Entertainment : From the Front Row of the Balcony: The best cartoon is at Palace now

    The best animated 3-D cartoon to ever cover the silver screen is in Vinton this week.

     You gotta see it. You just gotta.

     I am not talking about “Yogi Bear.” I will get to him later.

    Before the Yogi movie – based on the cartoon from a generation or two ago – there was another throwback in 3D: A Road Runner cartoon.

     “People say it was the best part of the movie,” said Marcy as I walked out of the theater Monday afternoon.

    I was already thinking the same thing.

    The adults in the audience – and I – laughed as we reminisced of the Saturday mornings we spent watching Wile E. Coyote’s desperate and incessantly unsuccessful attempts to catch the Road Runner.

    This version had the added humor of 3D effects, and a modern technology. The coyote was using a Segway. Adience members familiar with the Road Runner cartoons always know how it’s going to end, but the journey is worth it. I would love to see more of the Road Runner, as well as the other Looney Tune characters: Speedy Gonzalez, Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, Tweety and Sylvester, and that crazy Martian, in 3D. Oh, and Foghorn and Leghorn -- their antics would look amazing in 3D.

Yogi

    The critics hate “Yogi.” Much of the audience, too. Only 15 percent of the www.rottentomatoes.com critics and 43 percent of the audience (I assume this does not include the opinions of those under age 8) liked it.

    “The worst movie ever,” one person told Marcy.

     About halfway through, I remember feeling the same thing. It made me think that maybe I just was not in the movie mood. But later when I read how others reacted, it seems that my response is typical. I liked the movie better than most others, because the two main human characters, the ranger and Rachel, the documentary maker, have that kind of romance among scientific types (think “Big Bang Theory”) that I find entertaining. There is also some sincerely funny comic action as Yogi tries cartoon-inspired inventions to steal picnic baskets. I think it's the script and the plot that the critics and 57 percent of the audience found disappointing. 

The Story:

    Yogi Bear made his debut 40 years or so ago, as a cartoon bear trying to outsmart the rangers and escape the park. This may help you understand the competition between Yogi and Ranger Smith in the new version. But instead of fleeing the Jellystone Park, Yogi and his sidekick BooBoo are trying to find ways to steal picnic (pronounced Pic-a-nic) baskets from campers. But Yogi’s efforts have discouraged park visitors. The corrupt Mayor Brown sees this as his opportunity to enhance his political future by selling the park to a logging company.

     The Mayor and his incompetent sidekick show up and tell Ranger Smith that he has a week to raise nearly $40,000, or Jellystone Park will be closed and sold. The ranger plans to raise the money by staging a 100th year celebration for the park, and Yogi tries to help. But as usual, Yogi's efforts do not have their intended result, complicating the ranger's efforts.

Why you should go:

     Despite the horrible reviews, the movie does bring new life to an old cartoon character. The little kids laughed a lot. It reminds us of an age when cartoons were fun and innocent.

My favorite part:

    Two words: Beep! Beep!