ROCKS 14A: Flintstones Christmas Specials

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WELCOME EVERYBODY TO THE FIRST DISCUSSION IN THE FOURTEENTH STRAND OF “R.O.C.K.S.” - REWATCHING OLD CLASSIC KIDS SHOWS!
A big thanks to everyone that are joining us through all of this.

We’re going back to a really old classic for this set of discussions - and when I say old, I mean old in more ways than one, as we’re covering The Flintstones.

We’re starting off, as it’s nearing christmas, with the three festive specials there have been over the years:

A Flintstone Christmas
A Flintstone Family Christmas
A Flintstones Christmas Carol

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that, whilst fans are obviously welcome to passionately discuss and give their views on these episodes, please remember to keep things on a friendly footing and respect your fellow posters.
Also, please do not post where or how to find the full episode online. And do not post asking others to PM it to you. You are however allowed to watch the show in whatever manner you want.

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I have seen “A Flintstone Christmas” so I’ll post my thoughts on it first. I will write about the other two after I complete watching them. :slight_smile:

I grew up watching many of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, the Flintstones included. However, this is the first Flintstone movie that I have seen ever. A long time ago I had seen bits of “The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones” but I don’t really remember much about it. The story of this movie is quite endearing, and pretty much follows the standard formula of the cartoon series. It actually reminded me of an episode of “Jimbo and the Jet-Set” in which due to some problem with Santa’s reindeers, Jimbo takes up the job of delivering presents all over the world.

The animation is very good. A lot more fluid, detailed, and with more variety compared to the cartoon series which had very limited animation (usually just “talking heads”). It was fun to see more locations explored in the story than it just taking place in Bedrock. The backgrounds were also more lavishly painted. I was quite surprised to see Pebbles and Bam-Bam as slightly older kids who are now able to talk. I’m so used to their series appearance in which they were toddlers and Bam-Bam only said “Bam-Bam”, usually while smashing something! :biggrin

I noticed that some of the voices were different than the series. I’m guessing that perhaps the original voice actors had passed away or had retired. But I think the actor who provided Fred’s voice did a pretty good job. It didn’t sound so different form the original voice actor as to appear distracting.

Overall, I enjoyed it very much and it put me in the Holiday spirit, so thank you for picking these movies Liam and Mark. :slight_smile:

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I’ve watched these three specials on separate days this week. As the earliest of these dates from 1977, a full decade after the main series ended, and also after the death of Alan Reed, the original voice of Fred, it’s fair to say that, whether you like them or not, these are not representative of the show.

A Flintstone Christmas
This was the only one I saw as a kid. The other two were made around the time I was losing interest in cartoons (however temporarily!), so I never noticed them. Fred having to step in for Santa, yes. Fun. It’s apparently the only one to feature Pebbles and Bam-Bam at that exact age. Also this was the first Flintstones done after Reed’s death, so Henry Corden was still finding his feet as Fred. Of course, if he’s able to use “Christmas Magic” to wish presents for the local kids into existence at the end, how come that didn’t work in the middle when they lost the sack of presents and had to go to the North Pole to get replacements?

A Flintstone Family Christmas
This one, with the thieving kid who learns a lesson about family and loyalty - meh, bit of a cliche, and perhaps typical of the times. This was 1993, and a lot of stories then had these cliched messages. Of note, this was now after Mel Blanc had died, so Barney’s voice here and in the other special was provided by none other than Frank Welker, who got it spot on. At this point Jean Van der Pyl (Wilma) was now the only original cast member left (Betty had changed voices back in the original show’s run already).

A Flintstones Christmas Carol
Sort of contradicting the previous one, in which Fred keeps on about how much he loves christmas, here he’s taken the part of Scrooge a little too much to heart. It’s a little contrived, but he manages to learn the lessons that Scrooge did, thanks to a scare with forgetting to collect the presents and Wilma having to step in to play so many parts. I prefer this to the previous one.

We’re going to have three weeks of regular Flintstones episodes as the show had such a long run, six whole seasons, we’re going to pick two episodes from each season for 14B-D, and then finish off with the feature “The Man Called Flintstone” for 14E - we haven’t spent five weeks on one show since Transformers, the first show we covered!

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I love the Flintstones cartoon.
I wasn’t too keen on A Flintstone Christmas. The designs of Santa’s home etc didn’t really fir the stone age designs.
A Flintstone Family Christmas was a lot better but the story wasn’t that interesting or exciting. Pretty good voice cast.
A Flintstone Christmas Carol was also okay. Them doing it as a play worked quite well.
I recall seeing a different Christmas themed Flintstone episode with Fred working in a store.