Mike Lah animated the first Yogi Bear cartoon put into production (“Pie Pirates”) and picked up scenes in a number of others without any screen credit. His style was pretty distinctive, as he tended to draw Yogi’s mouth movements in profile the same way. His poses could be simple but you knew what Yogi was thinking.
Lah hooked up with Carlo Vinci in “Tally Ho Ho Ho,” which I presume was very early in the production as Yogi’s name isn’t on the title card and it opens with the Donna Reed Show theme, which was never used again by Hanna-Barbera. He takes over the animation about a third of the way into the cartoon where the Professor Gizmo-like hunter is outsmarted in a game of hide-and-seek by our wily hero.
Mike generally held a character in position during dialogue and moved the mouth around on the side of the face (with no tongue visible). He liked two or three upper teeth (and no lowers), long mouth lines and curves.
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Here are some of Yogi’s poses.
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I’ve posted the drawings from Yogi’s little dance and run before. The fourth drawing sure reminds me of a pose from an MGM cartoon.
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The early Yogis are enjoyable. No locked-in Yogi-vs-Ranger format. In fact, there was no Ranger Smith at all and Boo Boo appeared only on occasion. Yogi could be a funny character on his own—with the help of a fun story and poses by top ex-MGM animators like Mike Lah.
Lah hooked up with Carlo Vinci in “Tally Ho Ho Ho,” which I presume was very early in the production as Yogi’s name isn’t on the title card and it opens with the Donna Reed Show theme, which was never used again by Hanna-Barbera. He takes over the animation about a third of the way into the cartoon where the Professor Gizmo-like hunter is outsmarted in a game of hide-and-seek by our wily hero.
Mike generally held a character in position during dialogue and moved the mouth around on the side of the face (with no tongue visible). He liked two or three upper teeth (and no lowers), long mouth lines and curves.
Here are some of Yogi’s poses.
I’ve posted the drawings from Yogi’s little dance and run before. The fourth drawing sure reminds me of a pose from an MGM cartoon.
The early Yogis are enjoyable. No locked-in Yogi-vs-Ranger format. In fact, there was no Ranger Smith at all and Boo Boo appeared only on occasion. Yogi could be a funny character on his own—with the help of a fun story and poses by top ex-MGM animators like Mike Lah.