The Flintstones: On the Rocks
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The Flintstones: On the Rocks is a 2001 American animated made-for-television film featuring characters from The Flintstones franchise. It debuted on November 3, 2001 on Cartoon Network and was directed by Chris Savino, (who later took over as showrunner for the revival seasons of Dexter's Laboratory which premiered on the same year and month, and The Powerpuff Girls for the last two seasons as well as being a writer for the previous seasons, serve as producer on the first season of Johnny Test (2005), director of Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil and then created The Loud House for Nickelodeon), and David Smith. It was dedicated to Hoyt Curtin (longtime Hanna-Barbera conductor and composer) and William Hanna (creator of The Flintstones and founder of Hanna-Barbera Productions with partner Joseph Barbera). It was the last Flintstones production until the direct-to-video film The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!. In addition to the show's traditional animation style the film also featured stop-motion animation.
It is the only Flintstones production by Cartoon Network Studios after Hanna-Barbera was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation in 2001 (Warner Bros. later re-acquired Cartoon Network Studios from Turner Broadcasting System, reuniting Cartoon Network Studios with Warner Bros. Animation, on March 4, 2019). In format, the film was intended to emulate the first two seasons of the 1960s series, distinctly more mature and aimed at older audiences than later seasons, and therefore chose to focus more on the relationships between the original core cast of Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty. The story is set before Pebbles' birth, at a time Fred and Wilma's marriage is troubled, prompting the Rubbles to take them to Rockapulco for their anniversary vacation, to save their marriage. But while there, Fred and Wilma both find themselves tempted in other directions.
Chris Savino and David Smith didn't care for Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, so the film took place before they were born. Since its original broadcast, the film has not been released on home video, though bootleg copies exist via various sources. The film was banned from broadcast on Cartoon Network, not due to the topic of divorce (despite possible rumors), but due to the negative portrayal of Hispanic people.
Plot
Fred and Wilma Flintstone visit a family therapist to try to fix their faltering marriage. Wilma is growing tired of Fred's attitude, especially while Barney and Betty are enjoying a happy life well into their marriage. Their session ends with a physical altercation between the two. On Fred and Wilma's anniversary, which they both forgot, the Rubbles arrange a trip to Rockapulco in an attempt to save the Flintstones' marriage.
Shortly after their arrival, a thief, Xavier, steals a diamond from a jewelry store and is chased by the guard into the same hotel the Flintstones and Rubbles are staying at. In the ensuing chaos, Xavier's bag is switched with Wilma's, and that's when he immediately begins plotting to get the diamond back. At first, things do not improve between Fred and Wilma, to the point that Wilma lashes out at Fred and nearly decides to divorce him, but when she stumbles across the diamond in her suitcase and, assuming that Fred bought it as a surprise present, she quickly makes up with him. Capitalizing on the circumstances, Fred goes along with the charade, but finds that their newfound passion is short-lived, as Fred's demeanor slowly puts Wilma off again. While spying on Wilma, Xavier notices this and masquerades as a suave Englishman in order to seduce Wilma by inviting her to dinner. Wilma accepts the invitation and spends time with Xavier.
Fred, feeling guilty, decides to make it up to Wilma, but catches her from afar with Xavier and is heartbroken, and he starts to drink himself silly while speaking with another attractive woman at the bar. Wilma rebuffs Xavier's advances out of loyalty to Fred, but changes her mind when she sees him with the lady. While dancing, however, Xavier reveals his true intentions and attempts to take the diamond from Wilma, who was wearing it as a necklace. A chase ensues throughout the ballroom with Fred, Barney and Xavier each trying to get the diamond, but fails when it eventually falls into Wilma's hands, prompting Xavier to abduct her and flee in his car. The ensuing car chase eventually leads to a bridge above a volcano, where Xavier threatens to kill Wilma if she does not hand the diamond over. Fred appears and gives a passionate speech about how he has not realized until now that even though he was not rich enough to buy the diamond, he is still the richest man in the world just by having Wilma as his wife.
Fred tries to attack him, but Xavier punches him unconscious. Wilma beats up Xavier in retaliation and ends up getting him arrested by the same lady who Fred spoke with at the bar earlier, who is revealed to have been a policewoman on Xavier's trail. With their marriage restored, Fred and Wilma enjoy the rest of their trip, while Barney and Betty begin to bicker about their own marriage after seeing the passion Fred and Wilma ultimately displayed for each other. Over the end credits, Dino, who was assigned by Fred to guard their home, is revealed to have made a complete mess and left the home in the hands of his friends before leaving on his own trip.
