Yogi's Ark Lark

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Yogi’s Ark Lark
Approx. run time	45 Minutes
Genre	Animated TV-movie
Written by	Bob Ogle Dick Robbins
Directed by	Joseph Barbera William Hanna
Produced by	Joseph Barbera William Hanna
Starring	(See below)
Music by	Hoyt Curtin (musical director) Paul DeKorte (musical supervision)
Country	United States
Language	English
Original channel	ABC
Release date	September 16, 1972 (1972-09-16)
Preceded by	The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island
Followed by	The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters

Yogi’s Ark Lark is an animated Hanna-Barbera TV-movie, intended to raise ecological awareness; broadcast in 1972, it was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie and the pilot for Yogi's Gang.

Synopsis

Concerned about the terrible state of the environment, dozens of animals gather for a meeting in Jellystone Park, chaired by Yogi Bear. They decide to leave their homes and search for “the perfect place”; i.e., a place free of pollution, deforestation, and other forms of mankind’s despoilment.

Jellystone handyman Noah Smitty helps them build a flying ship (which looks like Noah’s Ark with a propeller on top) for their journey, and they decide to name it after him; because “Smitty’s Houseboat” is too long to paint on the bow, they name it “Noah’s Ark.”

With Noah at the helm, they travel to places around the world searching for “the perfect place.” They start by driving down the highway into the ocean, where they soon end up on the back of a sleeping Moby Dick. Huckleberry Hound is sent down to wake him.

They then end up in the Sahara Desert which they originally mistake for a beach. The desert sun causes Yogi to hallucinate and believe he’s King Tut, until Boo Boo and Noah Smitty arrive. Some moments later, So So spots an oasis. As Yogi and crew settle down to make themselves at home, Lambsy spots a “dragon” which turns out to be a construction vehicle developing a new city. Yogi and the crew then take their leave of the area.

They soon arrive in antarctic territory and settle down there... until it ends up like the oasis.

Next, Yogi and the crew wind up in outer space upon going up too far. It isn’t long before Earth ejects its “junk” — missiles, satellites, et cetera — into space.

With the ark back on earth and sailing the sea, tensions arise between the animals. Huckleberry Hound throws water down a pipe which causes Dum Dum to emerge and throw water at him. Quick Draw McGraw insults Snagglepuss’ slicing of salami. Peter Potamus insults Magilla Gorilla by telling him he looks like a gorilla. Lippy the Lion grows tired of Hardy Har Har's complaining. Yogi Bear becomes aware of this just as So So spots a typhoon coming; the animals struggle to survive the typhoon. The typhoon lands them on top of a mountain, and the animals almost believe that they’ve found what they’ve been looking for… only to be disappointed again when Yakky Doodle returns with an empty tin can and the animals notice a deforestation occurring.

At this point, the younger animals (Augie Doggie, Boo Boo, Baba Looey, Lambsy, Shag Rugg) come to a decision of their own: that they should all simply go back home and clean up the messes that they were trying to get away from. This decision is met with unanimous approval, and the animals all head for home so that they can start turning it into “the perfect place.”

During the credits, Wally Gator and Squiddly Diddly are cleaning the rivers, Paw and Shag Rugg are picking up garbage around their house, and Yogi Bear picks up a recently discarded hamburger wrapping.

List of characters

The following Hanna-Barbera characters appeared in this movie (not all of whom appeared on Yogi’s Gang) in alphabetical order:

• Atom Ant
• Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy
• The Hillbilly Bears
• Hokey Wolf and Ding-A-Ling
• Huckleberry Hound
• Lambsy
• Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har
• Magilla Gorilla
• Peter Potamus and So-So
• Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks
• Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey
• Ruff and Reddy
• Sawtooth (Rufus Ruffcut's pet beaver on Wacky Races)
• Secret Squirrel
• Snagglepuss
• Squiddly Diddly
• Top Cat and his gang (Benny the Ball, Spook, Choo Choo, Fancy Fancy, and the Brain)
• Touché Turtle and Dum Dum
• Wally Gator
• Yakky Doodle & Chopper
• Yogi Bear and Boo Boo
• An unknown dinosaur character, probably Dino from the Flintstones.

