The Film of the Series of
The Flintstones, distributed by
Univershell Pictures in 1994. Notably the first
Live-Action Adaptation of a
Hanna-Barbera cartoon, it was directed by Brian Levant and stars John Goodman as Fred Flintstone and Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble, respectively.
Fred loans some money from his and Wilma's bank account to Barney so that he and Betty can adopt a child. After the Rubbles adopt a cave boy named Bamm-Bamm, Barney decided to pay Fred back. Later, Cliff Vandercave, an executive vice-president at the Slate & Co. quarry, has the workers take an exam, offering vice-presidency to whoever gets the highest score. When Barney sees that Fred got the lowest score on the exam, he trades scores with him as payback, and Fred ends up becoming a vice-president because Barney's was the highest score. Unfortunately, Fred's first duty as vice-president is to fire Barney because he (or rather, Fred) got the lowest score. With Barney unable to get a new steady job, the Rubbles have to move in with the Flintstones, causing tension to mount between the families. As if that isn't enough, Cliff plans to embezzle the company out of billions of dollars and frame Fred for it...
The movie received generally negative reviews, but did very well financially at the box office. However, it would be six years before a sequel was released - a prequel titled
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, in which none of the cast from the first film reprised the roles.
Still as adaptations go, this is probably one of the most faithful you can find of a source material. Of course, it also helped that the creators
were supervising the whole project.
The film contains examples of:
- Alternate Continuity: The story of Bamm-Bamm's adoption is different here than it was in the original series.
- Likewise the sequel which re-tells how Fred and Barney met Wilma and Betty. Even throwing in the Great Gazoo for good measure.
- All-Star Cast: John Goodman, Rick Moranis, Rosie O'Donnell, Elizabeth Perkins, Halle Berry, and Kyle MacLachlan to name a few.
- Big Damn Movie
- Big "NO!"
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
The Dictabird: I should've signed up with
Disney. They never would've allowed this sort of thing to happen!
- Casting Gag: The Dictabird is voiced by Harvey Korman, who voiced the Great Gazoo in the original cartoon.
- He was also in the second movie as Colonel Slaghoople.
- Chekhov's Gun: The dictabird.
- Comic Book Adaptation: Harvey Comics published a notable one for this movie. The comic contained the film's story drawn in both the live-action style (printed in red ink) and the original cartoon's style (printed in blue ink), and it came with a pair of "Doublevision" glasses. The reader would have to look through one lens of the glasses to read the story drawn in one of the two styles (the red lens for the cartoon style and the blue lens for the live-action style).
- Does Not Like Shoes: The entire cast, as usual with the Flintstones franchise.
- Eureka Moment: Wilma finds a way to prove Fred's innocence.
Wilma: Fred may be a lot of things, but he isn't a criminal.
Wilma's mom: Can you prove it?
Fred actor on TV: Yabba-dabba-dabba!
Actor dictabird on TV: Yabba-dabba-dabba!
Wilma: Maybe I can.
- Fridge Logic: In-Universe
Barney: The only reason you got that job is 'cause I switched tests with you.
Fred: Oh-ho-ho, that's rich! What good would it do me to switch tests with the guy that got the lowest score?
Barney: Think about it Fred!
(Fred contemplates this)
- Why did Vandercave think it was a good idea to have the smartest employee be brought in as a lackey?
- He didn't. Vandercave figured out Fred couldn't be the smartest one.
- How did Vandercave manage to capture Bamm-Bamm and why didn't Bamm-Bamm just break out of the vines?
- Funny Background Event: While Betty and Wilma aren't looking, Bamm Bamm pushes Pebbles into two full revolutions on a swing.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: "Please mark all test answers with a well sharpened #2 chisel
pencil
."- "He's as drunk as a skunkosaurus."
- Kirk's Rock: The entire town of Bedrock was built here. After filming, the studio left it up for a few days and allowed tourists in to visit the set.
- Logo Joke: The Univershell Pictures logo, in both films. In the first movie, where it is seen after the family arrives at the drive-in in the opening credits, a re-orchestration of the 1958-1975 Revue/Universal Television theme is heard as a Mythology Gag (this being, after all, a show from The Sixties).
- Mythology Gag: Mr. Slate addresses Fred as "Mr. Flagstone" at one point, and Fred mistakenly introduces Wilma as "Mrs. Flagstone". The pilot for the original cartoon was titled The Flagstones.
- Prequel: The second movie
- Powersuit Monkey: One of fred's co-workers.
- Read The Fine Print: Fred signs a bunch of forms without reading them, and they turn out to be firing notices for all his friends. The dictabird even tells him, "Only an idiot signs something before reading it."
- Recycled Soundtrack: In a sense. Mel Blanc's previously-recorded yaps for Dino from the original series were re-used for the films. Blanc himself had been dead for five years by the time the first film was released, and his voice was initially used without a screen credit, prompting his estate to slap the studio with a lawsuit before one was put in for the home video release.
- Sexy Secretary: Halle Berry's character
- Shout Out: Barney drives an ice cream truck that's playing the theme from The Jetsons.
- The Other Darrin: The 2nd movie recasts all the characters due to taking place before Fred and Barney were married to Wilma and Betty
- Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain
- What Could Have Been: At one point, Richard Donner was attached to direct, Joel Silver was going to produce and Jim Belushi was going to play Fred. When the movie went from Warner Bros. to Universal, Donner stayed around but had to pull out due to conflicting schedules with Maverick.
- Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase were all considered for the role of Fred, but they were all deemed too skinny, and putting any of them in a fat suit would look too inappropriate.
- Moranis claims in an interview that John Candy was taking the role of Fred originally, but his death before filming ended up placing Goodman in the role at the last minute.
- Which would mean that the movie was filmed and released over the course of little less than 3 months. Hollywood moves fast, apparently.
- The role of Sharon Stone was written for... Sharon Stone. But due to scheduling conflicts with The Specialist, she dropped out and Halle Berry signed on.
- Janine Turner was considered for the role of Betty.
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