The Flintstones (film) (2024)

The Flintstones (also known as The Flintstones Movie or The Flintstones: The Live-Action Movie in a working title) is a 1994 American comedy film and the live-action adaptation of the original series of the same name. The B-52's (as The BC-52's in the film) performed their version of the iconic theme song, "Meet the Flintstones".

Plot[]

In prehistoric suburban Bedrock, the evil and villainous new vice-president Cliff Vandercave and his sinister and seductive secretary (hench-woman)Sharon Stone discuss their plan to swindle the company of its vast fortune and flee, and that they need one of their employees to be responsible for it. Fred Flintstone loans his best friend and neighbor Barney Rubble money so that he and his wife Betty can adopt a little boy named Bamm-Bamm, who can only pronounce his own name. Although he's initially difficult to control because he was reared by mastodons and has super strength, he eventually warms up to his new family. Barney vows to repay his friend. Despite his mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople's objections, Fred's wife Wilma remains supportive of his decision.

Cliff holds an aptitude test; the worker with the highest mark will become the company's new vice-president. Barney gets the highest score but switches his paper with Fred, whom he knows will fail. Fred receives the promotion, but his first order is to dismiss Barney, who now effectively has the lowest score. Fred doesn't want to fire him, but Cliff tells Fred if he doesn't, he will fire Barney for him and Fred will be fired too. Fred reluctantly but willingly accepts, but does his best to help Barney support his family, even inviting the Rubbles to live with them so that they can rent out their house. However, Fred's job and newfound wealth put a strain on his relationships with Wilma and the Rubbles. Cliff eventually tricks Fred into dismissing the workers, over the objections of his office Dictabird. Later, Barney confronts Fred after seeing worker riots on the news. He reveals that he switched tests with Fred, and the Rubbles move out, despite having nowhere to live. Wilma and her daughter Pebbles also leave for her mother's house, leaving Fred behind.

Fred goes to the quarry and realizes his mistake and Cliff's plan, but also finds out that Cliff has manipulated events to make it look as if Fred stole the money, and has reported it to the police. A manhunt for Fred ensues by the police and the workers. Wilma and Betty see this on the news, and break into Slate & Co. to get the Dictabird, the only witness who can clear Fred's name, unaware that Cliff saw them from his office window. As Fred attempts to enter a cave where the workers are seeking refuge, they see through his disguise and attempt to hang him. Barney is almost hanged as well after he admits his part. Fred and Barney reconcile, but before they can be hanged, Wilma and Betty arrive with the Dictabird, who tells them the true story. The workers release Fred and Barney after realizing that Cliff was the one who fired them.

Cliff kidnaps Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm and demands the Dictabird in exchange for the children's safe return. Fred and Barney confront Cliff at the quarry, where Cliff has tied Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to a huge machine. Though they hand him the Dictabird, Cliff activates the machine to stall them. Barney rescues the children while Fred destroys the machine. The Dictabird escapes from Cliff and lures him back to the quarry, where Miss Stone knocks him out, having had a change of heart after learning that Cliff was planning to betray her. The police, Wilma, Betty, and Mr. Slate arrive and Cliff attempts to flee, but he is petrified by a substance falling from the machine.

With the Dictabird's help, all charges against Fred are dropped, while Miss Stone is arrested as Cliff's accomplice, though Fred is confident she will be granted leniency for helping them stop Cliff. Impressed with the substance that Fred inadvertently created by destroying the machine, Mr. Slate dubs the substance "concrete" in honor of his daughter Concretia and makes plans to produce it with Fred as the president of its division, thus ending the Stone Age. Having realized the negatives of his wealth and status as the new CEO, Fred declines and asks that the workers be rehired and given the job benefits he initially set out to achieve, which is granted. As the Flintstones and Rubbles have finally made amends, Fred and Barney get into a humorous quarrel when Fred once again asks Barney for a small amount of money for breakfast.

As the movie ends with a live action version of the original ending of the Drive-in movie, the Flintstone family gets something to eat, goes home and Fred gets locked out of the house by Baby Puss, much to his dismay.

