"Jellystone!" Series Talkback (Spoilers)

[RoyalRubble]

Welcome to Jellystone!
​

Jellystone!
Series Debut - July 29, 2021 (on HBO Max)

Synopsis: Yogi, Boo Boo and Cindy, alongside an epic ensemble cast of Hanna-Barbera characters, are returning to television screens in the all-new animated comedy, Jellystone! The Max Original series, helmed by acclaimed showrunner and executive producer C.H. Greenblatt (Chowder, Harvey Beaks) and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, presents a reimagined take on these beloved characters, modernizing them for today’s family audience and introducing them to a new generation of fans.

Set in the charming town of the same name, Jellystone! follows an ensemble of Hanna-Barbera characters as they live, work, play, and (as is often the case) destroy the town in some silly way together. Huckleberry Hound proudly serves as the town’s mayor; Cindy, Boo Boo and Yogi are the town’s medical staff; Jabberjaw works at Magilla’s clothing store where they supply all the bow ties and hats to the town’s citizens; and every character has a specific role in the community. Their paths cross in fun and ridiculous ways, turning everyday activities into hilarious pandemonium.

Greenblatt serves as showrunner and executive producer, and voices several characters including Doggie Daddy, Boo Boo, Peter Potamus and Benny. Joining him in this talented voice cast includes:

• Jeff Bergman, the voice of Yogi, Mr. Jinks, Wally Gator and Lippy the Lion
• Jim Conroy, the voice of Huckleberry Hound, Captain Caveman, Pa Rugg and more
• Georgie Kidder, the voice of Augie Doggie, Brain and Floral Rugg
• Grace Helbig, the voice of Cindy Bear, Yappy, Taffy and Granny Sweet
• Niccole Thurman, the voice of Jabberjaw, Squiddly Diddly and Dee Dee Sykes
• Thomas Lennon, the voice of Top Cat
• Ron Funches, the voice of Shag Rugg
• Bernardo de Paula, the voice of El Kabong and Mildew Wolf
• Dana Snyder, the voice of Snagglepuss, Touché Turtle and Lambsy
• Katie Grober, the voice of Yakky Doodle
• Paul F. Tompkins, the voice of Magilla Gorilla
• Jenny Lorenzo, the voice of Bobbie Looey, Hardy Har Har and Choo Choo
• Fajer Al-Kaisi, the voice of Shazzan and Hadji
• Lesley Nicol, the voice of Winsome Witch
• Ulka Simone Mohanty, the voice of Loopy De Loop
• Andrew Frankel, the voice of Fancy Fancy and Jonny Quest.

Comments?

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Related links:
"Jellystone" (HBO Max) News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

 

[wiley207]

So apparently Hacienda Post is doing the sound editing on this series, credited under their housing facility "Sabre Media Studios." This isn't too surprising, given Hacienda did the sound editing for "Chowder" and "Harvey Beaks" as well. This is a good thing, since Hacienda is fond of using Hanna-Barbera's classic sound effects a lot, though here it's not as retro-oriented as when they used them on "The Flintstones On the Rocks," the 2001-2003 "Dexter's Laboratory" episodes and "Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico."
Also, the show surprisingly does NOT use that throwback Hanna-Barbera logo seen at the end of the Jetsons/WWE crossover movie, the "Wacky Races" reboot or "Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs." It just has the WB Animation logo at the end. I guess they decided to retire that logo due to Cartoon Network's European production arm being rebranded as Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe and using a similar throwback logo (and they have no involvement with "Jellystone," either.)

 

[MarshalGrover]

I'm not 100% on the changes to voices and personalities (don't really care about the gender-swapping, but Magilla I'm not crazy about). Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy work for me though.

 

[Zanneck]

I don't mind any and all gender changes. In fact, some of these characters could stand to be female anyway, IMHO.

Back on target, otherwise - is this show better than its less than stellar artstyle lets on? I mean, I expect nothing but some semblance of victory from the man behind the truly underrated classic that Harvey Beaks was, even though, again, that questionable art style quality...

 

[zoombie]

Didn't expect the gender flips. I guess Hanna Barbara had a gender balance issue. I never realized till now.

I like that Cindy is part of the gang now, I wonder will they do a Goldielocks and the Three Bears parody? If so, I think Augie is an ideal Goldielocks.

