Movie Info
Movie Name: The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones
Studio: Hanna-Barbera Productions
Genre(s): Animated/Comedy/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Family
Release Date(s): November 15, 1987
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Well, it’s no DeLorean…
Elroy Jetson has created a time machine that sends the Jetsons back to Bedrock. Meeting the Flintstones, Fred realizes that George could be he and Barney’s meal ticket to get their jobs back at the quarry while George worries about returning home and Spacely’s plans to fire him. When the Flintstones end up in the future and the Jetsons become trapped in the past, getting back to the right time could be harder than they expected.
Directed by Don Lusk and Ray Patterson, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones is a family animated comedy fantasy. The film aired in syndication as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series of movies and followed Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers which also was released in 1987. The film is often included in collections of The Jetsons and The Flintstones.
I never was as big of a Jetsons fan as I was a Flintstones fan. Maybe because The Flintstones were always more prevalent culturally, and as a kid, dinosaurs seemed like more fun than flying cars (besides, we were going to get flying cars by the year 2000). The Jetsons Meets the Flintstones feels like it was a long-time coming and if it had come out in my heyday of childhood cartoon watching, I would have loved it.
Yep…I’m a bad, bad man
The story is rather typical of a cartoon of this type stretched into a full hour and a half. The first part of the movie involves both Fred and Barney’s loss of jobs and George’s learning that Spacely wants him fired for corporate espionage (actually done by George’s computer). This segues into an adventure by the Jetsons in Bedrock, and then turns into the Jetsons and Flintstones switch places. The first two parts of the movie are ho-hum. The first part feels like a normal episode, the second part feels like a bad guest star, and the third part is what we wanted as a viewer…the Jetsons experiencing the past and the Flintstones experiencing the future. It just takes too long to get there.
The more I watch (and rewatch) The Flintstones, I realize how horrible a person Fred is. Not only do his plans generally backfire on himself, they hurt his family and Barney’s family. He’s kind of a villain in his own show. George Jetson on the other hand is a schmuck and not really a lovable one at that. He’s a sad sack that isn’t very likable. It is kind of weird that both series feature leads that aren’t that great…and bring them together helps amplify their personas.
I was a pushover in the future, and I can be one in the past
Visually, the movie looks like a Jetsons episode and a Flintstones episode. The Jetsons were having their relaunch series at the time and The Flintstones were part of Saturday mornings as The Flintstone Kids…which probably led this to be more Jetsons oriented. The movie most likely comes after Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm moved on, but in theory it could also predate their introductions (putting the series deeper into The Flintstones original run).
Fans of The Flintstones and The Jetsons will enjoy the movie despite flaws. As a kid, it feels like this movie should have happened a lot sooner (maybe it would have helped The Jetsons which never caught on as well as The Flintstones). It is always nice to revisit old characters and remember why you liked them (or question why you did like them) as a child. The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones was followed by 1987’s Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose in Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series.
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