Cavanagh, Miller Join ‘Yogi Bear’

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 30th, 2009

Tom Cavanagh and T.J. Miller have joined the cast of Warner Bros’ live-action/CGI hybrid Yogi Bear.  The two will be playing park rangers at Jellystone Park with Cavanagh filling the role of Ranger Smith, the male lead and love interest of Anna Faris’ character.

Faris, Cavanagh, and Miller will fill the live-action portion of the Eric Brevig movie, according to Variety, and the bears (Yogi and Boo-Boo) are being created using computer animation to be voiced by Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake.  I wish I was kidding, but I couldn’t make this stuff up.  I’m just not clever enough to come up with a Ghostbuster and former boy band member as the voices of two cartoon, picnic basket-stealing bears.

As for the new cast choices, Cavanagh has been acting for almost 20 years and the best thing he’s done is a recurring supporting role on “Scrubs.”  Then there’s Miller, who is known only as Hud the shaky camera operator in Cloverfield.  After two auditions that failed to land him the part, Miller filmed a desperate audition reel that reportedly made its way to WB chairman Barry Meyer.  Apparently if you’re willing to greenlight a Yogi Bear movie, you’ll also be charmed by awkward, unfunny interaction with a real grizzly.  Watch dignity disappear in the video below.

I was taught in journalism classes to always cover the five W’s, so here we go:  Who cares?  What’s the point of adapting this garbage?  Why must Hollywood torture us?  When will it stop?  Where’s my drink?