This year, rather than recap a Christmas cartoon that I've seen a thousand times, why not look at one I've never seen before? So, I set out across the internet to find a Christmas special that I'd be interested in but haven't seen or heard of before.
And then I found it: Yogi's First Christmas.
As I wrote about in last year's "My Top 5 Favorite Hanna-Barbera Cartoons" article, Yogi Bear is one of those characters I immediately fell in love with. I remember many afternoons at my Grandparents' house, lying on the floor watching old Yogi Bear reruns.
The original Yogi Bear ran in syndication from January 1961 to January 1962, with 33 episodes in total. After its cancellation, Yogi returned through various series, such as "Yogi Bear and Friends," "Yogi's Gang," and currently, "Jellystone!" on streaming service (HBO) Max.
When I discovered Yogi had a Christmas special, I immediately decided it should be this year's pick.
The video is accessible for free on archive.org and several places on YouTube.
You can watch it yourself below:
The first thing that struck me was that instead of the half-hour television special I was expecting, this was a full-length film that lasted one hour and forty minutes!
First airing in syndication through "Operation Prime Time" on November 22, 1980, this holiday special was initially split into four 22-minute episodes, airing over four straight days. The shorter run times made it more palatable for children with short attention spans and made it easier for the networks to sell advertising when viewers had to keep returning each day to finish the film.
Operation Prime Time was a group of independent television stations working together to develop prime-time programming instead of relying on the major networks for content. You can read more about it on its Wikipedia page here.
Written by Willie Gilbert and directed by Ray Patterson, this cartoon kept with Hanna-Barbera's simplistic, limited animation techniques. However, it was still more detailed and elaborate than their standard television shows.
Our movie opens as Ranger Smith drives Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie, and Doggie Daddy to Jellystone Park (misspelled "Yelystone" in the cartoon) for the Christmas Carnival at Jellystone Lodge. On the way, the gang laments that their good friends Yogi and Boo-Boo can't be with them since they are hibernating through the winter. Ranger Smith is pleased they won't be joining them, claiming the carnival had enough problems last year without Yogi meddling around.
Unbeknownst to them, the cause of last year's problems is a Christmas-hating grumpy hermit named Herman. When he sees them approaching from his mountain cave, he vows to drive them and the Lodge away for good.
When the guests are greeted by Mr. Dingwell, the hotel's manager, he informs them that the Lodge is in danger of being shut down. It has become unpopular due to last year's incidents at the Christmas Carnival. They no longer get many guests, and the city plans to build a freeway right through their property!
There is good news, however: Mrs. Throckmorton, the Lodge's owner, will be arriving soon to celebrate the hotel's final holiday festival. If she's impressed, she may decide to keep the hotel open. The friends eagerly agree to help make this the best Christmas festival yet and start playing music and singing.
Deep down below the Lodge, Yogi and Boo Boo sleep in a cave. The music wakes the two bears, who, hungry from their long nap, find their way into the hotel's kitchen. The chef, Otto, finds them rummaging through the pantry and puts them to work in the hotel, passing out desserts. Yogi runs into the Hanna-Barbera gang, and upon learning that he woke up in time for Christmas, he decides to stay awake to experience the holiday for the first time ever.
When Ranger Smith sees Yogi and Boo-Boo in the Lodge, he tries to take them back to their cave. Yogi and Boo-Boo escape in a snowplow, with Smith and Dingwell in hot pursuit.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Throckmorton is driving up the mountain to the Lodge with her bratty nephew, the appropriately named Snively. Suddenly, an icy patch on the road causes them to get stuck in a ditch, but Yogi and Boo-Boo use the snowplow to push them all the way to the Lodge. Impressed by his bravery, Mrs. Throckmorton orders Mr. Dingwell to promote them from waiter to bellhop. Ranger Smith vows to keep an eye on Yogi, who struggles to stay awake due to his natural instinct to hibernate.
Yogi and Boo-Boo inadvertently ruin Herman the Hermit's attempt to melt the ice just as the carnival's ice-skating competition begins. Snively tricks Yogi into entering the contest and gives Yogi his aunt's skates to use. When Ranger Smith sees Yogi with Mrs. Throckmorton's skates, he thinks Yogi stole them and tries to take him back to his cave. As Yogi runs away, he fumbles onto the frozen lake where the skating contest is ongoing. Although Snively earns high scores, Mrs. Throckmorton says (behind his back) that she wishes he would lose to fix his bad attitude.
