Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No (1966)
First, a quick update. As promised, I am sticking to my every other week schedule for the Abbott and Costello reviews, which means that the Keep ‘Em Flying will be released next Saturday, while tomorrow I’ll be releasing the third part of my “Looney Tunes at Capitol Records” series. Before I post that, though, there’s another cartoon record that I recently listened to that I’m interested in talking about: Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No. Just the idea of these characters meeting is very odd; were there really that many people dying to have the three idiots who couldn’t hold down a job meet the bear with an unhealthy addiction to picnic baskets?
Now, of course, the probable reason for this happening at all was because both the Three Stooges and Yogi Bear were popular throughout the 1960s. This may be the most commercial recording the Stooges ever made. In addition to relying on the novelty of the Three Stooges and Yogi meeting each other, there also was the presence of Dr. No-No, who claims to be the uncle of Dr. No, the title character from the first theatrical James Bond film in 1962. Even the title seems to be alluding to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which the Stooges actually had a cameo in). The Stooges themselves were no strangers to cartoons; they had recently starred in a series of television cartoons called The New 3 Stooges and Moe’s son-in-law, Norman Maurer, had created an animation process called CineMagic that was considered for use in Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. Maurer would even go on to work for Hanna-Barbera eventually, though was not working there at the time.
Why Yogi Bear, though? That’s not to say anything against Yogi, which I think is a decent cartoon, but the two don’t really seem to have all that much in common. Popeye, which was also popular in the 1960s, probably would have made more sense, given that both were made for theaters around the same time, both were making records for Golden around the same time as each other, and both had a heavier reliance on slapstick than The Yogi Bear Show (though in Yogi Bear’s defense, TV budgets and parental groups did not allow for much slapstick to be shown in cartoons at the time). While I would also question Hanna-Barbera’s decision to pair up Yogi with the Stooges...well, this is also the same company that thought it would be a good idea to put Fred Flintstone in their adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
Enough about that, though. What about the record itself? Basically, the Stooges are assigned to keep Yogi from escaping the park. Unsurprisingly, he outsmarts them, but eventually winds up at the laboratory of the mad Dr. No-No, who uses him as part of an experiment with a machine that can turn animals into other animals. Meanwhile, the Stooges chase after Yogi and eventually wind up at the mad doctor’s laboratory as well.
So first off, let’s address how the Stooges and Yogi play off each other. The problem here is that, really, they don’t interact all that much. They’re together for the first few minutes and briefly at the end, but for the most part they are separate acts throughout the record. What’s especially odd is that the cover seems to imply that both Yogi and the Stooges are together when Dr. No-No is talking about his evil plans, despite the fact that on the record, the Stooges don’t show up until after Yogi has been turned into a chicken. Yogi, in particular, feels weak here because he spends a good portion by himself, to the point that he basically talks to himself, rather than having a partner to work off of (I should mention that Boo-Boo is nowhere to be found on this record).
The Stooges lose something too in the record format. Remember that this is a group that relies a lot on visual humor and when doing verbal humor, it generally consists of a lame joke that is payed off with a well-deserved slap or head bonk. To the record’s credit, though, it does occasionally make use of sound effects to imply the punishment while at the same time actually managing to have some genuinely funny verbal moments on the Stooges’ part. There’s a particularly great moment where they fail to realize exactly what Dr. No-No means when he tells them he’s a mad doctor and try to have him examine Curly Joe.
Tying into that point, the voice work here is great. As expected, Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe all provide their own voices for this record and, even if they’re not really doing anything different than their Stooge voices, this record does show how impressive those voices can be. Curly Joe, who joined the group when they were past their prime, actually has a really funny moment where he screams after climbing an electric fence and it works because the scream is over-the-top in a way that’s very fitting for a cartoon. The Stooges seem to have been given better direction here than on their own cartoon series. In addition to reprising his role as Yogi, Daws Butler provides all of the other voices, showing off his versatility and why he rivaled other voice acting greats like Mel Blanc.
The music definitely is a product of its time, including an upbeat song specifically dedicated to Yogi. For what it is, the music’s alright, though somewhat generic. Sadly, the Stooges do not get a chance to sing on this record.
Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No is definitely one of the strangest Three Stooges productions I’ve come across, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. There are definitely creative moments in there from the Stooges themselves and it’s got some entertaining voice work. If you’re a Yogi Bear fan, I’d probably say just skip it since none of the side characters from the series appear and overall Yogi’s appearance is kind of limited, but if you’re a diehard Stooge fan, you might be able to find some entertainment out of this.
Now, of course, the probable reason for this happening at all was because both the Three Stooges and Yogi Bear were popular throughout the 1960s. This may be the most commercial recording the Stooges ever made. In addition to relying on the novelty of the Three Stooges and Yogi meeting each other, there also was the presence of Dr. No-No, who claims to be the uncle of Dr. No, the title character from the first theatrical James Bond film in 1962. Even the title seems to be alluding to It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which the Stooges actually had a cameo in). The Stooges themselves were no strangers to cartoons; they had recently starred in a series of television cartoons called The New 3 Stooges and Moe’s son-in-law, Norman Maurer, had created an animation process called CineMagic that was considered for use in Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. Maurer would even go on to work for Hanna-Barbera eventually, though was not working there at the time.
Why Yogi Bear, though? That’s not to say anything against Yogi, which I think is a decent cartoon, but the two don’t really seem to have all that much in common. Popeye, which was also popular in the 1960s, probably would have made more sense, given that both were made for theaters around the same time, both were making records for Golden around the same time as each other, and both had a heavier reliance on slapstick than The Yogi Bear Show (though in Yogi Bear’s defense, TV budgets and parental groups did not allow for much slapstick to be shown in cartoons at the time). While I would also question Hanna-Barbera’s decision to pair up Yogi with the Stooges...well, this is also the same company that thought it would be a good idea to put Fred Flintstone in their adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
Enough about that, though. What about the record itself? Basically, the Stooges are assigned to keep Yogi from escaping the park. Unsurprisingly, he outsmarts them, but eventually winds up at the laboratory of the mad Dr. No-No, who uses him as part of an experiment with a machine that can turn animals into other animals. Meanwhile, the Stooges chase after Yogi and eventually wind up at the mad doctor’s laboratory as well.
So first off, let’s address how the Stooges and Yogi play off each other. The problem here is that, really, they don’t interact all that much. They’re together for the first few minutes and briefly at the end, but for the most part they are separate acts throughout the record. What’s especially odd is that the cover seems to imply that both Yogi and the Stooges are together when Dr. No-No is talking about his evil plans, despite the fact that on the record, the Stooges don’t show up until after Yogi has been turned into a chicken. Yogi, in particular, feels weak here because he spends a good portion by himself, to the point that he basically talks to himself, rather than having a partner to work off of (I should mention that Boo-Boo is nowhere to be found on this record).
The Stooges lose something too in the record format. Remember that this is a group that relies a lot on visual humor and when doing verbal humor, it generally consists of a lame joke that is payed off with a well-deserved slap or head bonk. To the record’s credit, though, it does occasionally make use of sound effects to imply the punishment while at the same time actually managing to have some genuinely funny verbal moments on the Stooges’ part. There’s a particularly great moment where they fail to realize exactly what Dr. No-No means when he tells them he’s a mad doctor and try to have him examine Curly Joe.
Tying into that point, the voice work here is great. As expected, Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe all provide their own voices for this record and, even if they’re not really doing anything different than their Stooge voices, this record does show how impressive those voices can be. Curly Joe, who joined the group when they were past their prime, actually has a really funny moment where he screams after climbing an electric fence and it works because the scream is over-the-top in a way that’s very fitting for a cartoon. The Stooges seem to have been given better direction here than on their own cartoon series. In addition to reprising his role as Yogi, Daws Butler provides all of the other voices, showing off his versatility and why he rivaled other voice acting greats like Mel Blanc.
The music definitely is a product of its time, including an upbeat song specifically dedicated to Yogi. For what it is, the music’s alright, though somewhat generic. Sadly, the Stooges do not get a chance to sing on this record.
Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No is definitely one of the strangest Three Stooges productions I’ve come across, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. There are definitely creative moments in there from the Stooges themselves and it’s got some entertaining voice work. If you’re a Yogi Bear fan, I’d probably say just skip it since none of the side characters from the series appear and overall Yogi’s appearance is kind of limited, but if you’re a diehard Stooge fan, you might be able to find some entertainment out of this.
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