 

[The Cartoon]

Okay so I'm only one episode in so far but I actually feel pretty good about the series so far. I'm a massive fan of the original Hanna Barbera cartoons and don't think there's anything sacrilegious happening here. The gender-bending was extremely important given the gender disparity of HB cartoons. I came in with low expectations because the trailers just didn't seem... funny. But the finished product has a quickness that makes the humor work for me, and feel more like a modernized version of classic cartoons. I definitely want to watch more for a full takeaway.

 

[Mostezli]

I'm just breezing through these episodes. Great to have another WB/CN show worth watching.

 

[Perla Magica]

The show itself is really fun and enjoyable, it was a plesant surprise to see a mix between most-known and some obscure characters in one show. Also having The Flintstones cameos in two episodes on a row - masterpiece.

The humor was great but I wish it could have more Chowder-like humor because the second segment in the first episode had some 4th wall break moment.

I also really like the gender-flip twist this show made, I already like JabberJaw and Loopy de Loop as female characters. The show also did a good job with The Banana Splits as the gang of villians, at least they're not murdering people anymore here, am I right?

As for my favorite episodes, every Augie and Daddy episode or Top Cat and his gang episode is pure gold, I liked "Boo Boots" too. And honestly, I can't wait for the next 10 half-hours.

 

[Draco Dracul]

This is a lot of fun. Even though it doesn't have as much meta humor as Chowder it has a lot of the manic energy I love about that show. The idea of Yogi Bear as a doctor is just inherently funny to me.

 

[JMTV]

Here's my first impressions on Jellystone.

The first episode was................interesting. While I do like the animation, and the characters designs look pretty cute, but everything else just so.....weird.

The first half was pretty dumb. Yogi Bear has a nuclear stomach, thanks to Cindy Bear, and he can eat anything uncontrollably. I'm like, what? Auggie Doggie singing that annoying song really make me cringe. The plot was very predictable. The jokes wasn't all that funny. Something about it just feels off to me. The only good joke I like was the "Yo Yogi" joke. That give me a giggle.

The second half was dull to me. The pacing was so awkwardly put together, and the "food coma" joke dragged on for way too long. Finally, I saw the ending coming from a mile away.

Yeah, as you could tell, I'm not really impressed with it. I really wanted to like it since I thought it was great idea to have all of the Hanna Barbara characters set in a CN City-like environment. Instead, it feels very underwhelming.

But then again, that just the first episode. Maybe my opinions can change once I saw more episodes. For now on, I'm gonna be watching more tomorrow so I can give out my final opinion on Jellystone.

For now, I thought it was just "eh". Not bad, but could've been better.

 

[Jonwo]

I find it amusing that some of the Scooby clones make appearances in Jellystone but you can bet your bottom dollar that Scooby Doo is off limits...

If they want to go really obscure then Inch High, Private Eye wouldn't be a bad shout or The Galloping Ghost gang

 

[Ghoster1987]

i'm honestly glad that the Scooby Doo characters don't make an appearance in this show after WB constantly making new Scooby Doo incarnation after another and basically throwing all the other HB characters in the attic since the 1996 Turner merger

I really don't mind the gender swaps for some characters as long if it's not too jarring and they can make it work

Also Is it me or Huckleberry almost sounds like Matthew Mcconaughey?

 

[Zanneck]

I'll firstly admit it's no replacement for Greenblatt's true magnum opus (which is Harvey Beaks, IMHO), but it is thankfully more engaging/reasonably funny enough than the less than stellar artstyle choice might have let on for me (again, all IMHO.)!

With that all said, it's a Mid High Tier from me; surprisingly better than most reboots of old-school fare people tend to obsess over way too much, but not every episode here was a winner for me like they could have been, so I can't rank it too highly.

So, outside of here and some people liking it on TVTropes, of course everyone else is sadly coming down on it, because "muh nostalgia", or something else like that and not much else to back it up, in terms of real discussion worth something... As usual, forget/don't engage the haters.

All of this is coming from someone who preferred "classic era" Looney Tunes/MGM fare that isn't just Tom & Jerry over anything Hanna-Barberra.

If anything, this new show is an improvement over the old-school fare and how overly repetitive and predictable it was at the least of times, simply because I can tell that these writers were actually having fun with what they're working with, rather than just meeting some mandates like the old-school fare unfortunately was at the time. Hence why most of Hanna-Barberra's stuff that wasn't truly popular is mostly forgotten (hard as that is for some nostalgia-obsessed folk to truly accept anymore!), BTW.