Yabba-Dabba-Bad Qualities on the Rocks
- This film feels more of an absolute disgrace to the Flintstones franchise, as it felt less like the Flintstones and more like Married... with Children, Velma, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" and modern Family Guy, to the point where Seth MacFarlane's cancelled Flintstones reboot would've been easier to sit through than this. Yes, the Flintstones wasn't meant for kids, and it's understandable why they wanted to make this more adult by today's standards, but even if this wasn't pitched for Adult Swim, it's still horrendously executed.
- The film is more slow paced than other original Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
- A long scene involving Wilma and Fred having dinner.
- An overly long montage of Fred driving to Roxico with an unknown hottie, who... Spoiler Alert! is an undercover cop from Roxico.
- A long scenes of Xavier the jewel thief trying to unlock the jewel and Fred yanking on a bird's tail.
- An overly slow opening teaser of Wilma and Flintstone in a marriage counselor's office.
- This film contains tons of inappropriate content even by The Flintstones' standards. Such as the two sex scenes, though luckily off-screen.
- As said back in YDBQOTR#1, The Flintstones were aimed at an older audience, but none of its episodes added content that would automatically make The Flintstones exclusively for adults unlike this, so keep that mind.
- The animation, while decent is nowhere near as memorable as the Hanna-Barbera style and it fits more for Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls (both of which ironically Chris Savino was also involved in), despite how great Craig Hellman's designs.
- Not to mention, even the sound effects don't fit well for the Flintstones.
- Fred Flintstone is an unlikable jerk in the first half of the film, luckily he redeems himself in the second half.
- He was extremely neglectful towards his wife Wilma, even for the topic of divorce; not even finding her to be a natural redhead.
- He was a nasty friend to Betty and Barney.
- He is absolutely racist towards Hispanics, as he finds them to be "idiotic"; not to mention, the fact that he calls Spanish a "crazy", "mixed up", "jumbled", and "backwards" language.
- This film is especially insulting towards Hispanic people; but don't ask why Hispanics exist in the Flintstones universe, it's a cartoon.
- Unsurprisingly enough, this was the reason Cartoon Network banned the film during its broadcast. Not because of the topic of divorce, given that Courage the Cowardly Dog got away with a lot of more mature subjects.
- Somehow, given that this took place before Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were born, the Flintstones and Rubbles were married on the exact same day, bringing The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas into continuity.
- The writing is so mean-spirited, it's filled with unlikable characters, especially Fred, as confirmed above.
- Most of the music we hear is the show's original theme song "Rise and Shine", cited as an instrumental version of the Bugs Bunny song "This is It". While it does make sense, since Warner Bros. owns both Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera, why bring it back for this incarnation?
- The scene at the end where Betty and Barney are now bickering, because she wanted to be a damsel in distress so that Barney could save her; which is just utterly pointless.
- The two look-alike bags trick Fred did is just explaining the joke.
- Almost nothing about this film is funny.
- There are scenes that can be considered filler.
- One scene where Wilma finds a jewel in her "purse" makes her bought.
- An unneeded car chase scene that shows there already was a Flintstones movie that ripped off James Bond.
- This film ruined the franchise as a whole, to the point where Warner Bros. had to wait 14 years to release The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!, a crossover with WWE, which while not very good, at least did a better job staying true to the franchise than what Cartoon Network Studios did.
- It really shows that even WWE gets the franchise better than Chris Savino.
- Editor's Note: Just because Cartoon Network Studios ruined the franchise, doesn't mean you should hate the studio.
- It really shows that even WWE gets the franchise better than Chris Savino.
Yabba-Dabba-Good Qualities on the Rocks
- The voice acting on Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty are all really good, staying true to the original cast.
- The animation is pretty good (done by Rough Draft Studios), but it fits better in the main Cartoon Cartoons than it does the Flintstones.
- The designs (by Craig Hellman), look pretty well.
- The use of stop-motion, done by Screen Novelties, does look nice.
- The ending was satisfying, Xavier gets beaten up by Wilma and goes to jail and Fred and Wilma are finally happy together.
- At least it's still more faithful and better than the live-action films.
- There are still some funny moments such as the credits scene where Dino wrecks the house.
- The other characters such as Wilma, Barney, Betty, The Hotel Keeper, Dino, and The Undercover Cop are likable.
- Additionally, Fred later redeems himself during the second half of the film.
Reception
The Flintstones: On the Rocks was met with mixed reviews from critics and audiences, but was met with mostly negative reviews from fans. While critics praised the voice acting, animation style, as well as idea of divorce, fans hated the overall execution of the film due to poor writing, racist jokes towards Hispanics, lack of character development, unfunny adult humor, as well as the slow-pacing, and how it felt nothing like the Flintstones. Some have commented that even Seth MacFarlane's cancelled Flintstones reboot would've been better than Chris Savino's take on the Flintstones.
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