Here’s a depressing piece of data: Yogi Bear has made almost $100 million at the box office. 2010 movies which haven’t topped $100 million include Black Swan, The Fighter, and The Kids Are All Right. Three of the four movies I just mentioned are likely to be nominated for Oscar’s best picture next week. The other one is Yogi Bear and, unlike those movies, it’s going have an impact on the kinds of films you’ll see in theaters over the next few years.
Since Yogi did so well financially What’s Playing says Warner Bros. is not only planning a Yogi Bear 2, but they’re looking to bring other Hanna-Barbera classics to the big screen. The top contender at the moment would seem to be Huckleberry Hound, a blue dog with a laid-back southern accent whose cartoons mainly revolved around him trying to do various jobs he was far from qualified for. Believe it or not, The Huckleberry Hound Show was the first cartoon ever to win an Emmy Award.
Back when I was a kid watching legitimately good cartoons like Tom & Jerry, or Rocky & Bullwinkle or Looney Tunes though, Huckleberry seemed pretty bottom rung, barely a step above that creatively bankrupt pile of crap The Great Grape Ape. It was certainly no Snorks, I’ll tell you that. Not that it matters, they’ve already ruined Rocky & Bullwinkle with a horrible live action film. The relative quality of the source material seems to have no impact on how these cartoon to live action movies turn out.
If there’s anything to be learned here it’s that like it or not, box office numbers matter. Spend your money wisely, the next time you show up at a movie theater.
