Western Animation / The Man Called Flintstone

Who do they call, when the chips are startin’ to fall?
Just when the villains are winnin’, trouble’s beginnin’ to brew
The Man Called Flintstone… that’s who
Who is the man who seems more than merely a man?
Who chases characters shady while every lady demands?
The Man Called Flintstone… who else… who else… who else?

— Opening/Closing song

The Man Called Flintstone is a 1966 American animated musical comedy film produced by Hanna-Barbera and released by Columbia Pictures. It was the second Hanna-Barbera feature, after Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! (1964). The film is a theatrical spin-off of the 1960-66 television series, The Flintstones, and is a Swan Song of the TV show, made immediately following the end of production on the series. The working title of the film was That Man Flintstone, with the film poster featuring Fred in the same pose of the Bob Peak poster for Our Man Flint. The film is a parody of the James Bond films. This is the only animated Flintstones film to get a theatrical release and the only feature-length film (there have been several made-for-TV movies) to feature the original 1960-66 series voice cast (almost; Betty is still voiced by Gerry Johnson in this film).^note This is also the first time Henry Corden appears as Fred, although it's just for Fred's singing voice in "Teammates". Following Alan Reed's passing in mid-1977, he would go on to succeed Reed as the official voice of Fred that same year beginning with later episodes of Laff-A-Lympics and the Christmas special A Flintstone Christmas.

When Agent Rock Slag is injured in the line of duty, his superiors recruit Fred Flintstone due to his resemblance to Slag and assign him to complete his mission: to meet Tanya, the Green Goose's #1 lieutenant, who has agreed to turn over the evil Green Goose in return for a chance to meet the irresistible Rock Slag.

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This animated film provides examples of the following tropes:

