for condos.  He says he’ll build a new mega-church for Biggs in exchange for the old church.  Julia believes Joe wants to build the mega-church to be a monument to his own ego.  Hamilton sweetens the deal by promising to pay for a new boiler so that St. Matthew's will be warm during its Christmas services.  

Will Henry sell out to Hamilton?  Can Julia and Henry’s marriage be saved?  Can Dudley’s angelic powers save the day for everyone? 

J.A. Morris says:
This is a good “modern” remake of The Bishop’s Wife (I put “modern” in quotation marks because this movie is now 23 years in the past!).  The stakes are upped a little bit from the original.  In this version, Henry Biggs could lose his church to a wrecking ball, whereas Henry Brougham’s problem was funding construction for his new cathedral (his old church was never in danger).  

While I like both versions, The Preacher’s Wife gives Julia Biggs a little more agency than Julia Brougham.  Whitney Houston’s Julia argues rather forcefully with her husband, something Loretta Young’s character didn’t get to do.  

I mentioned in yesterday’s review that David Niven’s performance as Bishop Brougham was my favorite part of The Bishop’s Wife.  I feel the same way about Courtney B. Vance in the remake.  

While Vance has had a great career, he was not intended to be the “main attraction” in a film that featured Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington.  Vance has to do the heavy lifting here, and (like Niven) he makes Rev. Biggs’ growth and change feel real.  There’s a great scene where, after a long day of work and difficulties at home,  Henry’s car won’t start on a cold December night.  Vance does a great job conveying Henry’s sense of “what now” despair.  

Like Cary Grant before him, Denzel Washington brings a lot of his usual charm and charisma to Dudley.  

Whitney Houston wasn’t a classically trained actor like Vance and Washington, but she holds her own in every scene with them.  

The supporting cast is also strong.  Jenifer Lewis gets some of the funniest lines as Julia’s mother Margueritte.  Loretta Divine is solid aas Henry’s secretary Beverly.  

Gregory Hines is great as the sleazy Joe Hamilton.  Margueritte says that Hamilton is “so oily you could fry chicken” on his smile and Hines makes you believe her!

If there’s anything wrong with The Preacher’s Wife, it’s that I felt it had a few too many musical performances by Whitney Houston.  While I wasn’t a fan of all of her music, she had an amazing voice.  I’m guessing that her singing (and the soundtrack album that accompanied this movie) was a major factor in this film being greenlit.  On a positive note about Houston's songs, I enjoyed the uptempo gospel arrangement of “Joy To The World."

The only other problem I had was that Jenifer Lewis played Whitney Houston’s mother.  While I enjoyed Lewis’ performance in The Preacher’s Wife, she was born only six years before Houston.  This didn’t ruin the movie, but it strained credulity a bit.

The Preacher’s Wife is a good updated remake of a classic Christmas movie and is recommended.  If you’re a huge Whitney Houston fan, you may like it more than I did.

J.A. Morris’ rating:

3 candy canes.  


RigbyMel says: 

I’d never gotten around to watching this version of this story until I started blogging about holiday movies and it was very interesting watching The Preacher’s Wife in proximity to The Bishop’s Wife for this review.    There were differences in emphasis evident from the change in time period to the focus on people of color.  

Some of these differences worked well  -- there were higher stakes in terms of Henry’s church being in disrepair and the subplot involving the teenaged parishioner in danger of being sent to jail for something he didn’t do.   

I also liked the subplot involving the small children -- Jeremiah, who is Henry & Julia’s son in this version, is dealing with his best friend Hakim moving away due to needing foster care.   The resolution here was perhaps a bit obvious,  but it’s a Christmas movie, and it’s sweet so I can’t really complain. 

The choice to make the Hamilton character a predatory real estate developer who holds out the prospect of a shiny new church in a gated community as a temptation to Henry was also a choice that resonated in terms of a more modern sensibility.   Gregory Hines was appropriately unctuous as the developer and I thought it was fascinating that Dudley chose to go for a much more direct A Christmas Carol-style spirit intervention in this version than did the Dudley in the 1940s iteration.  (Which ALSO has the Christmas Carol aspect evident, not quite as blatant.)   

Both the 1940s and 1990s films make music an important aspect of the story development, but due to the inclusion of Whitney Houston, it’s rather more prominent in the later version.   The gospel rendition of “Joy To The World” is truly joyous and is my favorite musical number from The Preacher’s Wife. 

However, some other choices like the decision to use the (admittedly adorable) Jeremiah as the narrator for the proceedings, do not work quite as well as I think the director and/or screenwriter would have hoped.   The narration comes off as ever so slightly cloying at times and feels unnecessary.  

That being said, this remake is an enjoyable take on the classic and worth a look should you have the time or inclination!

RigbyMel’s rating: 

3 candy canes