 

[Pooky]

I've watched a handful of shorts, not the first handful mind you (although I did start with the first) but a handful that most appealed to me.

I should say I come to this as a fan of the early years of Hanna-Barbera; I like everything from 1958 up to around the end of The Jetsons and the third season of The Flintstones in 1963. I know that stuff is out of fashion now, and there are a legion of criticisms for them, many of them valid, some I might even agree with. But I like them.

Is that a positive or negative when it comes to this series? Hard to say. It's clear the people making this have a lot of affection for HB and have a lot of fun bringing in everything they can, but it's is not, to say the least, beholden to the approach or characterisations of anything that came before. It's kind of like a Hanna-Barbera madlibs, not only in how off the wall much of the humour and plots are, but in how the characters are used and interpreted. Hey, what if Yogi was a doctor, and Brain were actually smart (but still with a permanent non-plussed expression, which is actually pretty funny), and El Kabong were actually cool and seemingly not the alter ego of Quick Draw McGraw or anyone else but wore a mask all the time anyway, and Ruff n Ready were children now and also robots? Huckleberry and Augie Doggie are on point, but most of the characters are either very loose adaptations or basically completely different characters.

Taken on its own merits I think it's mostly a pretty easy watch (although the final scene of the final episode left kind of a bad taste). Some of the gags, like the extend Anime parody with Yogi and Huck, feel a bit too similar to other, better bits from recent(ish) shows, but I got a decent number of laughs at a fairly decent rate.

Ultimately I think this isn't for me, and I don't think I'll be watching more in a hurry, but I also kind of liked it and may well find myself returning to it sooner than I think. I actually found Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs to be a cleverer and funnier modernisation of vintage Hanna-Barbera tropes than this, but I accept I may literally be the only person on earth who thinks that.

 

[powerjake]

The characters they gender swapped in Jellystone now become cheap DeviantArt OC's.

 

[JMTV]

Okay, so today I watched the entire series of Jellystone on HBO Max. I saw the first episode yesterday, and I thought it was very underwhelming. The jokes are more misses than hits, the pacing was so awkwardly put together, and the characters didn't really do it for me.

Has my opinion changed? Well,.........only slightly. Everything else? Still remains the same.

Let's talk about the positives.

I like the animation. It's very solid, very fluid, and even though it can be a bit choppy at point, but it adds the charm.

I do like the character designs. They look really cute. Once again, CH Greenblatt is back in his A-game. I would say it did give me that Harvey Beaks vibes, but when I look at the eyes, it did remind me of Chowder a bit.

Another thing I really like about the show was it's concept. All Hanna Barbara characters coming together in one big city. I thought was a great idea. Imagine if Cartoon Network City, was filled with Hanna Barbara characters, as a TV show? It worked so well.

Also, it's really neat to see ALL Hanna Barbara characters being represented in this show, even the obscure ones rather than just the popular ones. If they really want to make a full on Hanna Barbara tribute series, why not just go all out? Hell, I did not expect The Biskits (out of all things) to show up in Jellystone. That's pretty cool. I really hope they add 2 Stupid Dogs and Secret Squirrel in the near future, but I know it's not gonna happen. Nonetheless, at least the HB characters were better represented than say, SCOOB. Speaking of that, I'm glad they didn't include Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo because 1. it would've been so out of place. 2. they already taken too much of the spotlight. 3. Ruby Spears created Scooby Doo, Hanna Barbara are just the producers and even though Tom and Jerry were created by HB, they were produced by MGM. The Flintstones, I'll give it a pass.

This may sound controversial and I do heard that a lot of people had a problem with it, but I actually don't mind turning some of the Hanna Barbara characters into females. I can understand that it can a bit jarring for a lot of people, but as long as they do it right and add some changes that makes sense, then I'm perfectly fine with it. Besides, it's always a good thing to change things up.

Finally, The Banana Splits as Gang Green Gang-esque robbers? Genius. It's probably one of the better takes of The Banana Splits in recent years, more so than the live action movie in 2019.

With the positives out of the way, here's the negatives.

I don't like the intro. The music was bland, and the whole presentation feels lacking to me. Compared to Harvey Beaks' intro, or hell, even Chowder's intro, it feels like a step down.

I find the show very boring. The stories are so generic and unengaging that it didn't really do it for me. I almost fell asleep when I watched it.

The pacing was a bit sloppy. Sometimes it goes fast, sometimes it goes slow. It didn't feel very consistent.

