Woodyanders Review of To Catch a Yeti

To Catch a Yeti (1994 TV Movie)

A horrendously crappy'n'sappy piece of kiddie pic schlock

[1/10 · 29 July 2007]

In the early 90's at the height of the appallingly cutesy direct-to-video Bigfoot kiddie flick craze there had to be at least one equally atrocious and icky-sweet sentimental claptrap yeti children's movie. This disgustingly gooey made-for-Canadian TV tripe starring a hideously wimpy, mewling, lovable'n'huggable emasculated diminutive teddy bear version of the Abominable Snowman scores a definite 10+ on the Vomitably Adorable and Overextended Cinematic Stinko Scale. Burly rocker Meat Loaf snarls it up something grumpy as Big Joe Grizzly, a cocky big game hunter who's hired by an evil multi-millionaire to capture a yeti for his spoiled brat son. The yeti eludes Big Jake's clutches and stows away on a plane that flies to America. The singularly charmless Chantallese Kent portrays the sickeningly twee little girl who befriends the yeti, whom the lass names Hank. Big Jake and his bumbling assistant Blubber (the supremely annoying Richard Howland) nab Hank and take him to New York City. The little girl goes to the Big Apple to get Hank back. Bob Keen, a special effects make-up artist whose credits include "Hardware," "Monkey Boy," and the "Hellraiser" films, made his unfortunate asleep-at-the-switch directorial debut with this ghastly offal. From the uniformly dire acting to the dreadful (markedly less then) special effects to the teeming surplus of stomach-turning heart-warming goo to the awful soundtrack of mawkish pop-slop tunes, "To Catch A Yeti" qualifies as anything but a good catch. The absolute celluloid dregs.