User reviews

Set in the town of Jellystone, the series follows the misadventures of the town's eclectic residence consisting of Hanna-Barbera characters like Yogi-Bear, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, and more who each bring their own unique traits to the town's often self-destructive antics.

Jellystone marks the latest attempt by Warner Bros. To revive their Hanna-Barbera stable outside of Scooby-Doo that has been largely dormant. For most of these characters, save for some joke appearances on Adult Swim shows like Robot Chicken and Harvey Birdman, this is the first time in 30 years these characters have headlined a show since the '91 misfire Yo Yogi. Much like Yo Yogi the show re-imagines these characters in a more grounded sitcom-like setting with the characters having established roles and responsibilities as part of a community, but much more well-constructed. While the show doesn't adapt these characters to the format without hiccups, Jellystone more often hits than it misses.

Jellystone is created by C. H. Greenblatt a writer on cartoon benchmarks such as '99-'05 Spongebob Squarepants and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, as well as creator of shows like Chowder and Harvey Beaks. If you're at all familiar with Greenblatt's approach to humor on those shows it's very much on display here and will feel familiar to anyone whose even passively familiar with his previous work. With that said some of his humor works better than others. Some Hanna-Barbera characters are well better adapted to the setting than others. Characters like Yogi, Boo-boo, and Cindy as the quirky staff of Jellystone hospital score some big laughs with Cindy in particular getting great laughs fro her tightly wound tenuous hold on sanity, and Doggie Daddy and his daughter Augie get some good mileage from Doggie Daddy's "helicopter parent" taken to an amusingly insane degree that he builds his entire identity off of being a father while his daughter Augie takes it in stride. Easily the biggest revision is with The Banana Splits who are imagined here as a gang of loan sharks/petty crooks and that alone got me in just how charmingly surreal it was. I wish they'd tried to mimic the original voices such as Fleagle's Tigger-like voice to contrast their more antagonistic nature, but even though they don't take it as far they could I still really enjoyed it.

Other character reimaginings are more mixed. Jabberjaw has been swapped from a Curly Howard "Nyuk Nyuk" knockoff to more of a sassy, man crazy woman in a delivery similar to deliveries of Retta or Nicole Byer and for the most part I enjoyed the character in group settings, but I didn't think Jabberjaw was strong enough to carry an episode by herself. Magilla Gorilla has also been reimagined as a fastidious uptight tailor who specializes exclusively in bow ties and while that makes sense in terms of a show like this needing a straight man to serve as a counterpoint to zanier shenanigans, I didn't feel he was particularly well utilized. Shag Rugg who's basically this show's cocky, arrogant, slang spouting poser type. The character is all about superficiality and when complemented with a rather grating voice and way too much usage over the course of the first season I found him more annoying than endearing. But easily my least favorite was Peter Potamus' reimagining as an Otaku/Fanboy loaner stereotype complete with a creepy reference to a magical girl body pillow and emotional/romantic attachments to his action figures. I really didn't like the Peter Potamus gags because not only do they feel like low blows, but they're basically just tired rehashes on Comic Book Guy jokes from the 90s Simpsons episodes.

While not every element in Jellystone works, enough of it works to warrant a viewing. When the show hits its targets, it hits dead center, but when it misses it lands with a resounding thud.

All the classic Hanna barbera charcaters live in a town together. Its done by the creator of Chowder and Harvey Beaks. The gags are prery funny. I particuarly like Doggy Daddy and Augie Doggy. I find it funny how he is a helecopter parent. The art takes a bif of getting used to though.

I grew up watching Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Jabberjaw, and other Hanna Barbera cartoons. I honestly think the gender switches were necessary to bring in more female characters. CH Greenblatt proves why he loves and respects the Hanna Barbera characters while giving it a Chowder and Harvey Beaks feel!

Jellystone made me laugh out loud. The characters are charming and full of personality. Its has that late 90s and 2000s comedy you find from powerpuff girls or chowder( granted this show was produce by the creator of chowder)Give this show a try if you want good old slap stick comedy.

First of all, this is not a TV-G show. The violence and gross images displayed from the very first episode are enough to rate this as PG-13. And second, apparently the intention was to make some of those risky grotesque cartoons but the way this one uses Hanna-Barbera characters trespasses the limits. Well, people at Warner Bros. Are the copyright holders now and they can smash its former competitor's creations if they want to. I'm talking about the creepy drawing some untalented "artists" produced for this thing, something unforgivable when the show is based on the visuals because the writing is terrible. Warner already chopped Yogi Bear in its infamous 2010 movie, but this new Yogi Bear looks like a failed preliminary draft. And that Top Cat, my 9-years-old niece is da Vinci compared to the loser who draws the yellow feline. This is hardly watchable, but I give it a 3 just for the intentions. And please, keep HBO Max out of reach of children.

