Officer Smith (1991)
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Cartoon Animal |
Outfit: Police uniform / flashlight / intelligence level lower than that of an above-average bear
Tagline: "MISTER Anderson!"
wait
Plot summary: In the mid- to late 1980s, Hanna-Barbera noticed a spike in popularity of old "Yogi Bear" reruns with the grade school demographic. They figured it was just because Nickelodeon started airing them right when kids got home from school to catch the tail end of it in the last year or two before they got a Nintendo. And they were right, for the most part, but what they didn't assume was that we were okay with that. Yogi was on the TV, and it was perfectly fine, but since cartoon producers think all kids are trendy whores who couldn't possibly enjoy a show from the '60s for more than a year without silently wishing that everyone started wearing Air Jordans and enjoying credit cards, they decided to freshen things up a bit.
Thus, "Yo, Yogi!" was born, featuring the ever-scheming, hyperintelligent bear and his friends devolved into teenagers with giant bobble heads and dressed in neon-colored designer clothes and sneakers. So in retrospect, the whole thing looks like some furries cosplaying as the cast of the Vanilla Ice movie, "Cool As Ice." The new series was set in Jellystone MALL to better relate to preteen America, by which I mean the 0.3% of preteen American who happened to reside in Beverly Hills, California, and went directly to the mall after school instead of ever stepping foot in their own house, because God forbid that the kids at school find out that you have parents. (more)
User comments: Every mall, even cool hangin' out fantasy malls where teenagers never leave except for school and I guess soccer practice, needs a security figure, to remind us that life needs adults to be BORING and SQUARE and uphold order. At Jellystone Mall, that man is Officer John Smith, an upgrade to the Pocahontas-romancing park ranger we all know, love, and get confused with emo George Jetson when he isn't wearing a hat.
Officer Smith, like all mall security guards, is on the lowest rung of the police chain of command. He wants to deny that his life is a joke, but it's kind of hard when the Lost and Found department, by which Yogi Bear and his buddies are all employed, decides to also take care of all the mystery-solving and crime-fighting that needs to be done on a normal day at every suburban mall in America. That's the other catch: Smith's function as disciplinarian is all but lost on Yogi, as they now work on the same side of the law. In spirit, at least. Occasionally the bear will remember that he's dressed like Zack Morris and appropriately get a fur-brained scheme, and we'll be treated to the familiar outcry of "Yogiiiiii!", but other than that, Officer Smith really only exists so that little skateboarding Boo-boo in a backwards cap and giant, mismatched bow tie can have a speaking part and chime in once or twice about what he thinks Smith would and would not like. I know it's supposed to be Boo-boo, but do you remember any kids in middle school who could wear a giant orange bow tie in public and not get stuffed into the nearest locker or toilet?
Who cares what the mall security guard wouldn't like? The guy doesn't get to carry a gun; he has a flashlight. Oh no don't make Officer Smith mad or he'll make your pupils really small shit look out.
User Rating: 
(50,762 votes)