• 10-Minute Retirement: After learning how dangerous the Green Goose really is and being chased halfway across Italy thanks to both some of Rock Slag's fangirls and Ali and Bobo which also makes him miss the entire night with Wilma, Fred decides to drop the assignment and leave it to the professionals. However, guilt over the fact that the criminal could threaten everyone in the world, Pebbles included, convinces him to take it up again.
• All Up to You: Happens in the climax when Fred and Barney find themselves the... well, the only ones who could stop the Green Goose's plot; The Chief and Rock Slag had both been incapacitated, while Triple X was actually the Green Goose.
• Amusement Park of Doom: The Green Goose's hideout is an abandoned amusement park.
• Art Shift: The song "Someday" is animated with child-like drawings.
• Bad Boss: An Informed Attribute with the Green Goose, as Ali and Bobo spent a good portion of the movie worried about what he'd do to them if they didn't do away with Fred (who they thought was Slag). Apart from the fact that the Green Goose actually wanted Slag alive in order to get information on the anti-missile-missile that could ruin his plan, he didn't display any kind of hostility towards his cronies, even congratulating Ali and Bobo when they brought him the information he was after.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The opening sequence sets up that Fred is being chased by Ali and Bobo, apparently beginning his role as a superspy In Medias Res, but it turns out to be secret agent Rock Slag instead, who just so happens to be identical to Fred, down to wearing Fred's typical wardrobe in the scene.
  • During an operating room scene, the doctors are shown turning the head around cause it was on backwards and using tools like chisels and hole drillers, leading us to believe that Rock Slag is undergoing intense surgery. Turns out the doctors were actually putting the statue that fell with him back together.
• Big Damn Movie: While most standard episodes of the TV series were wacky sitcom hijinx, the film's plot is a global-spanning adventure involving Fred having to stop a criminal mastermind holding the world hostage.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Ali and Bobo.
• Bound and Gagged: During the song "Spy Type Guy", Fred has a Fantasy Sequence where he imagines himself as a spy. At one point, he performs a Metronomic Man Mashing to a bad guy next to a woman who is gagged and tied up to a chair.
  • After Fred and Barney escape their prison cell, they bind and gag the guard dog of all things!
• Butt-Monkey: Even though he's a master spy, Rock sure suffers a lot of bad luck and even worse injuries.
• Call-Back: The musical number "Team Mates" has Fred and Barney's plane break apart into The Flintstone Flyer from the very first episode.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The tape-recorder bird that Fred gets from the Chief. This becomes instrumental in getting the keys to unlock him and Barney out of their imprisonment by Ali and Bobo.
  • The faux diamond necklace that Fred buys for Wilma. After the Green Goose locks him and Barney in his missile, he sees it and tells them he will spare them if he can have it, not knowing that it's fake and Fred plays along with it. He opens the missile door, and they pull him in by the necklace. His cohorts go in to help, and Fred and Barney exit and lock them in, and they are blasted off into space.
• Chick Magnet: Agent Slag is presented as being irresistible to women, to the point that one woman follows Fred (whom she thinks is Slag) to Bedrock all the way from Italy to get him to marry her.
• Covers Always Lie:
  • The film's promotional image (seen above) features two Femme Fatale characters, the implication being they'd play important supporting roles to Fred's spy. In truth, only one of them has plot relevance (Tanya, the one wearing a hat-mask) while the other lady doesn't even exist in the story proper, but as a mere figment of Fred's imagination (seen briefly during the "Spy Type Guy" song number). The same image also shows three spy gadgets, but the first two only appear in the aforementioned musical number.
  • Downplayed with the blurb "Hear Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty sing seven bright new songs!" While there are seven lyrical songs in the film (assuming that the beginning and ending theme count as the same song), Fred and Barney are only shown directly singing one ("Team Mates"). Wilma and Betty do not get any at all.
• Darkest Hour: Fred is in the clutches of Green Goose thanks to Tanya's betrayal, the Chief getting knocked out by Ali and Bobo, and they got the Top Secret message from him that the countering anti-missile missile to the Inter-Rockinential Missile is not operational yet which prompts them to activate it soon.
• Death by Materialism: Green Goose would've won if he didn't lay eyes on the faux diamond necklace Fred had.
• Demoted to Extra: Bamm-Bamm has no dialogue in the movie. Pebbles is largely unimportant, but gets two musical numbers (one of them helping to motivate Fred to continue his espionage job). Dino and Hoppy only appear at the very beginning, although their appearance does kick off the entire plot, with an injury Fred receives while returning from taking them to an animal shelter while he's out of town is what results in him going to the same hospital Rock happens to be in.
• Dramatic Irony: In the climax, Fred, unaware that Chief Bolder had been incapacitated by Ali and Bobo, remained calm and cool against the Green Goose, even as Barney was being stretched on the rack^note which actually adds another layer of cringe to his torture. It's only when Ali and Bobo show up that Fred finally learns that he and Barney are on their own.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After dealing with the trip through grief and misunderstandings trying to save the world from the Green Goose as replacement to top secret agent, Fred returns back home to Bedrock with a parade in his honor for saving the world as a hero and got to spend his vacation privately with his friends and family since the restaurant incident in Italy was cleared up.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: Averted with Tanya. The brim of her hat goes over her eyes, but has eye holes so they can still be seen.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Fred and Barney wind up trapped in the Green Goose's missile, which is soon to take off, they're morose but accept their fate and change the settings so no one else will get hurt.
• Failure Montage: Two songs during the movie feature these:
  • An antagonistic example occurs in "The Happy Sounds of Pareé". While the Flintstones and Rubbles tour Paris, Ali and Bobo keep attempting to take out Fred with increasingly complex plots, only for them to backfire on themselves.
