Title:
A Flintstones
Christmas Carol
Format:
Animated TV movie
Country:
USA
Production
company:
Hanna-Barbera,
for ABC
Year:
1994 (first
broadcast on ABC in the USA on November 21st that year)
Length:
70 minutes
Setting:
Fantasy version
of the stone age
Background:
The Flintstones is one of the
most famous cartoon series ever created, having made a big pop culture impact
not just in its native United States, but in several countries around the world.
Originally running from 1960 to 1966, it transported a typical US sitcom set-up
of the time to a fantasy version of the stone age, where ancient man and
dinosaurs live together and have approximations of all the creature comforts of
20th century life.
After it ended in
1966, such was the popularity of The Flintstones that it never really
fully went away – it has returned time and again for various one-offs and
revival versions, of which this was one. It perhaps can’t be coincidence that
this follows just a couple of years after the acclaimed Muppet version of the Carol,
with even the title of this one aping the construction of the title of Kermit
and co.’s version. The Flintstones’ space age counterpart, The
Jetsons, had previously already produced a version of the Carol in
1985.
Cast and crew:
Alan Reed, the
original voice of Fred Flintstone, had died in 1977, and Henry Corden who does
voice acting duties here had been playing the part since then, and continued to
do so until the turn of the century. Fred’s best friend Barney is voiced here by
Frank Welker, one of several people to have taken on vocal duties for the
character since the death of voice acting legend Mel Blanc in 1989. Betty Jean Ward plays her namesake Betty Rubble, who unlike Fred and Barney had already had
several changes of voice actor through the years of the show, even during its
original run.
The only member
of the original 1960s voice cast to be present among the main four characters
is Jean Vander Pyl, who voices Wilma. She had played Fred’s wife throughout the
original run of the series, and would continue to do so until her death in 1999.
Writer Glenn Leopold was not part of the original Flintstones writing team, but had
been working on animated shows for Hanna-Barbera since the 1970s, including on
other Flintstone projects such as The New Fred and Barney Show
and The Flintstone Comedy Show. Director Joanna Romersa also had
extensive experience of working on animated productions, although mostly as an
animator or animation director rather than overall director.
Underdone Potato:
We sadly don’t
get the traditional Flintstones title sequence, merely a Christmassy
version of the theme tune over some standard-issue opening credits. No “Yabba-dabba
doo!” but that seems to be a deliberate stylistic decision, as they make us
wait for it until near the end. Until Fred / Scrooge has earned it, perhaps.
It’s a
story-within-a-story format as Fred is rehearsing for his leading role in the
local Bedrock am-dram production of A Christmas Carol. How Christmas,
and indeed a faux-Victorian era, exists in history is anybody’s guess, but
obviously this being The Flintstones it’s best not to question it too
much and just enjoy the ride.
Fred’s casting as
Scrooge has rather gone to his head, and he becomes so vain, conceited and
indeed obsessed about his starring role that he almost forgets to buy any
Christmas presents, and does forget to collect his daughter Pebbles from
the nursery. This, as you can imagine, doesn’t go down well with Wilma and Fred
doesn’t seem to be particularly popular with anybody as he just makes it to the
theatre on time for the performance.
Once the play has
started, we lose any pretence of it actually taking place on stage and it
morphs into a full-on Flintstones version of the Carol, and
actually rather a good one. There are some of the usual Flintstones touches,
such as dinosaurs and other creatures being used for all manner of purposes –
even a nappy pin in this one! They also have some of their dreadful pun names –
Jacob Marbley, Ebonezer Scrooge, etc – but setting the story in a
place called ‘Piltdown’ as a nod to its British origins is a nice touch. Mind
you, despite one or two attempts at British accents being on show, references
to ‘dollars’ rather than pounds and so forth keep this a very American-feeling
version.
It is,
however, surprisingly faithful. There are all sorts of lines from the original
either used whole or sensitively adapted that you never would have expected to
hear, and the story-within-a-story narrative stays very close to the original.
