The Flintstones: On the Rocks

I only saw this once on Cartoon Network. I couldn't find it on DVD/VHS anywhere and it doesn't look like Cartoon Network has any intentions of playing it again. (Hopefully I'm wrong on both accounts.) This was actually a hilarious and more adult version of the Flintstones. The humor has been updated to a more modern style. However, it is a bit more "real" than the old cartoon series, so it may not be for everyone. It's be a few years since this cartoon movie came on, so I unfortunately don't remember enough about it to give a synopsis of the story. The animation is a little bit different from the original, but that's to be expected. I believe the creator of Ren & Stimpy was the producer of this cartoon, so it has that kind of appearance and humor. (I may be wrong about that though.)

FUNNY! I don't know what was the best part? The voices were cast perfectly. The style of animation looked almost like the original episodes. The dialogue was incredible. Fred comes home and goes straight to the toilet. It was comic genius. Any one who see's this will try to find out when it will be on again just so they can tape it. I can't wait to get another chance to watch it. YABBA-DABBA-DOO!

I don't even remember why I supported Chris Savino in the past. If you thought what he did to Dexter's Laboratory, the Powerpuff Girls, and even Johnny Test to an extent was bad, they're all nothing compared to what he did to the Flintstones. Not helping was the fact that this movie was made by the same guy who created the Loud House on Nickelodeon, which honestly didn't hold up today.

Just nothing about this film makes any sense whatsoever. I get that the creators wanted the film to be more adult by today's standards, and yes, the Flintstones was made for adults from the beginning, but this doesn't feel like the Flintstones, this feels more like Married with Children and modern Family Guy. I don't wanna sound like Rowdy C Moore, since I'm honestly not the biggest fan of his videos, but yeah.

This movie is so heartless, it flandarized Fred as a character, and not to mention, the fact that this was racist towards Mexicans is no wonder Cartoon Network banned the film from broadcast. I guess Cartoon Network realized that Speedy Gonzales wasn't as offensive to Mexicans as they thought.

I will say that the animation is pretty good, and I do enjoy the voice acting, but even those aren't enough. I may not like Stone Age SmackDown!, but even that's better than this! If Chris Savino's time at Cartoon Network was a disaster, then why give him his own show on Nickelodeon. The less said about his real actions, the better. This is why David Straiton should've been producer on Johnny Test, and Dave Wasson or Charlie Bean should've been director on Johnny Test as well. Had Universal Kids been launched in 1996, they could've been a better home for Johnny Test than Kids' WB!

Don't get me wrong, the revival era of Dexter's Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls were terrible, but at least they improved a bit by season 4 and season 6 respectively. This feels like if you turned the Loud House into an adult cartoon. Don't watch it.

Jeff Bergman does a beautiful job impersonating the great Alan Reed. The other voices are acceptable. The animation was impossibly crude and looked more like Ren and Stimpy. Of course some of the usual continuity errors were there. On the original series, a running gag was, no one knew what Barney did for a living. Here, he is briefly shown working with Fred at the quarry (similar to the comic strip).

I liked the idea of an adult theme. While kids watched this show in the beginning (I was one of them), it was rightly billed as the first adult cartoon show. Having Fred and Wilma act cruel to each other has more in common with today's immature couples than with the characters on the series. Even Ralph and Alice on the Honeymooners (a series superficially similar to this) wouldn't act in a deliberately hurtful manner. The truth is that they are a match and can take each other for granted, but this is too much. The basic core of decency behind the satire in the series is gone. There are moments, but just moments. I'm glad that the late great Jean Vander Pyl didn't live to see this. A lot of sensitivity to the characters could have saved this movie. Unfortunately, I do not have high hopes with regard to Seth MacFarlane's venture either. Too bad.

Having corresponded with a former employee of Hanna Barbera who believes "On The Rocks" was a slap in the face to Hanna Barbera and the very soul of everything Flintstones I have a lot to say about Craig Kellmans' fresh old style. I absolutely LOVE everything about it! This cartoon breathes life back in to what had gradually become soft and round and made for the kiddies. The Flintstones is for everyone not just the targets of merchandising.

To the nay sayers who feel this version of the Flintstones was too scary to make money I say it could take The Flintstones through the next fifty years at least! It rocks!