C. H. Greenblatt (known for his early works on SpongeBob and Billy & Mandy and later creating Chowder and Harvey Beaks) gives us a surreal and comedic take on the H. B. characters. There are plenty of Easter Eggs and references for older generations that grew up with the familiar all the way down to the most obscure characters. The jokes are hit-and-miss, the animation is nicely done, some characters are different (most notably half of the characters are gender-bent, which I am perfectly fine with) while others maintain their traits from the classic era. Overall, a good and funny tribute to the classic Saturday morning cartoons that longtime fans and newcomers will enjoy.

Oh cool, the same talentless hacks made more trash. There are some major problems, such as the "art," the voice-acting, the so-called writing, but the biggest issue with this is the lack of anything worth sitting through. They brought back a ton of old characters, in name only. They have taken what people loved about these characters and stripped them down to loud and unfunny blobs. If you want to change the characters, that's fine, but make it an improvement. Maybe hire some artists, maybe hire a writer or two, you could swap out any characters in any scene and it wouldn't make a difference. There are no jokes or gags, just some yelling. This is the opposite of art.

You guys need to grow up. This isn't the 1990s or the 1960s anymore. All you haters do is just live in your mothers' basements and whine about every single change in the show.

For once, I love this show. Why was I excited for it? Because I am a big BIG fan of C. H. Greenblatt's work. I am a fan of Chowder and Harvey Beaks. I enjoyed a number of Hanna-Barbera cartoons as well, though they are not without their faults.

Jellystone! Is a much better interpretation of the Hanna-Barbera than Yo Yogi!, because it made the characters do new and interesting things.

It also has more of a vibe to Busytown and Looney Tunes. The former especially making since, since C. H. Greenblatt was influenced by Richard Scarry.

I don't mind how they changed the characters' genders, like Loopy De Loop or Jabberjaw (unlike the transphobic haters).

Though I will say, I'm not a big fan of Shag Rugg's character that much. But the only major issue I have is that where's Secret Squirrel? Hopefully, he'll be back for season two.

This is a show I especially wanted the Wacky World of Tex Avery to be. I'd even prefer this over ThunderCats Roar and even Teen Titans Go!

C. H. Greenblatt, you have outdone yourself, my man!

Jellystone is a show that features a variety of classic characters, who all wish they were Choo Choo the cat.

Choo Choo is the leader of the Top Cat gang. She is a pink cat in a coat with a Bostonian accent, who cares deeply for her fellow felines in crime. She is also the most esteemed citizen in the town of Jellystone.

Jellystone has many fun and creative takes on familiar faces. Unfortunately, this review can only be an 8 out of 10, as these characters interfere in giving Choo Choo more screen time. That said, the existence of Choo Choo does still bring it to a largely positive result. Hopefully in future episodes they will fix this issue, and bring us the first ever show devoid of imperfections.

When I heard a few years ago that C. H. Greenblatt was working on a cartoon reviving multiple Hanna-Barbera properties and putting them all in one universe, I was both excited and a little scared.

Half of me was excited because I LOVE the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jabberjaw, Top Cat.... some of the most well-remembered toons to this day.

Their cartoons' animation may have been limited, but that was more than made up for by all of the delightfully quirky and memorable characters, and loads and loads of belly laughs.

However, the other half of me was skeptical because anyone who's a cartoon fanatic like I am knows about the boom of TERRIBLE cartoon reboots that happened in the mid-10's with the eye-gougingly bad resurrections of Teen Titans, The Powerpuff Girls, and Ben 10.

(I also think the new DuckTales and Animaniacs are pretty bad as well, but they're not nearly as ill-received as the others for reasons that escape me.)

And although Ol' C. H. did excellent work on the first four seasons of SpongeBob, and his own cartoon Chowder, I found his later effort Harvey Beaks to be lacking his signature wackiness and charm, thus it fell flat for me.

Seems like I wasn't the only one who felt this way either, as the show died a rather early death and was banished to Nicktoons late in its run. Probably for the best.

Initially intended to come out in 2020 (though for reasons you can probably gather yourself, that ended up not happening), Jellystone finally debuted on July 29, 2021 after a few delays, through the sleazy streaming service HBO Max .

Which finally leads me into my thoughts on Jellystone. And I'll preface this by saying that this review is going to be very lengthy and in-depth, and I naturally will spend a big chunk of it comparing this re-incarnation of these beloved cartoon characters to their original source material.

And now, without further ado....

....HEAVENS TO MURGATROYD, is this revival TERRIBLE! Just.... so.... much.... wrong.

Before I say ANYTHING else, let me just state for the record that I know, for a FACT, that C. H. Greenblatt and co. Can do SO much better than this.

Not surprisingly, the many wonderful toons from the Hanna-Barbera library have been "revamped" for a modern-day audience. Many characters that were originally male are now inexplicably female, characters have been given new personalities, and they now interact with all the advanced technology we have today.

