Trailer Wednesday: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Yogi

How is this for contrasting trailers? The teaser for the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror film “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” and this winter’s kid-friendly film based on the classic cartoon, “Yogi Bear.”

“Dark” debuted its footage at Comic Con. Del Toro described the film as being “as serious as an attack of [expletive] gonorrhea.” See if you can tell why by watching the teaser. That comment makes me wonder just what Del Toro would say about this simply awful looking “Yogi Bear” trailer.

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Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Del Toro has a thing for little girls … in horror movies. First “Pan’s Labyrinth” and now we have a little girl going to stay with her dad (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes) in a clearly haunted house where little demon spirits escape from the chimney, hoping to take the girl with them to their spirit world.

Looks like we can expect typical horror scares but with the extra shroud of fantasy that Del Toro is known for, even if this is directed by the basically unknown Troy Nixey. He had to have some hand in the creatures for this film, no doubt. As for the teaser itself. The screen is black for half the time as a creepy voice tells you that you’re sitting in the dark. If I see this trailer in theaters, I might wet myself.

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Yogi Bear

Here we go with another live-action talking-animal movie. The idea here is clearly to try and jump on the success of “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” only there’s a difference when the animals involved are tiny little creatures — at least that’s why I’m guessing. The live-action/CGI blend of “Yogi Bear” looks pretty bad.

The only thing I like about this movie is that Justin Timberlake voiced Boo-Boo. That’s just random and cool to me. I also think Anna Faris could be the saving grace of the entertainment factor. It’s certainly not likely to be Tom Cavanagh as Ranger Smith. Cavanagh has the look for a child’s film, but Smith was much angrier in the cartoon. A trip to Jellystone Park in the winter also doesn’t quite fit the mood, but who am I to judge? …