Tuesday, August 03, 2010

AT LARGE Fake News Tuesday: Grizzly Attack Blamed On 'Yogi Bear' Movie

TETON COUNTY, Wyo. (CAP) - The grizzly bear that attacked three campers in Yellowstone National Park last week had just seen a special sneak preview of the upcoming Yogi Bear feature film, according to park officials.

The park had hosted an outdoor screening for campers of the first 30 minutes of the upcoming Warner Brothers film, featuring Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Yogi and Justin Timberlake as his sidekick, Boo-Boo. Several campers and the park's certified wildlife biologist, Terry McKinney, reported spotting a grizzly bear and her three cubs looking at the screen from a nearby hill.

A bear matching the same description attacked the campers later that night, and according to McKinney, " it's possible that the bear found the movie, in human terms, offensive to her. You know, as a an actual bear, one that doesn't wear a hat and tie."

"I mean, have you seen the previews?" asked McKinney, referring to the trailer in which a computer-generated Yogi Bear dances to pop music and tries to steal a lunchbox from the live-action Ranger Smith, played by Tom Cavanaugh of TV's Ed. "I'm just a biologist, and it made me want to maul somebody."

If McKinney's theory proves true, it wouldn't be the first time animals were moved to disturbing behavior by their portrayal on the big screen. At a 2005 outdoor screening in Newburyport, Mass. of Valiant - the World War II carrier pigeon movie featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor and Ricky Gervais - the event ended abruptly when hundreds of pigeons defecated on the crowd, sending children screaming and running for cover.

[Read the rest at CAP News.]