| “ | You mean, I woke up in time for Christmas? In that case, I'm gonna stay awake! I've always slept through Christmas! | ” |
— Yogi | ||
Yogi's First Christmas is a 1980 animated made-for-TV movie produced by Hanna-Barbera, spun off from The Yogi Bear Show.
Synopsis
The movie opens with Ranger Smith bringing Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy to Jellystone Lodge for the lodge's annual Christmas carnival. On the way over, Huck and the gang lament the fact that their friends Yogi and Boo Boo aren't able to join them, on account of they're bears and therefore are hibernating. However, Ranger Smith is fine with Yogi not being around, since the carnival already had enough problems without him last year. Unbeknownst to the group, the perpetrator in question, a grumpy Christmas-hating hermit named Herman, sees them driving by his mountain cave and vows to drive them away for good this year.
The gang celebrates Yogi getting to experience his first Christmas.
When the group arrives at the lodge, the manager, Mr. Dingwell, tells them the lodge is in danger of being shut down, as it has become unpopular as a result of last year's incidents. However, the lodge's owner, Sophie Throckmorton, has said that she won't sell the lodge if things run smoothly during this year's carnival. The group starts performing "Comin' Up Christmas Time" again, which wakes up Yogi and Boo Boo, whose cave happens to be right under the lodge. Curious about the noise, Yogi and Boo Boo head up to investigate and wind up in the lodge's kitchen. The chef, Otto, makes them waiters and orders them to go serve dessert to the guests. While passing out desserts, Yogi runs into the gang and, upon learning that he woke up in time for Christmas, he decides to stay awake so he can experience the holiday for the first time.
However, Smith, upon seeing Yogi and Boo Boo in the lodge, chases after them so he can take them back to the cave. Yogi and Boo Boo try to escape on a snowplow, with Smith and Dingwell pursuing them. Meanwhile, Mrs. Throckmorton is driving up to the lodge with her bratty nephew Snively, when they suddenly get stuck on an icy patch on the road. At that point, Herman the Hermit causes an avalanche that almost overtakes Mrs. Throckmorton's car, but Yogi and Boo Boo, still on the snowplow, push it out of the way. Impressed by their heroics, Mrs. Throckmorton orders Mr. Dingwell to promote them to bellhops, and Ranger Smith vows to keep an eye on Yogi (who, due to his natural instincts, repeatedly drifts off to sleep several times as the movie goes on).
Later, as everyone is getting ready for the carnival's ice-skating competition (during which Yogi and Boo Boo inadvertently foil Herman's attempt to melt the ice), Snively tricks Yogi into entering the contest and gives his aunt's ice skates to the bear without telling her beforehand. When Ranger Smith sees Yogi wearing Mrs. Throckmorton's skates, he thinks Yogi stole them and prepares to take him back to his cave. Yogi runs away from him, eventually making his way to the frozen lake where the figure-skating contest is going on. Although Snively earns high marks, Mrs. Throckmorton covertly wishes he would lose in order to tame his poor attitude. At that point, Yogi accidentally ends up on the ice and actually manages to get a perfect score, beating out a sore Snively, who sulkingly remarks that he never should've given him the skates, confirming Yogi's innocence to Smith. Later, in the hot-dog skiing competition, Snively tries to cheat his way to victory over Yogi by unbuckling the bear's skis. But again, Yogi manages to impress the judges and get the highest score without even trying, and Mrs. Throckmorton has Mr. Dingwell promote Yogi to ski instructor.
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Yogi and the gang rehearse singing "Deck the Halls".
Later, the group practices their caroling for the Christmas Eve party, but their singing sounds terrible, with Mrs. Throckmorton stating that what they need is another female in the chorus. Boo Boo runs off and wakes Cindy Bear out of her hibernation, requesting her help with the caroling. She initially declines, but when Boo Boo mentions that Yogi's leading the chorus, Cindy, due to her love and concern for Yogi, immediately changes her mind and joins the chorus.
After the caroling practice, Huck, Snagglepuss, Augie and Daddy join Yogi for his first ski lesson, while Mrs. Throckmorton decides to take the ski lift to Yogi's class. However, while she's taking the ski lift, Herman distracts Smith with a smoke bomb and then unplugs the ski lift cable, trapping Mrs. Throckmorton on the lifts. In the meantime, it becomes clear to Huck and company that Yogi does not actually know anything about skiing, so they decide to ski free-style down the hill. In the process, Yogi gets himself hanging onto the ski lifts, during which he manages to rescue Mrs. Throckmorton. Ranger Smith, upon seeing this heroic act, takes Yogi (who's fallen asleep again by this point) back to the lodge, quietly admitting that he's now glad he didn't take Yogi back to his cave.