One change they do make is renaming Scrooge’s nephew to Ned rather than Fred,
presumably to avoid confusion with the star of the show.
 |
| I am prepared to bet that there will never be another version of the Carol, ever, which will feature a sentient nappy pin! |
A plot line
running through the ‘show outside the show’ is that various members of the cast
are falling sick with the ‘Bedrock Bug’. This means that Wilma, who’s the stage
manager and thus knows everybody’s lines, has to stand in as both the Ghost of
Christmas Past and as Belle, in the latter case replacing Maggie, the secretary
of Fred’s boss Mr Slate (who played Marley), a blonde bombshell-type character
who seems far more dated now than anything from the original book.
Scrooge’s parting
with Belle parallels Wilma’s own anger with Fred, and between each ‘act’ of the
story we are reminded that it’s supposed to be a play, as we nip back behind
the scenes at the theatre. I don’t think anybody would ever be fooled into
thinking there’s ever going to be any sort of permanent rift between Fred and
Wilma, but we are left in no doubt about how pissed off she is with him.
We see the usual
visions of school, Fezziwig’s – with Belle there as is so often the case – and
the aforementioned Belle leaving Scrooge, before it’s back behind the scenes to
see who’s fallen ill with the Bedrock Bug this time.
 |
| Wilma steps in as the Ghost of Christmas Past. |
Present:
The ghost here is
a traditional depiction, although I don’t know The Flintstones well
enough to know whether he’s played by a character who’s appeared before in the
series, or a one-off for this special. We see Nephew Ned’s and the Cratchits –
or the ‘Cragits’ as they are in this version – with an odd bit of Flinstones
family-swapping as Barney and Betty as the Cragits are joined not only by their
own child Bam-Bam as Tim, but Pebbles plays the Cragit daughter, and Dino is
playing their pet.
The story stays
so close to the original that there’s something I really didn’t expect here,
the foreshadowing of Tim / Bam Bam’s death. This version does, commendably,
certainly seem far more willing to talk about death than certain other animated adaptations that I could mention!
Yet to Come:
There are no
punches pulled in this section, either – the ghost is as you’d expect, even
though they do later reveal it’s being ‘played’ by Dino, bizarrely. Scrooge
sees that Tim has died and is shown the boy’s grave, and that he has died
himself and nobody mourns him, with the Old Joe section being seen. We even get
a glimpse of his corpse, not something I was a all expecting to see here.
What’s To-Day:
Scrooge is
reformed, and then ‘fact’ crosses over with fiction as they play-within-a-play
starts to unravel a little and we see Fred making things up with Wilma as well.
They do acknowledge when they go off-script, however, with the narrator in the
wings – one ‘Charles Brickens’ despairing that “none of this is in my script!”
and lamenting that “they’re making it all up!”
All ends well
both on-stage and off, with Scrooge having made Bob a partner in the business,
and Fred having made up with his family. The performance is a hit, although
there’s a sting in the tail for Fred as he comes down with the Bedrock Bug.
Wilma cheerfully insists him that it’s all right as it only lasts for 24 hours
– with it being Christmas Eve, he’ll be sick all Christmas Day!
 |
| Fred gets the Bedrock Bug! |
Review:
This was another
version which I wasn’t expecting very much from at all, only to be pleasantly
surprised by it. From the title alone I thought, “Oh, they’re trying to do a
Muppets and won’t be anywhere near as good.”
But I was wrong.
It has a good sense of humour to it, and a good respect for the book as well,
managing to include at least as much of the original text as the Muppet version
does. It doesn’t quite have their style and panache or sense of scale, but it’s
still a decent version of the tale and even the framing story doesn’t slow it
down too much.
In a nutshell:
Probably most
enjoyable if you’re already familiar with The Flintstones, but in no
way, shape or form a bad version.
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