Rejoice in your untouched nostalgic memories of childhood as they serve you best when you never have to confront them as an adult to see how well they’ve stood the test of time. Typically Hanna-Barbera mainstays like The Jetsons and The Flinstones endure, and can easily be revisited, retaining their comic charm. However, there is one threat to their collective legacies, and that’s the fish-out-of-water crossover film, The Jetsons Meet the Flinstones, which combined the titular franchises halfway through The Jetsons’ second life and more than twenty years after The Flintstones went off air. While the story has enough promise, where the film feels like it betrays the cartoons is in the updated animation style.
When Elroy’s time machine sends the Jetsons back to the Stone Age, they meet up with the Flinstones and discover the prehistoric life to be exactly the vacation they needed from their overcomplicated lives in the future. However, in attempting to return home, the Flinstones get sent back to the future instead and get a vacation all their own as the handyman works to fix the time machine which was busted in the last journey. At first both families find themselves in paradise, but soon their new lives become more than they can handle and they’re eager to return to their respective time periods.
What makes The Jetsons Meet the Flinstones feel disingenuous to both cartoons is the same factor that made the revival of The Jetsons more than 20 years after its original run feel off: the animation style. In this feature-length TV movie, it’s clear that Hanna-Barbera’s animation styles changed from the classic solid form into something more cartoonish, a change more evident with the Flintstones than the Jetsons, but present all the same. It’s still a fun movie in terms of writing as it hearkens back to the jokes that made both series great, but it just doesn’t recapture the magic of the original animation.
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones features the voice talents of animation pros like Daws Butler, Mel Blanc, Henry Corden, Julie McWhirter, Don Messick, George O'Hanlon, Penny Singleton, Jean Vander Pyl, Janet Waldo, and Frank Welker.
DVD Bonus Features
There are no extras on this made-to-order DVD from the online WB Shop.
"The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones" is on sale June 14, 2011 and is not rated. Adventure, Animation, Children & Family, Comedy. Directed by Ray Patterson, Don Lusk. Written by Don Nelson & Arthur Alsberg. Starring Daws Butler, Don Messick, Frank Welker, George OHanlon, Janet Waldo, Mel Blanc.
