Tooned In: Yo, Yogi! (1991)

This week is the one year anniversary of MeTV Toons. So naturally, I’ll celebrate by….finally reviewing Yo, Yogi!

Between the Flintstone Kids and Pup Named Scooby-Doo reviews, you probably knew this was coming, though. In the sense that I had to do a Wendy and Marvin Super Friends episode sooner or later. It behooves me to do so as if I was Muffy Tepperman. So yeah, it’s the ‘90s, Muppet Babies is coming near the end of its original run, yet it’s still pretty big in syndicated reruns. What’s to do? If you’re Hanna-Barbera, make ANOTHER attempt at a cash-in. But this time, wrap it up in as much ‘90s neon and pop referencing as possible. Thus we got Yogi Bear and his friends as teenagers hanging out in Jellystone…Mall. They get into wacky situations and solve crimes that are usually caused by little Dickie Dastardly and A Pup Named Muttley. So basically a de-aged version of the Yogi’s Treasure Hunt format of Dastardly vs. the H-B Avengers. Well at least they didn’t have to deal with the villain pool from Yogi’s Gang, with such subtle characters as Dr. Bigot and the Wasteful Witch.

So let’s get this over with, erm, I mean, start the review.

Is it me, or does the chorus to the theme song sound like a knockoff of Un-Skinny Bop? As you’ll see, Yo, Yogi can’t make its mind up as to what pop culture trends of the time they wanted to embrace anyway. Today’s episode is JELLYSTONE JAM.

The gang is hanging out at the food court (called “The Picnic Basket,” so when Yogi says he wants “pic-a-nic baskets,” he means he wants mall food. BECAUSE NINETIES). Boo-Boo name drops the show calling to his friend, who is juggling with food and bragging it’s why he’s “more popular than the average bear.” So it’s more important to be popular than smart, checks out with ‘90s youth culture. Snagglepuss arrives and tells everyone that the rap superstar Magilla Ice will be in concert tonight.

Too soon for my tastes to encounter my second Robert Van Winkle reference doing these. And “Jellystone Jam” would make more sense if they reimagined Magilla Gorilla as a rock star, no? Regardless one of the major plotlines in this episode is introduced when we see that Cindy is in love with Magilla, while Yogi isn’t impressed. Then Augie Doggie arrives and announces that the mall is holding a contest for a lucky fan to spend the day with Magilla. First I recognize the “wrong sounding Elroy” voice from Jetsons: The Movie (as opposed to the REALLY WRONG SOUNDING Judy Jetson voice, thanks Tiffany!) so this sadly is post-Daws Butler. Second, Augie is pretty much the same age he is in Hanna-Barbera Universe Prime, yet the rest of the gang are now teenagers. Is Doggie Daddy really Augie’s Dear Ol’ Doctor Who? Come to think of it, if Augie Doggie’s name is Augie Doggie, shouldn’t DD’s real name be Daddy Doggie? Or is it Doggie Daddy Doggie? Oh by the way, on this show, DD is called “Diamond Doggie Daddy” for reasons. Well, I like Yo, Yogi as much as Scott liked DDP when he was reviewing Fall Brawl ‘96. And…I’m doing that thing where I try to talk about anything but the show, so that probably is telling.

So now we meet Roxy Bear, who seems to be if Cindy Bear and Oscar the Grouch banged, had a baby, and shat on it. Oh and despite being a punk girl, she has a valley girl voice like Jennifer from Square Pegs. Such is Yo, Yogi’s pattern of grabbing 2-3 random ‘90s tropes, mashing them together, and making a character. And I didn’t have fitting in two Square Pegs references in this review on my bingo card. Remember, just say no, kids. If only the cast of Square Pegs did, we could have had a season two, and if that ain’t an anti-drug PSA, I don’t know what is.

So Roxy and Cindy argue over who loves Magilla Ice the bestest, and Yogi says the point should be moot cause they should love him…after he literally grabbed them both by the neck and flung them off. Doggie Daddy brings out the Royal Rumble tumbler to pick who gets to meet Magilla, and Roxy hides in it to overload it with papers with her name. Why not just wait and ambush Magilla right then and there? Of course it backfires and they choose Cindy instead as Roxy gets dizzied from the spinning. Yogi ALMOST predates Young Justice by saying “he’s whelmed…” then he spoils it by explaining the joke “…as in, underwhelmed!” A very happy Cindy brags..wait for it…that Magilla is “COOL AS ICE.” I wish Rifftrax would roast this series too.

Returning to the villains, Roxy reveals that she actually has the Jeff Jarrett Plan in mind, using Magilla to get into the music business. Dickie Dastardly is here, and reveals his three-step plan to help her. Spoiler: all three steps are CHEAT. Which I’m pretty sure was a joke done to death on all the DiC shows I watched recently. And Dickie is obviously in his early teens because part of his body has yet to get longer and pointier. I MEANT HIS CHIN, OF COURSE.

