{{Infobox television | image = | alt = | caption = | director = Bob Keen | producer = {{Plainlist| * Noel Cronin * Lionel Shenken * Beverley Shenken-brin<ref name="bfi"/> }} | writer = Paul Adam<ref name="bfi">{{cite web|title=To Catch a Yeti (1995)|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b8082b104|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525060043/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b8082b104|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 25, 2022|website=British Film Institute|access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref> | starring = {{Plainlist| * Meat Loaf * Rick Howland }} | music = {{Plainlist| * Jack Lenz * Brent Barkman * Carl Lenox<ref name="bfi"/> }} | cinematography = David Perrault<ref name="bfi"/> | editor = Stewart Dowds<ref name="bfi"/> | company = {{Plainlist| * Dandelion Productions * Visual Productions<ref name="bfi"/> }}
| network = | released = {{Start date|1994|03|08|df=y}} | runtime = | country = {{Plainlist| * Canada * United Kingdom<ref name="bfi"/> }} | language = English | budget = }}
'''''To Catch a Yeti''''' is a 1994 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=To Catch a Yeti |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/to-catch-a-yeti/review/2000114934/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713130059/https://www.tvguide.com/movies/to-catch-a-yeti/review/2000114934/ |archive-date=2022-07-13 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=TVGuide.com |language=en}}</ref>
== 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''<ref name=":0" />
== 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%.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Campopiano |first=John |date=2016-06-08 |title=Insanity For Kids: Catching Up with To Catch a Yeti Director Bob Keen |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/169601/insanity-kids-catching-catch-yeti-director-bob-keen/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713121559/https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/169601/insanity-kids-catching-catch-yeti-director-bob-keen/ |archive-date=2022-07-13 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Dread Central |language=en-US}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> 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."<ref name=":1" />
=== Filming === Although largely set in New York, ''To Catch a Yeti'' was shot over 13 days in Ontario, Canada, by a mostly British crew.<ref name=":1" /> Meat Loaf was cast in the week before shooting began, after his predecessor withdrew from the project to appear in a sitcom.<ref name=":1" /> The filmmakers deliberately aimed to give their film a 1980s look and feel, reminiscent of releases by Amblin Entertainment during that era.<ref name=":1" /> Keen described Meat Loaf as "generous and professional" throughout the shoot;<ref name=":1" /> Meat Loaf and co-star Rick Howland boosted the morale of cast and crew by breaking into musical numbers between takes.<ref name=":1" />
==Release== ''To Catch a Yeti''’s television debut was on Canadian cable station Super Channel, March 8, 1994,<ref>{{cite news |title=Tuesday, March 8 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal-first-known-airing-of/187917692/ |work=Edmonton Journal |date=4 March 1994 |page=44 |format=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and in the UK on The Movie Channel, May 4, 1994.<ref>{{cite news |title=Wednesday, May 4 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/ellesmere-port-pioneer-from-may-4-listin/187952668/ |work=Ellesmere Port Pioneer |date=27 April 1994 |location=Ellesmere UK |page=TV Guide 33 |format=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The American premiere was The Disney Channel on January 12, 1995.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sherman |first=Fraser A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=phOBCgAAQBAJ&dq=to+catch+a+yeti+movie+1995&pg=PA180 |title=Cyborgs, Santa Claus and Satan: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Made for Television |date=2015-09-03 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1101-3 |pages=180–181 |language=en}}</ref> In the United States, the film had a limited run on VHS by PolyGram Video and USA Films.<ref name=":1" /> It also received limited home video runs on Castle Filmes in Brazil and Videosonic in Greece.<ref name=":1" />
== 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."<ref name=":2" /> David Parkinson for ''Radio Times'' called the film "harmless fun, with the snowman puppets anything but abominable."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Parkinson |first=David |title=To Catch a Yeti (review) |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-f75e50/to-catch-a-yeti/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713133903/https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-f75e50/to-catch-a-yeti/ |archive-date=2022-07-13 |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=Radio Times |language=en}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanley |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKUqAAAAYAAJ |title=Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide |publisher=Berkley Boulevard Books |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-425-17517-0 |pages=530 |language=en}}</ref> In 2011, Cyriaque Lamar, writing for ''Gizmodo'', ranked ''To Catch A Yeti'' as one of the 10 worst films featuring Bigfoot or yetis.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lamar |first=Cyriaque |date=2011-05-25 |title=The 10 worst bigfoots and yetis in the history of recorded film |url=https://gizmodo.com/the-10-worst-bigfoots-and-yetis-in-the-history-of-recor-5805453 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713130644/https://gizmodo.com/the-10-worst-bigfoots-and-yetis-in-the-history-of-recor-5805453 |archive-date=2022-07-13 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Gizmodo |language=en-us}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dobbs |first=Sarah |date=2015-04-06 |title=A short history of Bigfoot in the movies |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/a-short-history-of-bigfoot-in-the-movies/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713151414/https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/a-short-history-of-bigfoot-in-the-movies/ |archive-date=2022-07-13 |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Den of Geek |language=en-US}}</ref> RiffTrax parodied the film on May 1, 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |title=To Catch a Yeti |url=https://www.rifftrax.com/to-catch-a-yeti |website=Rifftrax|date=May 2015 }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0114680}} *[https://www.allmovie.com/movie/to-catch-a-yeti-v178995 AllMovie] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opqMGkJKMkc RiffTrax treatment of ''To Catch a Yeti'' on official YouTube channel]
Category:1994 films Category:1994 television films Category:Canadian action television films Category:Canadian children's comedy films Category:Films about Yeti Category:1994 English-language films Category:1994 Canadian films Category:Canadian children's fantasy films Category:Canadian comedy television films