Characters[]

Locations[]

Objects[]

Animals[]

Vehicles[]

Songs[]

• Meet the Flintstones
• The Bedrock Twitch

Media[]

• Tar Wars (movie by Gorge Lucas)
• Radio Bedrock
• Bedrock's Most Wanted (crime show)
• Carbon & Hobbes (news-slab comic strip)
• Sports Excavated (sports magazine)
• Cinderock (fairy tale)
• Cooking with Betty Rocker (cookbook)
• The Young and the Thumbless (soap opera)

Events[]

• Bamm-Bamm's adoption
• Interlodge Championship Tourney

Cast (in alphabetical order)[]

Production[]

Development and Writing[]

In 1985, producers Keith Barish and Joel Silver bought the rights for a live-action feature film version of The Flintstones and commissioned Steven E. de Souza to write a script with Richard Donner hired to direct. De Souza's script was eventually rejected and Mitch Markowitz was hired to write a script. Said to be a cross of The Grapes of Wrath, Markowitz commented that "I don't even remember it that well, but Fred and Barney leave their town during a terrible depression and go across the country, or whatever that damn prehistoric thing is, looking for jobs.

They wind up in trailer parks trying to keep their families together. They exhibit moments of heroism and poignancy". Markowitz's version was apparently too sentimental for director Donner, who disliked it. Eventually, the rights were bought by Amblin Entertainment and Steven Spielberg who, after working with Goodman on Always, was determined to cast him in the lead as Fred. Brian Levant was hired as director, knowing he was the right person because of his love for the original series. They knew he was an avid fan of the series because of his Flintstones items collection and the knowledge he had from the series.

When Levant was hired, all previous scripts were thrown out. Levant then recruited what he called an "all-star writing team" which consisted of his writer friends from television shows such as Family Ties, Night Court, and Happy Days. "This is a sitcom on steroids", said Levant. "We were just trying to improve it." Dubbed the Flintstone Eight, the group wrote a new draft but four more round table sessions ensued, each of which was attended by new talent. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel took home a reported $100,000 for just two days work.

Rick Moranis of Disney's Honey I Shrunk the Kids was also present at Levant's roundtables, and later described the film as "one of those scripts that had about 18 writers". The effects for Dino, the Dictabird and other prehistoric creatures were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop while most of the film's CGI effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic after Levant was impressed by their work on the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

Casting[]

In 1989, Steven Spielberg directed John Goodman in the film Always. Spielberg was determined on having Goodman playing Fred, going so far as to announce this during a table read of Always. Goodman wasn't enthusiastic about playing the role, believing it would typecast him. Goodman dyed his hair black for the role.

Rick Moranis was cast as Barney, who felt more comfortable in the role, even going so far as to say he'd be open to playing it again. Moranis also dyed his hair blond.

Rosie O'Donnell was cast as Betty, despite not having the slim figure, who considered herself favored purely because she could do the signature laugh. Unlike the other cast, O'Donnell didn't feel the need to bring any more depth to the character than necessary, simply seeing Betty for the animated counterpart she was.

Before Kyle MacLachlan was cast as Cliff Vandercave, the original choice for the role was Dabney Coleman, but Coleman was unavailable due to other filming commitments, Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci and William Shatner were also considered, but Kyle MacLachlan was cast because of his successful audition.

Sharon Stone was the first choice to play her namesake Miss Sharon Stone, but was unavailable due to other commitments. Singer and dancer Paula Abdul was the second choice for the role, however it felt that Abdul wasn't the right size, because Abdul is 5"0 and would've looked extremely short next to Kyle MacLachlan who played Cliff Vandercave and MacLachlan is 6"0. Nicole Kidman was the third choice for the role, but turned it down. Brooke Shields was the fourth choice, but the production crew couldn't picture her as a sexy villainous secretary.

Halle Berry accepted the role after doing a screen test.

The role of Mr. Slate was written for Max Wright better known for playing the patriarch Willie Tanner on the NBC sitcom ALF, but however Wright turned down the offer, thinking the character was too similar to Willie Tanner. Stephen Tobolowsky was the second choice, but was unavailable and Dann Floreck was cast as Mr. Slate.

