I'm ashamed to admit that I went to see Yogi Bear, expecting to find perverse joy in its awfulness. Surprisingly, it was actually really funny and I enjoyed it in a completely non-ironic way. Of course, the actual storyline was pure Hollywood formula, and I found myself picking out the plot points I'd seen in other movies-- "here's the part where the hero loses confidence and is ready to give up until their friend gives them a motivational speech underscored by building sappy music"... "there's another throwaway joke that's going to become an important plot device later on"... "here's where the villain's gloating backfires and they accidentally reveal their evil intentions to the public," etc. But at least the cliches were done well, and if I was younger and less jaded (read: the intended demographic), I probably could have enjoyed them.
The humour was a lot smarter than I was expecting it to be from the trailers. There were one or two moments where I cringed (particularly at a rather half-hearted "ALVINNN!"-style scream from Ranger Smith at the end of the movie), but they were few and far between. Most of the time I was laughing with the movie, not at it, and laughing out loud, at that.
The characters were generally pretty spot-on in their writing, and as much as I still resent the casting of Ackroyd and Timberlake, they both turned in decent performances. Tom Cavanaugh was a pretty likeable Ranger Smith, and I loved how Anna Farris's love interest character kept calling him that throughout the movie. TJ Miller was fine as the other ranger. As pure designs, I still hate the way Yogi and Boo-boo looked, but in terms of functionality as part of a live-action movie, I have to admit that the artists did a good job of staying faithful to the classic original designs while adding all the fur, dirt, and textures they would need to blend into the real world. I certainly can't think of a better way of doing what they were trying to do (which sounds like a back-handed compliment, but I do mean it in a good way).
I'm not sure how I ended up enjoying the movie so much, when objectively I know I shouldn't have. I guess my expectations were just so low I couldn't possibly be disappointed. Still, I'd probably see it again if somebody asked me to.