  • "Pensate Amore" takes place in a Fantasy Sequence with Fred and Wilma in a medieval setting. All of Fred's attempts to reach Wilma at the balcony of a tower end in failure. When it looks like Wilma has given up on him, Fred walks away sad, but Wilma sends little angels that carry Fred to her.
• Fake Defector: Tanya to the Green Goose.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: What agent Rock Slag ultimately amounts to. For all the shilling he gets from Chief Boulder, he does nothing throughout his appearances except getting beaten up and humiliated one way or another. He never once even displays a lick of resourcefulness, unlike Fred, who ironically ends up doing Slag's job far better than he does.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: Ali and Bobo use one to take the Chief out of commission.
• Friendship Song: The song "Team Mates", sung by Fred and Barney, is about how they work together and are always at each other's side, no matter what happens.
• Gay Paree: Various sights of Paris were seen during a song number, depicting it as a Stone Age version of this trope. Unusually for the series, Paris doesn't have a "prehistoric" rock-pun name, though the wood-and-stone-constructed "Eiffelrock Tower" is shown.
• Grand Finale: Of the original series. It was last thing produced using the original cast and crew, and was released to theaters several months after the final new episode aired on TV.
• Guile Hero: As Fred and Barney are about to accept their fates, Fred laments that he'll never be able to give Wilma an apology gift, which is revealed to be a (faux) diamond necklace. The Green Goose lays his eyes out it, unaware that it's fake, but Fred plays it into his favor and allows the Green Goose to have it if they let them go. Goose falls for it hook, line, and sinker.
• Hope Spot: Rock Slag recovers from his latest injury and resume the mission, until he got beaten up by Wilma and the Rubbles who mistaken him for Fred whom they assume cheated on Wilma.
• Identical Stranger: Agent Rock Slag to Fred.
• Kavorka Man: Rock Slag apparently possesses enough charm to win over any female who lays eyes on him, and yet he looks just like Fred Flintstone. Yeah...
• Knight of Cerebus: The Green Goose was one of the most threatening villains who appeared in the series at that point.
• Logo Joke: Until distribution rights shifted from Columbia to Warner Bros. (Hanna-Barbera's current parent), the movie began by showing Wilma positioned as the Columbia Torch Lady.
• Master of Disguise: Triple X is a villainous example, as he is later revealed to actually be the Green Goose.
• Meaningful Echo: Whenever Triple X changed into a disguise, he would spin like a tornado. When he was revealed to be the Green Goose, he changed into his costume by spinning like a wheel.
• The Mole: Triple X is actually the Green Goose.
• Mood Whiplash: The ending of the song "Someday" which involves Fred realizing the all-too-serious stakes of allowing the Green Goose's plan to proceed. It's a rare case of the franchise actually acknowledging something serious along the lines of "Pebbles won't have a future if the Big Bad isn't stopped."
• Never Say "Die": While it’s not confirmed that they die, the Green Goose and his henchmen are defeated when they are trapped inside of a missile heading into space. Their chances aren’t great.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wilma and the Rubbles mistaking Rock for Fred and beating him silly results in Fred having to continue his involvement in the case.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Fred learns that the Chief won't be coming, and that Agent XXX is really the Green Goose.
  • Bobo when he and Ali saw Fred (who they assume was Rock Slag) is still alive for the "third" time.
  Bobo: We'll live like kings! (sees Fred) We'll die like dogs.
• Oh, No... Not Again!:
  • The Chief's reaction when he sees Rock out cold for the third time.
  • When Fred encounters the fangirl and her brother again, who apparently tracked him down from Europe, he's forced into another Chase Scene with Scooby-Dooby Doors.
• Outside Ride: As a result of having "last-class tickets" for the plane that the Flintstones also take, the Rubbles have seats on the wing of the plane. This previously happened in the original series episode "Deep in the Heart of Texarock" with Fred and Barney.
• Poor Communication Kills: Fred takes the job because nobody clarifies who the Green Goose is and he assumes they're asking him to catch a rare bird. He's naturally terrified when he finds out the Green Goose is a dangerous criminal. Leading to...
• Refusal of the Call: Though he later accepted it when he realize his daughter's future is at stake.
  Fred: It's too dangerous. I have a family to think about. Pebbles' future.
  Chief: If we don't stop the Green Goose, Pebbles won't have a future!
  Fred: I'm sorry, but you'll just have to get somebody else.
• The Reveal: Triple X turns out to be the Green Goose.
• Shotgun Wedding: Fred encounters a fangirl of Slag's who wants to marry him. She even brought along her big brother, to make sure he goes through with it.
• Significant Double Casting: Paul Frees voices both the Green Goose and Triple X. It initially doesn't seem like much of a big deal since he voices several other characters in the film as well, up until it's revealed that the two characters are the same person.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The man who sells Fred a faux diamond necklace indirectly helps save the world.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After Fred's unwitting spy role keeps him out all night he returns to the hotel expecting Wilma to be ready to clobber him but discovers she fell asleep waiting for him instead. He's able to pretend that he made it back during the night, saving him some grief for one time in the film.
• Using You All Along: Fred finds out all too late that Agent XXX is really The Green Goose.
• Visual Pun: A double. When Fred finds his way into his office, the Chief searches the room in case there's a bug. Opening the ballast of one of his bed posts, he finds a bug with a miniature radio.
  Chief: I might have known. They have my bed bugged!
• Wham Line: The Reveal of who the Green Goose is.
  Fred: Hey, that's funny Triple X. The Green Goose was wearing a mask like this!
  Triple X: He was? What a very clever disguise, don't you think? Now may I have it back, please?
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • The basic plot of the movie is taken wholesale from the James Bond novel Moonraker.
  • This movie recycles the plots of Fred being a double for a powerful lookalike from the episodes The Tycoon and King for a Night & the James Bond parody from the episodes Dr. Sinister and The Stonefinger Caper.

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