And I really thought this show was going to be better than this due to Greenblatt's (mostly) excellent track record, and well, it's Hanna-Barbera.... sort of.

But unfortunately, Greenblatt's natural talents do not come through here.

I'd say, after thinking it over, that there are four key areas where Jellystone fails, and the original cartoons succeed. So let's pick this apart, shall we?

______________________________________________________________ NUMBER ONE: VISUALS

Now, it goes without saying that the original Hanna-Barbera cartoons had.... far from the best animation, even for the time. Those cartoons were made on a tight budget, so of course, things had to be sacrificed.

Animation was frequently re-used, characters changed colors (sometimes even within the same shot), and the lines didn't always sync with their mouths. Yet somehow, many of these cartoons still managed to look good.

Jellystone, on the other hand, makes the aforementioned limited animation of the originals look like a Miyazaki flick, with its depressingly stiff animation and ugly character designs.

I'm almost positive that Jellystone is animated with Flash. It looks so cold, so sterile, so dead, so lifeless. Stiff. Choppy. The characters move like robots.

Now, that on its own is one thing. But it's also coupled with the characters looking absolutely hideous.

Visually speaking, Jellystone is an ugly, Picasso-esque nightmare. All of the characters look really crude, amateurish and incredibly flat. It's a harsh contrast to the original cartoons which although had limited animation, characters were still seen from multiple-angles: front, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, behind.

On the other hand, characters in Jellystone are almost ALWAYS seen at a 3/4 angle, sometimes very rarely from the front (THANKFULLY rarely, might I add, because like lots of other recent cartoons, the characters in front view are hideous). It's like Peppa Pig.

The limited but charming style of the originals has been reduced to a flat, hard-to-look-at, synthetic and ugly one, much like the Teen Titans Go! And PPG 2016 which also had severe art downgrades from their original incarnations.

And boy, is it a sad sight.

____________________________________________________________________________ NUMBER TWO: CHARACTERS

As I mentioned earlier, many characters' personalities have been changed to relate more to a modern audience.

Now, some of these changes aren't that bad (Snagglepuss hasn't changed much, nor has Captain Caveman, Wally Gator, or Huckleberry Hound), but the majority of these characters have been significantly watered down from their original counterparts.

Remember Yogi Bear? The slow-witted, yet loveable bear who always cooked up wonderfully zany schemes to get his hands on those picnic baskets? Or his funny deadpan sidekick Boo Boo, who often also served as the voice of reason during their hilarious misadventures?

Now, Yogi's just braindead and obnoxious, joining the camp of "fat and stupid because LOL" characters such as Gumball's dad, Zombie Simpsons Homer, and modern Patrick Star.

Meanwhile, Boo Boo is just a rambling joke machine. And no longer do Yogi and Boo Boo go after picnic baskets; now they just live together in some apartment building. Awful.

Also, were the gender changes really necessary? Like, I get that there were more male characters than females in the originals, but it's not like there WEREN'T female characters.

Jabberjaw and Brain are now annoying valley girls and it's every bit as as terrible as it sounds.

No offense to Augie Doggie's new voice actress (it feels so weird to even type that), but her new voice really grates on the ears. Just because she's a kid doesn't mean you have to make her sound as irritating as possible. Same goes for Yakky Doodle. Just, ugh

Magilla Gorilla has been dumbed down to a nerdy loser, and Mildew Wolf is a walking stereotype.

Oh, and for some reason, Peter Potamus is now a hardcore weeb that owns a dakimakura (which he believes to be real).

____________________________________________________________________________ NUMBER THREE: HUMOR

Jellystone rivals Cartoon Network's MAD and the aforementioned Teen Titans Go! As one of the most painfully unfunny cartoons ever made.

Greenblatt's first cartoon Chowder delivered with its absurdist humor and genius fourth-wall breaks, while his second show Harvey Beaks wasn't really comedy-driven like most of its ilk (and the sparse jokes it did offer were hit-or-miss).

Jellystone, on the other hand, shares Breadwinners and Sanjay and Craig's obnoxiously low-brow style of humor.

Immature toilet and fart jokes run rampant, and they are all awful and incredibly distracting.

All of the genius humor of the original Hanna Barbera cartoons has been thrown out the window for sophomoric, juvenile humor that surely nobody over the age of 10 will find funny.

Even the jokes that aren't related to butts and flatulence are incredibly lame and groan-inducing. The simplest and most basic form of humor there is.

Even when the rare good joke DOES sneak by (and believe it or not, there actually are a few of them), it just isn't worth it amongst the sea of potty humor and flat jokes.

____________________________________________________________________________

NUMBER FOUR: PLOTS

And the muddy icing on this mudcake of a mess would definitely have to be the plotlines. The plots of these episodes are, for the most part, unbelievably dumb.

