Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10 collects 10 made-for-TV animated films that aired on The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, a syndicated program that premiered in 1985. As the title indicates, these 10 films star some of the biggest names from the Hanna-Barbera roster.
Yogi’s Great Escape (1987) – Yogi and Boo Boo awaken from their winter hibernation. Thinking they have found a pic-a-nic basket, they actually find it filled with three cute young bears, which is trouble at the offset because they are annoying. Jellystone Park has to close due to being over budget, and inexplicably, this means Yogi has to go to a zoo. Refusing the transfer, Yogi, Boo Boo, and the young bears hit the road in a make-shift vehicle Yogi builds. Ranger Smith hires a professional trapper named Trapper and his bloodhound Yapper to retrieve the bears whose escape is assisted by the Bike Brigade, a trio of young boys. On their journey, they encounter Quick Draw McGraw, Wally Gator, and Snagglepuss. With the addition of the young bears, the story is juvenile and doesn’t have the broader appeal for adults that the original Yogi cartoons did. (Unfortunately, this critique applies to many of the movies in this set.)
Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987) was the first full-length movie in the Scooby-Doo franchise. Shaggy heads to a southern plantation to learn what he will inherit from his late Uncle Beauregard. He is accompanied by Scooby-Doo and his nephew Scrappy-Doo. Fred, Daphne, and Velma do not appear. As if dealing with a feuding neighbor whose sister is attracted to Shaggy and an ape escaped from a circus train weren’t enough, the plantation may be haunted. Ghost exterminators are called, but the Boo Brothers, whose characterizations are based on the Three Stooges, are ghosts themselves. This was the first time I had seen the Scooby gang interacting with the supernatural as they usually encounter human bad guys pretending in order to scare people away. The Boo Brothers are annoyingly silly.
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987) is such a no-brainer of a concept it’s a surprise it took so long for this crossover to happen. Elroy Jetson builds a time machine, and the Jetsons accidentally travel to the past where they meet the Flinstones and the Rubbles. The Jetsons’s maid, Rosie the Robot, attempts to retrieve the Jetsons but instead brings the Stone Age families to the future. In a fun bit of symmetry, George works with Fred’s boss, Mr. Slate, while Fred works with George’s boss, Mr. Spacely. Meanwhile, Barney gets a job with Spacely’s main competitor, Cogswell, causing a rivalry between he and Fred.
This is a fun movie because writers Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg understand the characters and how they relate to each other. The plotting is also well done, setting the characters in new situations while having them stay true to who they are, and setting up the conflict of the time machine breaking, which could strand everyone in the wrong time.
Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose (1987) – With a title that screams “product placement,” this seems like a sequel to the Yogi’s Gang TV series where the characters unite and solve problems. Tour guide Yogi takes Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie, and Doggie Daddy on a tour of Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose, housed in Long Beach, CA. They get locked in the plane at closing time, and when they try to get out, Yogi accidentally starts the plane. There appears to be some kind of magic occurring from the art and soundtrack, maybe even fairy dust, and off they go on a series of adventures.
They go to save thousands of South Pole animals in need of food, and then rescue animals trapped on a cruise ship. Yogi breaks the fourth wall and asks the kids watching at home to clap and believe in doors to appear on the Spruce Goose to help in their mission. On an island, they find Mumbly and the Dread Baron. The villains promise to be good, throw a party, but trap Yogi and friends in the cargo hold. They take the plane to the island of Mula Mula where Dread is considered a god they worship called Mala Koola from his appearance. He tries to steal their gold, but Yogi and the gang save the day. The movie is pretty corny with Yogi as a do-gooder and no longer the mischievous stealer of pic-a-nic baskets.
Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats (1988)sees the gang transported to Beverly Hills where they help a teenager named Amy claim her inheritance. Posing as Boy Scouts trying to make money, Benny helps a poor old lady, who is really Mrs. Vandergelt, a rich lady pretending. She doesn’t know her niece’s whereabouts, but the audience Amy is working in a car wash. After Mrs. Vandergelt dies, she puts Benny’s name in her will. Vandergelt’s butler Snerdly and the Muttley-esque dog Rasputin try to kill Benny so they’ll be next in line to the inheritance, reminiscent of the Top Cat episode “The Missing Heir.” Although the story involves bad guys planning Benny’s murder, this movie is for a younger audience. And being that it was made in the late ’80s, Top Cat and the gang rap. It ain’t good. (Don’t blink or you’ll miss the Flinstones and Rubbles at their Beverly Mansion).
The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound (1988) – Huckleberry Hound, repeatedly referred to as steely-eyed and silent type, is a cowboy out west as the California Gold Rush commences. He is going to settle down and become a goat and pig farmer, but he has to deal with the villainous Dalton Gang whose brother Stinky is put away for 90 Days.
The show is stacked with other H-B characters, Hokey Wolf is the Mayor of Two Bit, CA. Peter Potamus is a captain of a ship. Muttley, Doggie Daddy, and Super Snooper appear in the audience when Huck is selecting a prize at the bank. Snagglepuss is a piano player at the Rusty Nail Saloon. Bank President Quick Draw McGraw works with his assistant Baba Looey. Yogi and Boo Boo make a couple appearances, one looking for food from Huckleberry. Magilla Gorilla is a TV reporter, even though it’s 1849.