Notes

• This TV-movie is notable, not just for its message, but also for the fact that it’s a milestone in Hanna-Barbera’s history; a wide range of the studio’s characters were united in one story for the first time. This set the tone for future series and specials, such as Laff-A-Lympics and Yogi’s First Christmas.

• Although this was the pilot for Yogi’s Gang, some changes were made for the series:
  • Noah Smitty was written out; only the animals were on the ark.
  • The vessel’s name was changed from “Noah’s Ark” to “Yogi’s Ark.”
  • Some of the animals, such as Top Cat, were also written out, thus giving the ark a smaller crew.
• This one-hour feature was later turned into two half-hour episodes of Yogi’s Gang.
• The flying ark would be seen again on Yogi’s Treasure Hunt, this time renamed the SS Jelly Roger (a takeoff of the phrase “Jolly Roger”).
• The song "The Perfect Place" is sung 6 times throughout Yogi's Ark Lark, and would of course later be remade as the Main Title for Yogi’s Gang.

Perfect Place Lyrics

We're on our way to the perfect place

The perfect place

The skies are blue, the fields are green

Water sparkles, air is clean

Yogi: Prettiest place you've ever seen

That's the perfect place

Boo Boo: That sparking stream of water

That babbles in the brook

Makes me almost feel ashamed

About the bath I took

Quick Draw: Folks that live there never do

Throw litter in the street

There's not enough of it in town

To hide my dirty feet

We're on our way to the perfect place

The perfect place

The skies are blue, the fields are green

Water sparkles, air is clean

Yogi: The whole darn scene is sparkling clean

That's the perfect place

That's the perfect place

That's the perfect plaaaaaaaaace!

Cast

• Daws Butler - Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, Wally Gator, Peter Potamus, Augie Doggie, Lippy the Lion, Dixie, Mr. Jinks, Baba Looey, Lambsy, Top Cat
• Henry Corden - Paw Rugg, Truck Driver #1
• Walker Edmiston - Yakky Doodle
• Allan Melvin - Magilla Gorilla, Truck Driver #2, Man
• Don Messick - Boo Boo, Atom Ant, Squiddly Diddly, Touché Turtle, Pixie, So So, Moby Dick
• Jean Vander Pyl - Flo Rugg, Maw Rugg, Woman
• John Stephenson - Benny the Ball, Doggie Daddy, Hardy Har Har
• Lennie Weinrib - Cap'n Noah Smitty

NOTE #1: Choo Choo, Spook, Fancy Fancy, The Brain, Secret Squirrel, Hokey Wolf, Ding-A-Ling Wolf, Chopper, Ruff and Reddy, Dum Dum, Shag Rugg, and Sawtooth the Beaver appear, but have no dialogue.

NOTE #2: Hardy Har Har, Squiddly Diddly, Top Cat, Benny the Ball, and Yakky Doodle are voiced by John Stephenson, Don Messick, Daws Butler, and Walker Edmiston here. It was presumed that Mel Blanc, Paul Frees, Arnold Stang, and Jimmy Weldon weren't available to voice them for this TV movie while Maurice Gosfield had died in 1964. Though Arnold Stang continued to voice Top Cat after this, John Stephenson and Don Messick voiced Hardy Har Har and Squiddly Diddly in Yogi's Gang and other appearances.

NOTE #3: Don Messick began voicing Touché Turtle here after the death of Bill Thompson. John Stephenson began voicing Doggie Daddy here due to the fact that Doug Young was caring for his ailing wife at the time.

Availability

As of January 2008^[update], Yogi’s Ark Lark has not been released on either videocassette or DVD.

See also

• List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera
• The Yogi Bear Show
• The New Yogi Bear Show
• Yogi's Treasure Hunt
• Yogi's Gang

References

External links

• Yogi's Ark Lark at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Yogi's Ark Lark at the Internet Movie Database
• "Yogi's Ark Lark" at TV.com
• Toonarific Cartoons: Pictures from Yogi's Ark Lark

This animation-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network Studios-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This article related to a made-for-TV movie is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e