Let me just describe some of these plots to you and tell me they're not stupid....

Yogi Bear eats everybody in town and Boo Boo and Cindy have to travel inside him and get everyone out.

Yogi gets jealous of Boo Boo's cool new boots and the two buy increasingly big boots to outdo each other.

Yogi thinks he's a cat after taking a DNA test and crashes with Top Cat and co. To stupidly unfunny results.

Yogi passes Shag Rug as his kid to get into a [[Main/SuckECheeses Suck-E-Cheese]] with the Cattanooga Cats as animatronics. These characters have like, zero chemistry.

The Top Cats sell expired fish sticks to the populace of Jellystone that turn them all into fish-heads. Definitely a worst episode contender - pure, unadulterated stupidity with no rhyme or reason whatsoever.

Augie Doggie learns about corporate culture and her mind grows to the size of a giant that zaps laser beams which turn everybody into businessmen/women.

After a freak accident, Yakky Doodle gets trapped in a watermelon and Augie Doggie treats it like her baby. Easily one of the creepiest, most unsettling episodes of any cartoon I've ever seen.

The original shows had stories that were fun and made sense for their characters.

Most of Jellystone's stories are either incredibly stupid, make no sense, change plots midway through, have abrupt/forced conclusions, or sometimes even all of those in the same episode.

But thankfully, despite all of these problems, nobody has to watch this waste of a revival if they don't wish to.

____________________________________________________________________________

At the end of the day, I highly recommend the ORIGINAL Hanna-Barbera cartoons. They may be old, some of them may be a bit dated, and the animation may not be the greatest, but all that is worth it thanks to the library of fun and wonderful characters, and brilliant comedy.

Go ahead and enjoy the originals, then MAYBE give Jellystone a shot if you're curious, only to experience what is called the mind-numbing power of difference.

Who is reviewing these with anything above a 3?

First of all, having someone do an Art Carney-sequel voiceover does not make it Yogi Bear. That's the only slight similarity to the original. Cindi Bear is the only one even resembling the original character, but the pizza-shaped, 1990s caricature, crudely-drawn abominations shown here are NOT Yogi Bear nor Boo Boo.

We previewed 2 episodes (fighting hard to get through the second and 3/4 of the first) to see if it was time to introduce our 5 and 7 year olds to some of our childhood memories...Nope! While not dirty or offensive, smashing people in the face and calling other characters 'names' was enough to decide this isn't for our youngsters. The lack of humor and crudeness showed it wasn't for us adult either. And we're not prudes, I watch South Park, The Simpsons and Family Guy regularly. This just misses.

A shame, because reading the list of ancillary characters scheduled to appear like Captain Caveman, Jabberjaw, and Huckleberry Hound got us excited. We wanted to love it for ourselves and our kids...The actual content turned us off.

Funny, mostly wholesome content that gets the laughs without the violence and crudeness. I love those types of shows but it takes a legendary show to be able to pull this off with such innocent humor. This gives me Spongebob vibes mixed with Adventure Time with the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters.

This is the best cartoon show to come out in a long time. This one is here to stay for as long as they keep the quality up with this season. Makes it worth keeping HBO Max.

I shut this off in less than a 5 minutes. Total Garbage! Sorry you can't give negative stars. I would have gotten a negative 5,,

The reviews are so extremely mixed because of the nature of the show. Some people are going in expecting a modern fix up of classic Barbera cartoons, however, this is more of a tribute.

This is a tribute to Hanna-Barbera with the twist of modern and Chowder-Esque humor. This can usually be funny even if it doesn't always hit the mark.

If you want to see some of your favorite cartoon characters interact in the same world together, and like surprising/random humor, this show is your you!

Awful hey I don't mind the gender male into female BUT the drawings and voice are definitely very awful if your going to story of classic characters they should sound like them and look them.

I saw a clip of this on twitter and actually laughed, so I knew I needed to watch this. The art style is a bit jarring at first, but once you watch a few episodes you get used to it. The writing makes this show hilarious and even if you weren't familiar with Hanna-Barbera, anybody of all ages would like it. I recommend it.

This show Manages to Take two shows I loved as a kid Hannah Barbera and Chowder the animation is spot on and the story's are very good.

I honestly don't understand how this currently has a rating of 8. The animation is terrible, but mostly its the terrible writing that makes this unwatchable.

So many of the 1 star reviews for this are being insanely dramatic. It's just a fun dumb cartoon for passing time with inconsequential humor. Obviously the animation contrasts largely from the original cartoons because it's not meant to be a continuation of any of those stories. Every second reminds me of HB shorts that would play on boomerang when I was growing up so this show is wonderfully nostalgic. Major props to Grace Helbig for breathing new life into Cindy Bear! Another great hit from C. H. Greenblat!