Filming

Principal photography began on May 17, 1993, and wrapped on August 30, 1993. Parts of the film were shot at Glen Canyon in Utah as well as Los Angeles County, California.

Reception[]

Box office[]

Despite the negative reviews, The Flintstones was a box office success, grossing $130,531,208 domestically, including the $37,182,745 it made during its 4-day Memorial Day opening weekend in 1994. It performed even better internationally, making another $211,100,000 internationally, for a total of $341,631,208 worldwide, more than seven times its $46 million budget

Critical reception[]

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 22% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The site's consensus states, "The Flintstones wastes beloved source material and imaginative production design on a tepid script that plunks Bedrock's favorite family into a cynical story awash with lame puns." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews", based on 15 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.

On the syndicated television program Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and his colleague Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two thumbs "down", with Ebert giving it 2.5 stars out of 4 and Siskel giving it 1.5 stars out of 4. They both mentioned that its main story lines (embezzlement, mother-in-law problems, office politics and extra-marital affairs) were storylines for adult films, and ones that children would not be able to understand. However, many critics praised the film's look, faithfulness to the cartoon, Rosanna Norton's costume designs and Goodman's performance.

A few reviews were positive, including Time magazine which said "The Flintstones is fun", and Joel Siegel from ABC's Good Morning America and WABC-TV who called the film "pre-historical, hysterical... great fun". In a 1997 interview, Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera Productions and co-creator of The Flintstones, stated that, although he was impressed by the film's visuals, he felt the story "wasn't as good as I could have made it."

Accolades[]

O'Donnell won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in this film. The film also won Worst Screenplay and was nominated for two others: Taylor as Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress (the second performance in the film nominated for this award) and for the film as Worst Remake or Sequel. At the 1994 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Resurrection of a TV Show and Worst Actress for O'Donnell. However, the film also received four Saturn Award nominations, including Best Fantasy Film, Best Costume Design and Best Supporting Actress for O'Donnell's and Berry's performances.

Home media[]

The film was released, first on VHS and LaserDisc on November 8, 1994 by MCA/Universal Home Video. It later made its debut on DVD on March 16, 1999 and finally to Blu-ray on August 19, 2014.

Gallery[]

Notes/Trivia[]

• The plot of this movie is somewhat reminiscent of the plot from the original series episode "Fred's New Boss", except the episode had Barney in the executive position and getting rich while looking down on Fred.
• The movie starts and ends with a live action version of the original intro, "Meet the Flintstones" and ending of a movie at the Bedrock Drive-In Theater.
• The appearance by the "BC-52s" continues the tradition of popular real-life bands appearing as prehistoric versions of themselves in the original series. Similarly, Elizabeth Taylor's cameo also invokes memories of animated celebrity cameos by the likes of Tony Curtis in the original.
• Bank of Ameroka, a parody of Bank of America, would seem to confirm that in the Universal Pictures-depicted Flintstones universe, Bedrock is in Ameroka.
• The film advertised at the drive-in movie theater at the beginning of the film, is Gorge Lucas's Tar Wars, a parody of George Lucas's Star Wars.
• Toy-S-Aurus is a parody of toy chain, Toys-R-Us.
• The cooking book that was written by Betty Rocker is a parody of Betty Crocker.
• CNN is parodied as the Cave News Network.
• The Young and the Thumbless is a parody of the soap opera, The Young and the Restless.
• The Dictabird was voiced by Harvey Korman, who was the voice of Gazoo in the sixth and final season of the original Flintstones series.
• Jean Vander Pyl, the original voice of Wilma, made a cameo at Fred's party.
• Flintstones series creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera make cameos as a boardroom executive and the Mersandes owner outside the restaurant, respectively.
• The Bedrock News reports on the "Jetstones" referring to The Jetsons, the futuristic counterpart to the animated series.
• When the news-slab reports on Fred being indicted, the animated counterpart of him has been chiseled in.
• Avrock is a parody of Avon.

Errors[]

• Fred says he met Wilma at a restaurant she was working at, which is true when shown in the prequel, but he didn't win an all-you-can-eat contest.

See also[]

• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
• The Flintstones (1994 Ocean Software video game)