Grab your pic-a-nic baskets: It's a Yogi Bear movie!

In one of those I-really-wish-they-wouldn't-but-you-knew-they-were-going-to-anyway moves, hot on the heels of such successes as "Scooby-Doo" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (that's financial successes, mind you -- they were both crap), Warner Bros. is reportedly developing a big-screen, live-action/CGI feature film of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Yogi Bear," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Originally a supporting character on "The Huckleberry Hound Show," Yogi made his first appearance in 1958, and proved so popular that he was spun off to his own show in '61. "The Yogi Bear Show" (boy, that Hanna and Barbera sure knew how to title stuff) focused on the mischievous misadventures of porkpie hat-wearing brown bear Yogi and his buddy Boo-Boo, who want nothing more than to roam fictional Jellystone Park and steal picnic baskets. They're often chased by stern Ranger Smith, who I'm convinced in this movie needs to be played by self-professed bear hater Stephen Colbert.

Being before my time, I'm not particularly worked up about this potential bastardization of a classic cartoon. But this is sure to mess with somebody's childhood, and for their sake, and considering the track record of cartoon-to-movie transitions, let's hope this one is smarter than the average.

-- Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com