To Catch a Yeti
Directed byBob Keen
Written byPaul Adam[1]
Produced by
  • Noel Cronin
  • Lionel Shenken
  • Beverley Shenken-brin[1]
Starring
CinematographyDavid Perrault[1]
Edited by
  • Stewart Dowds (edited by)
  • Paul Kirsch (on-line editor)[1]
Music by
  • Jack Lenz
  • Brent Barkman
  • Carl Lenox[1]
Production
companies
  • Dandelion Productions
  • Visual Productions[1]
Release date
  • 12 January 1995 (1995-01-12) (United States)
Countries
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom[1]
LanguageEnglish

To Catch a Yeti is a 1995 British-Canadian made-for-TV movie, directed by Bob Keen and featuring Meat Loaf and Rick Howland. The film was shot over 13 days in Ontario, Canada in 1993, and first broadcast two years later.

Plot

Billionaire Arnold Sturgeon (Mike Panton) hires two hunters, Big Jake Grizzly (Meat Loaf) and Blubber (Rick Howland), to capture a Himalayan yeti for his spoiled son (Jeff Moser). However, their quarry, a small yeti, instead stows away in the backpack of American mountaineer Dave Bristow (Jim Gordon) and returns with him to the United States. The Bristows' 10-year-old daughter Amy (Chantallese Kent) befriends this yeti and names him Hank. Big Jake and Blubber eventually track down Hank and kidnap him for their employer. In New York City, the Bristows rescue the yeti and hide him at their family cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, where the hunters attempt another kidnapping. The Bristows accompany Hank back to Himalayas, where he is reunited with his mate.[2]

Cast

  • Jim Gordon as Dave Bristow
  • Meat Loaf as Big Jake Grizzly
  • Chantallese Kent as Amy Bristow
  • Jeff Moser as Wesley Sturgeon
  • Rick Howland as Blubber
  • Mike Panton as Arnold Sturgeon
  • Mona Matteo as Angelica Sturgeon
  • Kevin Robbin as the voice of Hank

Source[3]

Production

Screenplay

Director Bob Keen joined the project at the request of executive producer Noel Cronin, after the original director was fired and the film's budget cut by 60%.[4] The original script was written by Paul Adam; it was about a father trying to get closer to his daughter and explored the cruelty of hunting and animal poaching.[4] Lionel Shenken, the film's executive producer on the Canadian side, later rewrote Adam's screenplay. This version was used for the film, although Keen later dismissed it as "a mismatch of collective ideas."[4]

Filming

Although largely set in New York, To Catch a Yeti was shot over 13 days in Ontario, Canada, by a mostly British crew.[4] Meat Loaf was cast in the week before shooting began, after his predecessor withdrew from the project to appear in a sitcom.[4] The filmmakers deliberately aimed to give their film a 1980s look and feel, reminiscent of releases by Amblin Entertainment during that era.[4] Keen described Meat Loaf as "generous and professional" throughout the shoot;[4] Meat Loaf and co-star Rick Howland boosted the morale of cast and crew by breaking into musical numbers between takes.[4]

Release

To Catch a Yeti aired on the Disney Channel on January 12, 1995.[3] In the United States, the film had a limited run on VHS by PolyGram Video and USA Films.[4] It also received limited home video runs on Castle Filmes in Brazil and Videosonic in Greece.[4]

Reception

TV Guide described the film as a "low-budget ET knockoff" that "offers only a cute yeti puppet creation to delight small children and a comical performance by hefty rocker Meat Loaf to amuse their parents."[2] David Parkinson for Radio Times called the film "harmless fun, with the snowman puppets anything but abominable."[5] John Stanley's book Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide rated the film 1.5 stars out of five, describing it as "inconsequential" and "kiddie-oriented."[6] In 2011, Cyriaque Lamar, writing for Gizmodo, ranked To Catch A Yeti as one of the 10 worst films featuring Bigfoot or yetis.[7] Sarah Dobbs cited the film as one in a series of low-budget productions released in the wake of Harry and The Hendersons (1987) that reimagined Bigfoot "as a kind of fuzzy babysitter."[8] RiffTrax parodied the film on May 1, 2015.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "To Catch a Yeti (1995)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  2. 1 2 "To Catch a Yeti". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  3. 1 2 Sherman, Fraser A. (2015-09-03). Cyborgs, Santa Claus and Satan: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Made for Television. McFarland. pp. 180–181. ISBN 978-1-4766-1101-3.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Campopiano, John (2016-06-08). "Insanity For Kids: Catching Up with To Catch a Yeti Director Bob Keen". Dread Central. Archived from the original on 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  5. ↑ Parkinson, David. "To Catch a Yeti (review)". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
  6. ↑ Stanley, John (2000). Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide. Berkley Boulevard Books. p. 530. ISBN 978-0-425-17517-0.
  7. ↑ Lamar, Cyriaque (2011-05-25). "The 10 worst bigfoots and yetis in the history of recorded film". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  8. ↑ Dobbs, Sarah (2015-04-06). "A short history of Bigfoot in the movies". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  9. ↑ "To Catch a Yeti". Rifftrax. May 2015.
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