After the Mayor makes Huck the town sheriff, the movie becomes High Noon as everyone turns against him. About two-thirds of the way through, there is a recap of the story. Then it seems as if a whole other movie happens as the Dalton gang sends Huck off on a rocket ship. He lands among a Native American yellow dog tribe and has amnesia, another familiar Western trope. He wants to marry the chief’s daughter, Desert Rose, but has to pass initiation into tribe, which no one has survived yet. His horse shows up to revive Huck’s memory and tells him of Dalton gang running Two Bit, requiring Huck to return to save the day.
It’s fun seeing the characters in a different setting and the story referencing different movies. Although, the writers stole a Steve Martin joke from at least 10 years prior when Huck thanks everyone in the audience individually.
Rockin’ with Judy Jetson (1988) – Judy Jetson is gaga for intergalactic rock star Sky Rocker. She wrote a song that she wants to get to him. Evil Felonia Funk (Ruth Buzzi) is in search of a code to find the element Megagamma 12 to power the Mental Flosser, a device that will rid the universe of music because she hates it so. Naturally, the code and Judy’s song get switched.
Judy’s song is a bunch of nonsense words, reminiscent of “Eep, Opp, Ork, Ah-ah! (Means I Love You)”. When Sky sings it, everyone wants to talk to Judy. George is worried about Judy’s new fame. He goes undercover, and the funniest part of the movie is seeing him poorly posing as young and hip. George gets arrested and Judy gets kidnapped before Felonia’s flunkies can get their hands on her. The Zoomies, another alien race, dig rock and roll and the Megagamma 12 is hidden on their planet. This seems a backdoor pilot for a series that would have the Zoomies battling Felonia.
Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988) – Scooby and Shaggy and Scrappy-Doo are hired as gym teachers at Miss Grimwood’s Finishing School for Girls, a school for daughters of supernatural creatures, primarily the Universal Monsters.Sibella is Dracula’s daughter, Elsa Frankenteen is Frankenteen Sr.’s (the monster not the doctor) daughter, Winnie is the Wolfman’s daughter, and Tanis is the Mummy’s daughter. There is also Phantasma, the daughter of a ghost. There’s a great sequence when the fathers visit the school.
There are fun diversions, such a volleyball match against the Calloway Military Academy, but the real conflict comes from Revolta the witch who wants the girls to become her slaves, which seems like an odd choice because their dads are the last ones anyone would want to make mad. Revolta hypnotizes Shaggy to help her catch the girls. There is also the Mirror Monster who can become evil versions of those who gaze into it. This also seems like it was intended as a pilot for the girls at Ghoul School.
The technology involved with animated movies was changing at this point as the last two entries start with a mention that they were “produced using an early form of digital ink and paint, and was output to a final 1” videotape master, with no film protection.” The most notable difference is objects appearing on different planes.
Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988) is another outing with the classic monsters but there’s no continuity between the movies and the script feels hastily put together. (Shaggy with a girlfriend?) Every year, Dracula gathers “all the monsters of his realm” for a Monster Road Rally but Wolfman has retired to Florida. For some reason, all the monsters must take part. Making even less sense is an old book tells how a new werewolf can be created every 500 years. Inexplicably, the book has a picture foretelling it will be Shaggy. (Huh??)
Dracula sends out “The Hunch Bunch,” twin monsters with one civilized and the other not, to make Shaggy a werewolf and bring him to the race. Once Shaggy becomes a monster, the movie becomes like the Hanna-Barbera show Wacky Races. If Shaggy loses the race, he remains a werewolf under Drac’s power. The sequence when the monsters turn on each other is the funniest part.
Reluctant Werewolf has a Special Feature: Scooby Goes Hollywood (49 min), which originally aired on ABC on December 23, 1979 to celebrate the series’s 10th anniversary.The original Scooby-Doo gang are filming a TV show. Shaggy tells the studio boss he wants wants more for Scooby, so Scoob appears in a western TV pilot and shoots a roller-skating film. The special is packed with ’70s pop-culture references.
Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears (1988) is the last of the Superstars 10 and a sequel to The New Yogi Bear Show (1988). It is notable for being the last Hanna-Barbera cartoon with Daws Butler as the voice of Yogi Bear, but it’s unfortunate that it’s not a very good movie. Yogi and Boo-Boo are kidnapped by aliens, who make clones of Yogi and Boo Boo. The fake bears are intended to help the aliens invade Jellystone (though why is not clear). The originals are jettisoned into space within a plastic bubble, but have no fear as Yogi can breathe in outer space and fly an alien spaceship, which he takes back to Earth. The movie drags to a halt when Cindy Bear sings a love song about missing Yogi. “The Space Bear Shuffle” is also bad.
Invasion has a Special Feature: Yogi’s Ark Lark, the pilot for Yogi’s Gang, is the first time a large number of Hanna-Barbera characters appeared in one story, and it is fun to see them together. The gang are on the lookout for the “perfect place” to live. They ask handyman Noah to build them an ark then travel the planet and even go out into space. The show has an environmental message and offers the lesson rather than run and find a clean place one should clean up one’s home. Cheaply made, the show show recycles animation and songs.
The video of the movies are presented in 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed in the original aspect ratios of 1.33:1. Colors appear in strong hues and the blacks are inky. Image looks clean, free of dirt and defect. The audio is available DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Dialogue is clear as are the music and effects. The track sounds free of hiss and wear.
Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10 is a good collection of movies for young cartoon-watchers. Fans of the characters’s original cartoons might find them too juvenile, but they are pleasant children’s entertainment.