How can such a heel have such a babyface?

Huckleberry Hound is into the music scene as well, only he as always is still singing My Darling Clementine. Meanwhile, Magilla and Cindy are on their date, and despite being the epitome of everything cool – no Arnold-style pun intended – he still acts like the classic Magilla Gorilla. Speaking of bad cold jokes, they do a ski simulation because Magilla being Magilla Ice, loves winter sports. The villains arrive and vow to mess with the “dweebaroons”. Only if they contain coconut, otherwise, they’re Dweebarons. And that reminds me, I’ve gotta do Rude Dog and the Dweebs some day. Despite being “a thing on TV” length, teenage Megabucks used to be obsessed with that show. They try to sabotage the machine, and even the control panel is totally ‘90s…

But Yogi comes in and tries to steal the show, then hilarity ensues. Dickie’s next attempt to kidnap Magilla involves a booby trapped camera, but again Yogi interferes and springs the trap on Dickie and company, saying that “It’s a snap” (TIME TO EXPLAIN THE JOKE) “as in snapshot!” Cindy has enough when Yogi butts in as they’re about to take the elevator, but while Cindy lectures him over his jealousness, they forget Magilla is left by the elevator door, where the villains help him do a Diana Muldaur imitation. Commercial break and DEAR LORD it’s the John Denver heart valve ad, AGAIN. MeTV Toons, I’m chill with you except for this and for running political ads.

Back to the show, and Dick wheels in a giant TV with Roxie inside ready to perform. Again, King Koopa already did it. Oh, and Magilla remarks, “3D TV is great!” On its own, just a dumb joke, whatever. However, Yo, Yogi was infamous for having a promotion with Kellogg’s (?) where you’d get 3D glasses when you bought their cereal, and you could use them during select scenes during the show. I wonder if this was supposed to cue watchers to use the glasses? I don’t recall anything about the scene being Friday the 13th Part 3 blatant, though. Dickie’s part of the plan is to make tons of money by forcing Magilla to sign autographs. This gets into Roxy’s presumed alone time with the rapper, though.

Meanwhile, with no Magilla, there can be no concert, and the mall-goers are not happy. The heroes have to keep the audience from rioting like John Cena winning at an ECW event, but more importantly, find the missing star. After being shamed by Cindy for causing the whole situation, Yogi agrees to help. A mini montage of searching shops ensues, starting at the mall pet shop, which oddly is NOT owned by Mr. Peebles. And I can see Magilla Ice’s main squeeze being a grown-up Ogee, actually. Wouldn’t be any stranger time warping as the Augie Doggie thing.

The mall cop (and doesn’t Ranger Smith appear reimagined as one?) tells Huck to sing his song to kill time, but stage fright causes him to literally go to pieces like the Pup Named Scooby-Doo gag, but with worse animation. Snagglepuss takes over when he realizes he’s the one who wants to be famous, but the crowd will have none of him nor his various musical reinventions, including “M.C. Hammerhead” which earns him flung fish that make him feel like he should be on…”Filet of Sole Train.” Again, different genres mashed together!

Yogi follows wet ink on one of the autographs and finds Dickie and Muttley, who throws him off the trail by claiming the heroes are the kidnappers, causing them to be chased by the fans. Somewhere in here, Dick had enough of Roxy’s complaining and throws her out. The gang finds her, when she admits to helping with the kidnapping and agrees to help show “where Ice is on Ice.” The heroes find it “Stone Cold cool,” yes, this show is making me keep asking “WHAT?!?” too. Disguising themselves as an exclusive club for villains, they trap Dickie and Muttley and Magilla is reunited with the gang. Back at the concert, the people actually like Huck’s singing and he jams with Magilla. Luckily, Clementine, Clementine Baby has that one extra note, so it can’t be a ripoff. All is forgiven between Yogi and Cindy, but now Roxy wants to compete for his attention!

The End. So yeah, definite regression from what Pup Named Scooby-Doo tried to do, and back to the safe area Flintstone Kids occupied: it’s your favorite characters but they’re younger! They make pop culture references for the appropriate decade!

In the meantime, once again, a happy first-year birthday to MeTV Toons! What can I say that I and its fans haven’t? I snapped up my Frndly account so I could enjoy it, and enjoy it I have for nearly a year. It brings back pleasant memories of Cartoon Network when it was in its Animation Library Phase, and a lot of memories that predated those (Popeye and Woody Woodpecker in the afternoon again, in particular). It’s been my new go-to trustworthy classics channel, moreso since Buzzr has been playing it safe for years now…thank goodness for Christian “Buzzerblog” Carrion and The Game Show Vault (formerly belonging to Wink Martindale…RIP…) But that’s a whole other story. Another perk is that MeTV Toons has given me something relatively useful to contribute here, of course. Keep bringing on the memories, Weigel! I’ll do my best to keep doing the same whenever I can.

And here’s a somewhat better example of combining Magilla Gorilla with popular music: