The Flintstones (also known as The Flintstones Movie or The Flintstones: The Live-Action Movie in the working title) is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Brian Levant and written by Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein, and Steven E. de Souza. It is a live-action motion picture adaptation of the 1960–1966 animated television series of the same name. The B-52's (as The BC-52's in the film) performed their version of the cartoon's theme song.
The film was originally acquired by New Line Cinema, but then sold to Warner Bros.
Plot[]
The movie begins at Slate & Co where Cliff Vandercave the executive vice president of Industrial Procurement is talking with his assistant Sharon Stone about how they're going to swindle the company and flee to Rocka Poko with the whole company's fortune and all they need is "an ignorant stooge" to complete this scheme which leads to a live action version of the original show of Frederick Flintstone leaving work and taking his family to a Drive-in movie. The actual story begins by showing Frederick and Barney driving down the road listening to the radio. Barney is very happy because he has the chance to adopt a child and thanks Frederick for the loan of money he gave them, however Frederick makes Barney promise not to tell Wilma what he's done.
The two arrive home and Frederick goes to his house where he is pounced on by Dino and welcomed home by Wilma and Pebbles. When Frederick has settled down to relax Wilma questions him about the money missing from their savings account because she was going to use it to buy a new garbage disposal. Her husband confesses that he gave the money to the Rubbles to help them adopt a child. Wilma adores him for this act of kindness, but Frederick whispers that he also bought a new bowling ball. Later at the adoption agency Barney and Betty are introduced to their adoptive son Bamm-Bamm (short for Bamm-Bamm-Bamm) who was raised by wild Mastadons. They take him home and after giving him a bath, haircut and a new set of clothes he becomes a new member to the Rubble family.
Frederick and Barney are at the Bowlarama, their team the Water Buffalos only need one more strike to win. Frederick does the last strike his unusual way from the original series of tiptoing (hence his nickname Twinkletoes). The Water Buffalos win and celebrate. Barney reads out a poem about how Frederick helped him and ends with "As I stand before my peers and vow, I'll pay him back someday somehow." His friend sobs untill he makes an enormous puddle of tears on the ground and tells Barney how beautiful it was and invites him to have a celebration drink. Frederick returns home truimphantly with his trophy, but discovers to his horror that his mother in law Pearl Slaghoople has come for a visit. After a bitter arguement Frederick ends it with telling her that one day he will be a "real somebody" and Wilma will get everything she deserves. She leaves and they go to bed with Frederick putting out the empty milk bottle and Baby Puss outside who instantly goes back in through the window.
It is Lunch Time at Slate & Co and Frederick and Barney are eating lunch with the rest of the employees when Mr. Vandercave appears and tells them that they are now introducing their their new Executive Placement Programme, an apititude test would be given and the winner would be a vice president with a obscene salary and a shiny nameplate. Frederick hears this and sees it as a way for him to be somebody. The day of the test begins with Mr. Vandercave giving them one hour to complete it. They all start with Barney easily filling in every question, but Frederick does terribly and his friend sees him looking miserable and on the verge of giving up. The test finally ends with Vandercave asking them to slip their tests in their envelopes and leave them on his desk. Barney offers to take Frederick's test to Vandercave for him, he sees how terrible Frederick's answers are and remembers his promise to pay him back so he switches the tests by putting them in the opposite envelopes. Later in Mr. Vandercave's office, Miss Stone arrives with the results making their "unsuspecting dupe" Frederick Flintstone who seems to have scored the highest. Mr. Vandercave announces Frederick as the winner much to everyone's surprise and they celebrate.
Frederick wakes up and gets ready for his first day as Vice President. At Slate & Co Frederick tells Barney that he won't be one of those people who makes it big and then forgets where he came from and that he has big plans to help his fellow employees. With some last encouraging words from Barney and a loan of money, Frederick enters the building and is welcomed by Clifford, who wows Frederick by showing him his big, luxurious new office, before introducing him to his new secretary- the beautiful Miss Stone, whom Frederick immediately becomes attracted to once she seduces him. The office Dictabird talks to him and tells Frederick that he has experience and should take some advice from him, but Frederick rudely refuses. In Mr. Vandercave's office, Miss Stone is making the finishing touches to a forged construction form, but Mr. Vandercave suggests that they should do a test to make sure that he does whatever they say, which means firing Barney. Frederick is deeply upset and at a party to celebrate his promotion, he fires Barney in public. Barney doesn't seem as upset and asks Frederick why he was fired. His friend reveals that he got the lowest score on the Aptitude test. Wilma and Betty are shopping and trying on new outfits with Bamm-Bamm destroying a Crystal ornament stall. Betty presents her credit card to the cashier, but he tells her that the credit card is now useless. Betty is heartbroken and fears that she might lose Bamm-Bamm for lack of money to support him. Wilma assures her that will never happen. At Slate & Co Mr. Slate is having a meeting, Frederick arrives late and takes his seat. Mr. Vandercave unveils a model of machinery that will be able to construct Modular housing units.
Later in Frederick's office, Miss Stone arrives with the forged documents, Frederick gets curious about what these documents could be about, he recalls to Miss Stone how contractors can be extreme swindlers and tries to read them over. Panicking, Miss Stone seduces him once again, this time much more aggressively, to throw him off. Frederick very easily gives into temptation, but his intimate moment with his lovely secretary is cut short when a furious Wilma walks into the office and catches them together. After rather awkwardly introducing Wilma and Miss Stone, Wilma suggests having the Rubbles move in with them untill they get back on their feet. Frederick is in the meeting room looking out the window at his friends enjoying themselves outside, he accidently breaks the model and when Miss Stone arrives he pretends not to know anything. Frederick asks her if this invention could put a lot of his friends out of work, Miss Stone pretends not to know and asks Frederick if she didn't get him into too much trouble with Wilma the other day. Frederick assures her that Wilma still loves him. Miss Stone tells Mr. Vandercave that she's worried by Frederick's questions and feels that they should call the whole scheme off. Mr. Vandercave responds by giving Frederick a distraction of a huge bonus. In no time at all, Frederick is squandering his money on a new car, house remodelling and new clothes, while poor Barney is going through many painful methods of work including a crash test driver. Barney and Betty begin feeling that the Flinstones are becoming too full of themselves and not being friends to them anymore.
Back at his office Frederick is getting ready to leave to take Wilma to a restaurant called Cavern on the Green, Mr. Vandercave arrives with an enormous stack of documents that he promises will give the employees some well needed time off. Despite the Dictabird's warning to read them before signing, Frederick ignores him and signs them anyway. At Cavern on the Green, Frederick and Wilma are having a good time with Betty sitting down fed up. Barney who is now working there as a buseboy sees on the news that Frederick had fired every employee at the company and after a bitter argument with Barney revealing that he switched the tests, the Rubbles leave. Wilma is shocked by Frederick's behaviour and leaves too for her mother's house taking Pebbles and Dino with her leaving Frederick all alone. Next Morning Frederick is met with an angry crowd of employees and heads straight to the file room where he finds the real documents and discovers Mr. Vandercave's true intentions. He is confronted by the mastermind himself who tells him that he's given him all the credit since it was his name on the forms including spending so much money on luxuries and marks Frederick as an embezzler.
Frederick is now a fugitive on the run who hides out at a hotel. A news broadcast is shown of Frederick embezzling, Wilma who is viewing this remembers the Dictabird in Frederick's office and with Betty sets off to Slate & Co to clear her husband's name. Frederick who is now in a disguise, finds refuge in a cave and chats with one of the employees who was fired, but he accidently gives himself away and a huge mob chases him down the road. After retrieving the Dictabird, Wilma and Betty start heading off to find Frederick and clear his name. Mr. Vandercave and Miss Stone are in his office. Miss Stone finds that there is only one ticket to Rocko Poko which means that Mr. Vandercave has doublecrossed her. They hear noise and see Wilma and Betty leaving the building with the Dictabird. Mr. Vandercave knows that listening to that bird would spoil everything and decides to go into another devious scheme. Meanwhile Frederick is caught and taken away to be lynched, Barney now a Sno Cones salesman suddenly appears and after admitting that he caused this mess gets set up for lynching too. Frederick apologizes for being mean to Barney and tells him that he's the best friend he could ever have. Wilma, Betty and the Dictabird arrive and Dictabird forces Frederick to say sorry, then the mob realizes that Clifford was the one who dismissed them and they let Frederick and Barney go.
The families return and find Pearl and Dino tied up with the children gone and a note saying: If you want to see your kids again, bring the Dictabird to the Quarry at Dawn. No Police. At the Quarry of Slate & Co, Frederick along with Barney brings the bird and Mr. Vandercave reveals Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to be tied up to a cart on the conveyer belt of the now constructed machine. After Fred hands over the Dictabird, Mr. Vandercave pulls the lever that activates the machine and runs away. The Dictabird savagely bites his hand. The two friends try to shut off the machine with no success. Barney uses the machine's catapult to get to the top, while Frederick remembers how he had wrecked the model of it earlier. The Dictabird suddenly appears and so does Mr. Vandercave armed with a rock catapult pistol who precedes to kill them. Suddenly he is knocked out with his case of stolen money by Miss Stone who wants revenge for her former partner's doublecross. Frederick puts a large rock in the catapult and launches it just as Barney has left the machine. The machine falls apart and a dirty grey substance oozes out of the wreckage.
Mr. Vandercave is scrabbling on the ground for his money and is stopped by Frederick who is determined to pay him back for all the misery he caused. The villain tries to run away, but Frederick uses a big round boulder as a bowling ball and knocks him down. Staggering to his feet after the hearing Police sirens in the distance, Mr. Vandercave flees for his life only to be covered in the grey substance from the wreckage of the machinery that falls down a nearby hill just above him.
Later the Police who have come with Wilma and Betty get the full story from the Dictabird and Miss Stone is arrested. But Frederick promises that he'll tell them how she helped him and they may let her off easy. Suddenly Mr. Slate shouts for Frederick and shows Mr. Vandercave stuck solid under a hardened substance. Frederick explains what had happened about the machinery going haywire with the rocks getting crushed and mixing with the water. His boss is very impressed and calls it Concrete after his daugther Concretia saying that the Stone Age is now over and promotes Frederick to President of the entire Concrete division. But after a gesture from Wilma, Frederick turns it down remembering what had happened before and just asks for his old job back, two weeks paid vaction for all the employees, an Annual Cost and Living increase and little packets of Ketchup for the lunch room. His Boss agrees.
After all the excitement everyone is hungry, Frederick offers to treat them all to a breakfast of Snake and Eggs. But when he asks Barney for a loan, his friend gets furious and chases him all around the quarry. The movie then ends with a live action version of the original ending of the Drive-in movie, the Flintstone family getting something to eat, going home and Frederick being locked out of the house by Baby Puss. He pulls on the handle, knocks loudly on the door and screams at the top of his voice: "WILLLLLMMMMMMMA!"
Cast[]
- John Goodman as Frederick Flintstone
- Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble
- Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma Flintstone
- Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Rubble
- Kyle MacLachlan as Clifford Vandercave
- Halle Berry as Miss Stone
- Elizabeth Taylor as Pearl Slaghoople
- Mel Blanc (archive audio) as Dino: Blanc previously supplied the voice of Barney and Dino in the original animated series.
- Elaine & Melanie Silver as Pebbles Flintstone
- Hlynur & Marinó Sigurðsson as Bamm-Bamm Rubble
- Elizabeth Daily (uncredited) as the voice of Bamm-Bamm Rubble
- Dann Florek as Mr. Slate
- Richard Moll as Hoagie
- Irwin Keyes as Joe Rockhead
- Jim Doughan as Maitre d'
- Harvey Korman as the voice of Dictabird: Korman previously voiced the Great Gazoo in the original animated series.
- Jonathan Winters as Grizzled Man, a co-worker of Frederick and Barney's
- Jack O'Halloran as Yeti
- The B-52's as The BC-52's
- Jean Vander Pyl as Mrs. Feldspar: Vander Pyl previously voiced Wilma and Pebbles in the original animated series.
- Laraine Newman as Susan Rock
- Jay Leno as host of Bedrock's Most Wanted
- William Hanna as a boardroom executive
- Joseph Barbera as a man driving a Mersandes
- Sam Raimi as Clifford Vandercave look-alike
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 Frederick 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 Frederick. 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[]
Actors John Candy, Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Chevy Chase were all considered for the role of Frederick Flintstone. The last four actors were all deemed too skinny and a fat suit was deemed too inappropriate to be used. Goodman felt he was "sandbagged" into the role of Flintstone years earlier at the table read for the film, Always, when Steven Spielberg announced, "Ladies And Gentlemen, I'd like to say something before we start: I've found my Frederick Flintstone." Goodman said it was "not a role I was looking forward to doing" but said the experience was "fun."
If Goodman had turned the role down, the film would not have been made. Geena Davis, Faith Ford, and Catherine O'Hara were all considered for the role of Wilma Flintstone. Elizabeth Perkins won the role. Danny DeVito was the original first choice for Barney, but he turned down the role as he felt he was too gruff to do the character properly and reportedly suggested Rick Moranis for the role. DeVito was also considered for Frederick Flintstone.
Although Janine Turner was considered, Rosie O'Donnell won the role of Betty Rubble with her impersonation of the cartoon character's signature giggle. Both Tracey Ullman and Daphne Zuniga were also considered for the role. Sharon Stone was to play Miss Stone, but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts. The role was also offered to Nicole Kidman. Anna Nicole Smith was also considered. Both Audrey Meadows and Elizabeth Montgomery were considered for the role of Pearl Slaghoople.
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 four-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 twenty-two present based on forty-four 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 fifteen 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 two point five stars out of four and Siskel giving it one point five stars out of four. 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.
Marketing[]
McDonald's marketed a number of Flintstones promotions for the film, including the return of the McRib sandwich and the "Grand Poobah Meal" combo with it, a line of premium glass mugs, and toys based on characters and locations from the film. In the commercials and released items for the Flintstones promotion, McDonald's was renamed "RocDonald's" with stone age imagery, similarly to other businesses and proper names in the Flintstones franchise. The Flintstones: The Movie, a video game based on the film, was developed by Ocean software and released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and Mega Drive/Genesis (Sega Channel exclusive) in 1995. In the United Kingdom, Tetley promoted adverts with audio from the film, including mugs starring characters from the film. Jurassic Park, the name of another movie was also seen briefly as a park in the film.
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.
Prequel[]
A prequel, The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas, was released in 2000. The original main cast did not reprise their roles of the characters, though O'Donnell provided the voice of an octopus who gave massages to younger versions of Wilma and Betty. Irwin Keyes returned as Joe Rockhead, the only cast member to reprise his role from the first film. Like the first film, it received negative reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office.
Video game[]
A video game based on the film was released for the Game Boy, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Channel in both 1994 and 1995 respectively, developed by Ocean Software (SNES), Twilight (GB), Hi-Tech (SC) and published by Ocean Software. In the game, the player takes control of Fred Flintstone and has to rescue Wilma, Barney, Pebbles and Bam-Bam from Clifford Vandercave.
A Sega Genesis version developed by Foley Hi-Tech and published by Ocean Software was also planned, but was later canceled and was released on the Sega Channel instead.
Gallery[]
Promotional[]
Stills[]
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Screencaptures[]
Costumes[]
Videos[]