Meanwhile, Boo Boo tells Cindy about the concept of mistletoe and how one must kiss whoever is standing under it. Thrilled at that concept, Cindy tries to get Yogi to kiss her under the mistletoe after he wakes up from his nap. Upon realizing what she's up to, Yogi attempts to escape in a bob sled, but is unable to steer it. In the process, though, he ends up rescuing Mrs. Throckmorton and the gang from a yeti (actually a disguised Herman). Having been saved by Yogi twice in the same day, Mrs. Throckmorton orders Mr. Dingwell to promote Yogi to the lodge's chief of security.
During the ice-fishing competition ("Ice-fishin'? Sheesh, who'd want to catch a piece of ice?"), Doggie Daddy manages to catch a longer fish (actually an eel) than Snively, and when Doggie goes inside the fishing hut to warm up, the brat tries to get revenge by pushing the hut away. Yogi catches him in the act and grabs the fishing hut, causing Snively to slip into one of the ice holes. Blaming the bear for this, Snively tattles on him to his aunt, but even she believes that he needed to be taught a lesson. Furious, Snively runs away and, upon getting lost, finds his way to Herman's cave. Upon learning that they both hate Christmas, Herman and Snively team up to ruin the Christmas Eve party.
When Mrs. Throckmorton finds out that Snively ran away, the gang goes looking for him, with Ranger Smith searching by air while Yogi leads the search party on the ground. During this, Herman and Snively, respectively disguised as Santa Claus and an elf, make their way into the lodge and steal the ornaments that are to be used in the tree-trimming party. They make their getaway by stealing Ranger Smith's helicopter, but Yogi ends up grabbing the bottom rails and brings the copter down. With the villains' plans foiled, Yogi is promoted to hotel manager for the duration of the party, resulting in Mr. Dingwell being demoted to bellhop for the time being.
That night, Huck, Snag, Augie, Daddy, and Cindy help Mrs. Throckmorton trim the tree for the party. Mrs. Throckmorton also sends Yogi and Boo Boo to the city to pick up a group of orphans who have never had a Christmas vacation and invite them to the party. After Yogi and Boo Boo return with the orphans, Mrs. Throckmorton announces that she's not going to sell the lodge after all, but rather turn it into a year-round vacation home for orphans. She also tells Mr. Dingwell that he'll be the manager again next year, but Yogi is going to be the Christmas carnival director from now on.
Yogi dressed as Santa.
Yogi then plays the role of Santa for the party and passes out gifts to everyone, including crowning Cindy as Miss Jellystone Park and giving her that mistletoe kiss she wanted. Herman and Snively are also forgiven and invited to the Christmas celebrations, and they have a profound change of heart at such generosity of spirit. Then in the midst of the festivities, Santa Claus plummets down the chimney and thanks Yogi for passing out gifts for all the orphans. He then gives Yogi a picnic basket full of food, but Yogi falls asleep, due to his natural instincts of hibernation. Santa then says that Yogi and Boo Boo can have the basket when they wake up in the spring and leaves. With that, the partiers, including the now-reformed Herman and Snively, return Yogi and Boo Boo to their cave for hibernation.
Notes
- Throughout the movie, Augie Doggie's winter outfit switches between being colored red and green.
- At one point during Yogi's ski lesson, Boo Boo mistakenly appears in place of Augie.
- One of the character names listed on the fishing contest's scoreboard is Mr. Jinks, Pixie and Dixie's feline adversary, despite the fact that neither he nor Pixie and Dixie actually appear in this movie.
- Yogi and Boo Boo were shown celebrating Christmas with their friends in Casper's First Christmas, released the previous year, so this movie is likely meant to take place before that special.
- Much of the background music in this movie is recycled from A Christmas Story and A Flintstone Christmas.
Home video releases
The movie was made available on VHS by Worldvision Home Video in 1989. It was released as a Warner Archive manufacture-on-demand DVD on November 17, 2009.
1989
November 17, 2009
2010
Reissue of the 2009 DVD.
October 31, 2011
Cast
| Voice actor/actress | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| Daws Butler | Yogi Bear Snagglepuss Huckleberry Hound Augie Doggie |
| Don Messick | Boo Boo Bear Ranger Smith Herman the Hermit |
| Janet Waldo | Cindy Bear Sophie Throckmorton |
| John Stephenson | Doggie Daddy Mr. Dingwell |
| Marilyn Schreffler | Snively Throckmorton |
| Hal Smith | Otto the Chef Santa Claus |
| Sue Allen Paul DeKorte Edie Lehmann Marilyn Powell John Richard Bolks Darlene Lawrence Ida Sue McCune Michael Redman Andrea Robinson |
Singers |
Videos
See also
External links
- Hanna-Barbera Wiki: Yogi's First Christmas
- Yogi's First Christmas at the Internet Movie Database
- Yogi's First Christmas at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Yogi's First Christmas at TV Tropes
- Yogi's First Christmas at Behind the Voice Actors
- Yogi's First Christmas at RetroJunk.com