Yogi's Great Escape

Yogi's Great Escape is a telefilm produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and distributed by Great American Broadcasting as part of Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10. It first premered in syndication in 1987 and released on VHS November 19, 1987. Based on the popular cartoon series Yogi Bear. It also stars several other Hanna-Barbera characters.

One spring, Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo Bear awake from hibernation to discover three orphaned bear cubs left at the front door of their cave. Despite their initial reservations, Yogi and Boo-Boo take the bear cubs into their home and take care of them.

Meanwhile, Jellystone Park has gone over budget and the park commissioner orders Ranger Smith to close it down. This means that Yogi, along with the other bears at the park, must be sent to a zoo.

Because Yogi can't stand the thought of being cooped up in a zoo for the rest of his life, he hatches an elaborate escape plan. Salvaging car parts from a failed fishing expedition, he constructs a getaway "Supercar," complete with a picnic basket rumble seat for the three orphaned cubs. Together they make their escape from the park to find a new home.

After Ranger Smith initially fails to capture Yogi, he hires a professional trapper and his hound Yapper. However, it turns out that Trapper and Yapper are more of a hindrance to Ranger Smith's efforts than a help.

Yogi and his friends go through several adventures along their journey:

• Their first stop is at a watermelon patch. After eating their fill of watermelons, the bears retire to a seemingly abandoned tree house. It turns out to be the secret clubhouse of the Bike Brigade, three boys who ride bicycles and operate a shortwave radio. When the boys return, they believe the bears are alien invaders and attack them with their squirt guns. After Yogi surrenders, they recognize him and decide to help him in his escape. Using their radio, the boys call ahead to their cohorts in other clubs around the country to watch for Yogi and help him in his getaway.

• Next they find themselves in a western ghost town. Apparently the only remaining resident is the sheriff, Quick Draw McGraw, who mistakes Yogi and Boo-Boo for two bank robbers and throws them in jail along with the three cubs. The Lone Raiders, another club in league with the Bike Brigade, help spring Yogi from jail and capture the real robbers, who turn out to be close look-alikes to Yogi and Boo-Boo.

• Yogi and his friends then find themselves on the bayou. Wally Gator, another zoo fugitive, inhabits a spooky steamboat, complete with ghostly illusions intended to scare away zookeepers. He takes in Yogi and his friends and serves them a fabulous dinner. When Ranger Smith, Trapper, and Yapper show up, Wally and the bears attempt to scare them away. However, the sudden appearance of a real ghost makes everyone run for their lives. While the ghost pursues the hunters, Yogi and his friends are rescued by another club, the Swamp Foxes.

• The Supercar next stops at a carnival where the bears meet up with Yogi's old friend Snagglepuss. Snagglepuss hides the bears from Ranger Smith by disguising them in his stage show of Egyptian dancers. When Ranger Smith sees through the disguises, the bears escape to a hot air balloon and take off.

• As the balloon floats across the country, Ranger Smith and his cohorts follow in hot pursuit. After the Trapper and Yapper attempt to grapple the balloon from the top of Mt. Rushmore, they fall and are not seen again. The balloon finally snags on the antenna of the Empire State Building in a dense fog. Ranger Smith approaches the balloon in a helicopter and hands Yogi a telephone; the President of the United States tells Yogi that he is not going to let Jellystone Park close after all, and that Yogi and his friends may return to their home.

• The geyser Old Faithful
• Mt. Rushmore
• The Empire State Building

• Ranger Smith seems to go through several different jeeps during the movie.
• The film offers conflicting evidence as to whether or not Ranger Smith is bald.
• When Ranger Smith offers Yogi the telephone, the cord seems to be coming out of his hand.
• The VHS jacket credits three actors with providing the voices of the Swamp Foxes. In the movie there are only two members of the Swamp Foxes.

A platform video game based on the TV movie was released in 1990. It consists of six levels where Yogi has to dodge dogs, hunters, and Ranger Smith. It was published by Hi-Tec Software.

• Yogi's Great Escape at IMDb
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• Reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes
• On Answers.com
• On StarPulse.com
• Hall of Light: the database of Amiga games
• Information about the video game