Credits: Animation – Carlo Vinci; Layout – Mike Lah; Backgrounds – Fernando Montealegre; Dialogue and Story Sketches – Charlie Shows and Dan Gordon; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Cast: Yogi – Daws Butler, Hunter – Don Messick.
Released: November 13, 1958.
Plot: Yogi convinces a little hunter that he’s been shot and needs care and food. A call to the game warden ends that ruse.
Parents, don’t let your children view this animated bad influence on their tender young lives! No, not because there’s a bear hiding in a closed fridge and your kid may do the same thing. No, not because there’s a hunter shooting a gun at someone and your kid may grow up to join the NRA. It’s because of the shocking, obscene nudity! If you need proof, observe Yogi’s scene where he’s fully naked:
Oh, wait a minute. I grew up watching cartoons like this and I didn’t imitate what I saw. I’m sure the holier-than-thou, would-be censors can say the same thing. But that’s a debate for another day.
Though this was the seventh Yogi cartoon released, it has the feel of the very earliest ones. There’s no Boo Boo, no ranger, no Jellystone Park (there’s not even a mention of Yogi in the title card), but it has lots of off-model, jerk-from-pose-to-pose animation and background blocks of various shades of yellow. So it’s a lot more fun than a few years later, when H-B turned a comic hero into a love-sick sap.
Yogi runs into a nearby lake, where he taunts the hunter by saying “You missed me!” The animation proves otherwise, and we get a great short series of facial expressions from Yogi.
By the way, note how the trees are greener here. And look at the colour choice for the clouds.
Hunter: “Say, haven’t I seen you some place before?”
Yogi: “I don’t know. Ever been to Pismo Beach?”
Hunter: “Heavens, no.”
Ah, but the hunter’s not fooled, and we get more great facial expressions from Yogi before he runs away.
There are no in-betweens. Lah just goes from one pose to another.
Ah, but Yogi outsmarts himself by remarking “Feed a fever.” The alarmed hunter calls a doctor and learns the doctor is out bear hunting, then phones the game warden to confirm it really is bear hunting season. Gunshots chase Yogi out of the home as he Ed Norton-like remarks “Shee. What a grouch!”
The background music (including the Donna Reed theme, known as ‘Happy Days’ before Reed’s producers got ahold of it) is all from the Capitol Hi-Q library, save the ubiquitous ‘Toboggan Run’ from Langlois Filmusic.
0:00 - Yogi sub main title theme (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin).
0:15 - TC-404A HAPPY DAYS (Bill Loose-John Seely) – Hunter runs into Yogi.
1:22 - L-1158 ANIMATION COMEDY (Spencer Moore) – Yogi leaks.
1:37 - ZR-47 LIGHT MOVEMENT (Geordie Hormel) – Hunter goes past Yogi as deer.
1:48 - L-1154 ANIMATION COMEDY (Moore) – Hunter shoots at Yogi.
2:05 - F-5-20 TOBOGGAN RUN (Jack Shaindlin) – Hunter chases Yogi to a stop.
2:20 - TC-202 ECCENTRIC COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Yogi plugs hunter's gun.
3:41 - TC-201 PIXIE COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Yogi changes sign; fake death scene.
4:58 - ZR-51 LIGHT ANIMATION (Hormel) – Yogi rejects hunter's food.
5:58 - TC-432 HOLLY DAY (Loose-Seely) – Hunter learns Yogi duped him.
6:47 - F-5-20 TOBOGGAN RUN (Shaindlin) – Yogi runs from hunter's home.
6:59 - Yogi sub end title theme (Curtin).