The Man Called Flintstone
Encyclopedia
The Man Called Flintstone is a 1966 American animated musical comedy film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
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
.
This film was the first feature film voice role for Betty Rubble's voice actress Gerry Johnson
. Additionally, it marked the first voice work of Henry Corden
, who supplied Fred's singing voice, and would go on to fully assume the role of Fred after Alan Reed's death in 1977.
While the film includes numerous musical interludes, including one song performed by Louis Prima
, the popular theme song from the show itself is not used. However, plots from several episodes of the TV series are used, including an episode in which Fred becomes involved in a spy caper spoofing Goldfinger
, and another in which he encounters JL Gotrocks, the world's richest man, and his exact double.
(voiced by Alan Reed
) is recruited by a secret government organization to take the place of Rock Slag, an injured agent, (voiced by Paul Frees
) in an obvious imitation of Don Adams
's own James Bond spoof TV character Maxwell Smart as Slag happens to be Flintstone's doppelgänger
. Flintstone's mission: to travel to "Eurock" (under the guise of a family vacation) and defeat the latest plan of the evil criminal mastermind known as the "Green Goose" (also voiced by Paul Frees
). The catch is Fred is unable to tell his family or friends about the mission. Various hijinks result as Flintstone attempts to accomplish his mission while maintaining the illusion of being Slag which is complicated by several women who are pursuing Slag for marriage after off-screen romantic encounters with Slag.
gave The Man Called Flintstone a positive review on August 10, 1966, calling the production "excellent" and noting that the "stone-age scenery and machinery are mildly amusing and sometimes highly inventive". The review judges that the plot is a fast-moving and clever spoof of contemporary spy films.
n DVD
version was released by Warner Home Video
. However, owing to licensing complications between Warner Bros.
(current owners of the Flintstones property) and Sony
(current owners of then-Flintstones distributor Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems
), only a Canadian
release occurred; a United States
release was canceled and would not be rescheduled until the rights issue was cleared in August 2008.
The DVD was finally released in the United States on December 2, 2008, along with a DVD of Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!
, a film with which The Man Called Flintstone was released as a double-bill during the 1970s.. The final USA DVD release by Warner Bros. altered the opening of the film from the then-Columbia Pictures release, which used a parody of Columbia's famous "torch lady" logo featuring Wilma in said role. At present, only the out-of-print 1988 VHS release of this film includes the original custom opening logo, and there are no plans to re-insert it for DVD releases.
In 2010, the movie has also been made available as a download through the iTunes Store
. Unlike the DVD release, the iTunes version is in its original widescreen
aspect ratio.
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
and released by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. It was the second Hanna-Barbera feature, after Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!
Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!
Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! is a 1964 American animated feature film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. The film stars the voices of Daws Butler, Don Messick, Julie Bennett, and Mel Blanc...
(1964). The film is a theatrical spin-off of the 1960-66 television series, The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
, and is a swan song
Swan song
"Swan song" is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan is completely silent during its lifetime until the moment just before death, when it sings one beautiful song...
of the TV show, made immediately following the end of production on the series. The working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
of the film was That Man Flintstone, with the film poster featuring Fred in the same pose of the Bob Peak
Bob Peak
Robert "Bob" M. Peak was an American commercial illustrator best known for innovative design in the development of the modern movie poster....
poster for Our Man Flint
Our Man Flint
Our Man Flint is a 1966 action film that parodies of James Bond genre. The film was directed by Daniel Mann, written by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr, and starring James Coburn as master spy Derek Flint...
.
This film was the first feature film voice role for Betty Rubble's voice actress Gerry Johnson
Gerry Johnson
Gerry Johnson was an American actress who provided the voice of Betty Rubble in seasons five and six of the US cartoon series The Flintstones...
. Additionally, it marked the first voice work of Henry Corden
Henry Corden
Henry Corden was a Canadian-born American actor and voice artist best-known for taking over the role of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed died in 1977. His official debut as Fred's new voice was on the 1977 syndicated weekday series Fred Flintstone and Friends for which he provided voice-overs on...
, who supplied Fred's singing voice, and would go on to fully assume the role of Fred after Alan Reed's death in 1977.
While the film includes numerous musical interludes, including one song performed by Louis Prima
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
, the popular theme song from the show itself is not used. However, plots from several episodes of the TV series are used, including an episode in which Fred becomes involved in a spy caper spoofing Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
, and another in which he encounters JL Gotrocks, the world's richest man, and his exact double.
Plot
The film is a spoof of the James Bond films, and also borrows elements from several episodes of the Flintstones TV series. In the film, Fred FlintstoneFred Flintstone
Frederick Joseph “Fred” Flintstone, also known as Fred W. Flintstone or Frederick J. Flintstone, is the protagonist of the animated sitcom The Flintstones, which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960-66. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles...
(voiced by Alan Reed
Alan Reed
Alan Reed was an American actor and voice actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series...
) is recruited by a secret government organization to take the place of Rock Slag, an injured agent, (voiced by Paul Frees
Paul Frees
Paul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...
) in an obvious imitation of Don Adams
Don Adams
Don Adams was an American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart in the television situation comedy Get Smart , which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Smart...
's own James Bond spoof TV character Maxwell Smart as Slag happens to be Flintstone's doppelgänger
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
. Flintstone's mission: to travel to "Eurock" (under the guise of a family vacation) and defeat the latest plan of the evil criminal mastermind known as the "Green Goose" (also voiced by Paul Frees
Paul Frees
Paul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...
). The catch is Fred is unable to tell his family or friends about the mission. Various hijinks result as Flintstone attempts to accomplish his mission while maintaining the illusion of being Slag which is complicated by several women who are pursuing Slag for marriage after off-screen romantic encounters with Slag.
Reception
VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
gave The Man Called Flintstone a positive review on August 10, 1966, calling the production "excellent" and noting that the "stone-age scenery and machinery are mildly amusing and sometimes highly inventive". The review judges that the plot is a fast-moving and clever spoof of contemporary spy films.
DVD release
In 2005, a North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
version was released by Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
. However, owing to licensing complications between Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
(current owners of the Flintstones property) and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
(current owners of then-Flintstones distributor Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
), only a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
release occurred; a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
release was canceled and would not be rescheduled until the rights issue was cleared in August 2008.
The DVD was finally released in the United States on December 2, 2008, along with a DVD of Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!
Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!
Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! is a 1964 American animated feature film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. The film stars the voices of Daws Butler, Don Messick, Julie Bennett, and Mel Blanc...
, a film with which The Man Called Flintstone was released as a double-bill during the 1970s.. The final USA DVD release by Warner Bros. altered the opening of the film from the then-Columbia Pictures release, which used a parody of Columbia's famous "torch lady" logo featuring Wilma in said role. At present, only the out-of-print 1988 VHS release of this film includes the original custom opening logo, and there are no plans to re-insert it for DVD releases.
In 2010, the movie has also been made available as a download through the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
. Unlike the DVD release, the iTunes version is in its original widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
aspect ratio.