Yogi accidentally ends up on the ice and manages a perfect ten, beating out an angered Snively. Later, in the hot-dog skiing competition, Snively tries to cheat his way to victory by unbuckling Yogi's skis.
An unsuspecting BooBoo fixes Yogi's skis, and Yogi wins the competition again. Mrs. Throckmorton demands that Mr. Dingwell promote Yogi from a bellhop to a ski instructor.
The group later practices their caroling for the Christmas Eve party, but the singing is way off-key. Mrs. Throckmorton says they need another female voice in the chorus, and Boo-Boo runs off to wake Cindy Bear out of her hibernation. She initially declines to help, but when Boo-Boo mentions that Yogi is leading the chorus, Cindy, who has a big crush on Yogi, immediately joins the gang.
After practice, the Hanna-Barbera gang joins Yogi for his first ski lesson. Mrs. Throckmorton takes the ski lift to Yogi's class; however, Herman the Hermit unplugs the ski lift cable, trapping her high on the lift. Not knowing how to ski, Yogi gets caught tangled on the ski lift, where he manages to rescue Mrs. Throckmorton. After seeing this heroic act, Ranger Smith takes a sleepy Yogi back to the Lodge and apologizes for trying to chase him away.
Later, during the ice-fishing contest, Doggie Daddy manages to catch a bigger fish than Snively. When Doggie goes inside the hut to warm up, Snively tries to get revenge by pushing the hut off the ice. Yogi catches him in the act and grabs the hut, causing Snively to fall into one of the ice holes.
Blaming Yogi for his troubles, Snively tattles on him to his aunt, but even she believes Snively needs to be taught a lesson. Furious, Snively storms out and runs away. The boy gets lost and winds up in Herman's cave. Upon learning the two hate Christmas and the Lodge, the pair decide to team up and ruin the Christmas Eve party.
During the search party, Mrs. Throckmorton organizes for Snively, Herman, and Snively, disguised as Santa and an elf, to sneak into the Lodge and steal the ornaments for the tree-trimming party. Yogi foils their escape, and with their plans ruined, Yogi is once again promoted to hotel manager. Mr. Dingwell was demoted to bellhop for the time being.
That evening, Huck, Snag, Augie, Daddy, and Cindy help Mrs. Throckmorton trim the tree for the party. Mrs. Throckmorton sends Yogi and Boo-Boo to the city to pick up orphans who have never had a Christmas vacation. When they return with the children, Mrs. Throckmorton announces she won't sell the Lodge but instead 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 will manage the Christmas Carnival from now on.
Yogi (and Boo-Boo) come down the chimney as Santa and an elf to pass gifts out to everyone. He even crowns Cindy Miss Jellystone Park and finally gives her that mistletoe kiss she wants.
Herman and Snively are forgiven and invited to the celebration, where they have a profound change of heart from the generosity and spirit of Christmas.
Amid the celebration, the real Santa falls down the chimney. Santa admits there were times that Yogi was not very good, like when he'd steal food from parkgoers, but he also saw that Yogi did much good during the year. Santa gives Yogi his very own picnic basket full of food, but before he can eat it, Yogi succumbs to his need to hibernate and falls asleep. Santa says he can have the basket when he wakes up in the spring and leaves.
With that, the rest of the gang returns Yogi and Boo-Boo to their cave to finish their hibernation for the rest of the winter as Yogi's First Christmas ends.
This movie was first released on VHS in 1983 through Worldvision Home Videos. It was later rereleased by Kids Klassics in 1986. Yogi's First Christmas was released on DVD as part of a Warner Archive Collection in 2009.
If you love Yogi like I do and want some Christmas-y fun with him and other classic Hanna-Barbera characters, this is a fun little movie to check out. It could have easily been a two-episode special, perhaps even a single 30-minute episode, but it has its moments that make me smile and even chuckle or two. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I'm sure you will, too. Merry Christmas!
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