The new takes on the HB characters in the show were pretty weak, in my opinion. It's one thing to have Yogi Bear, Boo Boo Bear, and Cindy Bear to work at a hospital and Banana Splits being burglars, but having Huckleberry Hound as a mayor, El Kabong as a teacher, Auggie Doggie, Yakky Doodle Ducky, and Shag Bear as stereotypical annoying kids, Ruff and Ready as robot kids, Squiddly Diddley and Jabberjaw being stereotypical valley girls, Loopy de Loop as a French woman, Brian as a goth girl, Snagglepuss as a news reporter, Spook/Spooky as a silent, but deadly character, Magilla Gorilla as a nerd, Choo Choo was just..........there. The Hillbilly Bears work at a restaurant, Jonny Quest and Hadji as a married couple, and Peter Potamus as an anime weeb, really makes me roll my eyes, down to the point I feel annoyed by them. I don't mind those kind of changes, but I felt it worked better with much better writing.

The sentimental moments can be a bit cheesy for me mostly because it'll end on a stupid joke, and it didn't feel all that genuine.

The voice acting were nothing to write to home about it either. While the voice actors did a good job, but their performances didn't stick out to me. I would say Jeff Bergman is the best current voice for Yogi since it does stay true to the original. I wasn't too crazy about Dana Snyder's voice for Snagglepuss because he reminded me of Mung Dall from Chowder. The worst one for me was Huckleberry Hound. Nothing against Jim Conroy, but I'm sorry, his take on Huckleberry was so boring and bland that I just did not really care for him. Don't get me started on Auggie Doggie. While everyone else is fine, but there some that were better than others.

Finally, the humor and the modern day references. Dear god, where do I start?

My biggest pet peeves when it comes to modern cartoons is adding social media references and modern slang and dance moves just to try to be hip and cool with the kids. I find them super cringe-worthy, obnoxious, unnecessary, and it's going to date your show very very fast. Keep in mind, animation takes a long time to produce. What's trendy and hip back then when the show was greenlight and produced, seems dated now when the show was released. It's funny because, people complain about Yo Yogi with their dated references with 80's and 90's pop culture, but the sad thing is, Jellystone is no different than Yo Yogi when it comes to making pop cultural references and social media. Hell, there was a freaking anime parody in one episode. I know the Animaniacs reboot done the exact same thing, but at least it looks cool. This was just...out of place.

And then there's the toilet humor. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why in the hell that this show thought it was a good idea to bring toilet humor in Hanna Barbara? No. No. You cannot do that. That's a major turn-off for me. Especially there was a scene where Huckleberry Hound slips on pickle juice, falls flat on his face, and ends with a fart joke. I facepalm so hard and cringe at that scene because it looks so juvenile. I know Chowder does have gross out humor before, but at least they don't go that far.

Overall, Jellystone was not a bad series, nor it's not the worst takes of HB cartoons in this day in age. I'll take Jellystone over Yo Yogi and John K's Yogi Bear shorts any day. However, the presentation itself was a bit lacking for me to enjoy it, and it could've done so much better. As as modern WB show, I think it was okay at best. However, compared to Chowder and Harvey Beaks, it's a huge disappointment for me.

I know there's going to be a second half of the show coming later this year, but honestly, I'm not interested in watching it.

Some may disagree with me and actually do like Jellystone. If you guys like it, that's fine. I just find it disappointing.

 

[cheril59]

I like the animation. It's very solid, very fluid, and even though it can be a bit choppy at point, but it adds the charm.

Very solid and very fluid, my foot! This is a first for C.H. Greenblatt that he resorts to using puppet animation with Toon Boom Harmony provided by Snipple and Cheeky Little Media.

 

[harry580]

Very solid and very fluid, my foot! This is a first for C.H. Greenblatt that he resorts to using puppet animation with Toon Boom Harmony provided by Snipple and Cheeky Little Media.

yeah, I can see his potential in this technique

 

[JMTV]

Very solid and very fluid, my foot! This is a first for C.H. Greenblatt that he resorts to using puppet animation with Toon Boom Harmony provided by Snipple and Cheeky Little Media.

Fair enough, but I thought it was fine.

 

[powerjake]

The gender swapping of characters is a put-off for me. I think they could've found more classic Hanna-Barbera female characters to add in or just make new female characters.

It's really sad that they treat the classic Hanna-Barbera properties like a joke.

Jellystone should be called DeviantArt: The Show.