The Flintstones

The Flintstones is a 1994 'Univershell' (Universal) Studios live-action movie based on the Hanna-Barbera animated television series The Flintstones. It stars John Goodman as Fred Flintstone, Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma Flintstone, Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble, Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Rubble, Halle Berry as Fred's assistant Sharon Stone, Kyle MacLachlan as Fred's evil boss Cliff Vandercave, and Elizabeth Taylor as Wilma's mother, Pearl Slaghoople. The film was directed by Brian Levant. This film was not critically acclaimed, but was a box office hit, grossing over $130 million domestically during the Memorial Day weekend in 1994.
A prequel titled The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas was released in 2000.
==Plot==
Fred Flintstone is a hard working caveman at a quarry and has a wife named Wilma and a daughter named Pebble as well as a dinosaur named Dino. Fred's best friend is his co worker and neighbor Barney Rubble, who is hoping to adopt their own child with his wife Betty and Fred has been chipping in with the savings account money. When Fred is not working or at home, he enjoys his time at the bowling alley. After coming home all drunk from winning the championships he had the misfortune of seeing Wilma's mother whom he does not get along with. She is constantly telling Wilma that she could do better than Fred, but Wilma begs to differ as she knows Fred is a good husband and father. After her mother leaves, Fred promises Wilma that someday he'll do great things and then he'll give her the best. Meanwhile Cliff Vandercave, currently running Mr. Slate's quarrying company as executive vice-president, schemes to abscond with company money and flee with Sharon Stone to Rockapulco, Mexirock. He wants a patsy: someone to take the blame, an incompetent. Eying the workers, he decides to invent an executive placement program, and gives the workers an exam. Barney (who also works for the company now) and Fred take their exams using the proper chisel (analog to pencil). When Barney offers to take Fred's exam to turn them in, he notices that Fred did miserably, and swaps the exams. In fact, Fred had the worst results, while Barney had the best, and when Cliff and Sharon review them, they promote Fred to the executive suite and tell him to fire Barney, which Fred cannot do, but is forced to.
Meanwhile, Cliff shows off the company's future, automation, and Fred is concerned about the loss of jobs. Cliff intends, however, that the machinery will be shoddy and fall apart... after he's gone from the country. Fred's strong relationship with Wilma spurs an unconscious feeling in Sharon Stone, that Fred has something wonderful that she wishes she was part of. Fred and Wilma celebrate his promotion by going to the most exclusive restaurant in town, where the entertainment is provided by the B-52's. Unfortunately, the restaurant they are at is Barney's new job.
An argument between Fred and Barney results in Barney telling the truth about the swapped exams, and the two of them stop speaking to one another. Barney and Betty lose their home and end up in the swamp, while Fred adds a second storey to his house, a hot tub, a large-screen television, and even a satellite dish. Sadly though, Fred doesn't take into consideration that he has changed and doesn't believe that he is guilty one. Having had enough of Fred's selfishness, Wilma leaves with Pebble and goes to stay with her mother.
Fred eventually gets suspicious about what's going on, marches into the file room, and finds out the nasty business, so Cliff arranges to frame Fred. However during a mob cornering, Fred and Barney make amends. Wilma and Betty have uncovered the truth as the bird explains everything after Fred apologizes. When they get home however, they discover that someone kidnapped the children and raided the house. There is a ransom note telling Fred and Barney to come to the quarry at dawn and to not bring the police if they want to see the kids again. However, during a confrontation in the gravel pit, Fred duplicates an accident he did on the model of the machinery, and produces a result that causes Cliff to be encased in a new and unknown substance. Mr. Slate shows up, asks what is going on, and decides to name the stuff after his daughter, Concretia. Fred asks to go back to his old job operating the big dinosaur machine, and patches things up with Barney.
== Cast ==
* John Goodman as Fred Flintstone
* Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble
* Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma Flintstone
* Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Rubble
* Kyle MacLachlan as Cliff Vandercave
* Halle Berry as Miss Sharon Stone
* Elizabeth Taylor as Pearl Slaghoople
* Mel Blanc as Dino
* Elaine and Melanie Silver as Pebbles Flintstone
* Hlynur and Marinó Sigurðsson as 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 was the voice of The Great Gazoo from the original animated series.
* Jonathan Winters as Grizzled Man, a co-worker of Fred and Barney's
* Jack O'Halloran as Yeti
* The B-52's as The BC-52's
* Jean Vander Pyl as Mrs. Feldspar
* Laraine Newman as Susan Rock
* Sheryl Lee Ralph as Mrs. Pyrite
* 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 Cliff Vandercave look-alike
* Alan Blumenfeld as Fred Flintstone look-alike
* Messiri Freeman as Miss Stone look-alike
* Elizabeth Daily as the voice of Bamm-Bamm (dubbed).
== 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 submitted in September 1987 was eventually rejected and in October 1989 a new script by Daniel and Joshua Goldin was submitted. Peter Martin Wortmann and Robert Conte submitted another draft in March 1990 before 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 Fred 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. A further draft was then submitted and revised by Jeffrey Reno and Ron Osbourne in 1991 and 1992. 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 Fred. 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. In May 1992, Michael J. Wilson submitted a four-page story that became the basis for the film. This was turned into a script by Jim Jennewein and Tom S. Parker. A meeting of Levant, Bruce Cohen, Jason Hoffs and Kate Barker gave notes to Gary Ross, who produced another draft. 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. Levant described as "a sitcom on steroids, just trying to improve it". The writers, dubbed the Flintstone Eight, were Al Aidekman, Cindy Begel, Lloyd Garver, David Silverman, Stephen Sustarsic, Nancy Steen, Neil Thompson plus Levant. The group wrote a new draft but four more round table sessions ensued, each of which was attended by new talent, including Rob Dames, Lenny Ripps, Fred Fox Jr., Dava Savel, Lon Diamond, David Richardson, Roy Teicher, Richard Gurman, Michael J. Digaetano and Ruth Bennett. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandelworked on it next with Levant, taking home a reported $100,000 for just two days work. Rick Moranis was also present at Levant's roundtables, and later described the film as "one of those scripts that had about 18 writers". Levant made eight more revisions before finally registering a shooting script on August 7, 1993. Of the 35 writers, the Flintstone Eight were submitted for arbitration by the Writers Guild of America plus Wilson for story credit; however, credit was given to the first script by De Souza and to Jennewein and Parker for their drafts.
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 (another Universal/Amblin production released the previous year).
== Reception ==
=== Critical response ===
While critics hated the movie, they did praise John Goodman and Rick Moranis for their portrayals of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of 46 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.03/10. The website's consensus reads, "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 15 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A+ to F.
On 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. Ebert gave it 2.5 stars out of 4 in his newspaper review, and Siskel gave it 1.5 stars out of 4 in his newspaper review. They both mentioned that its main storylines (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.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film never had much potential and "has been carefully designed to be as bright and insubstantial as a child’s toy balloon". Comparing the film to The Addams Family, he called both films "clever, lively and ultimately wearying pieces of showy Hollywood machinery" that favor visuals over writing.
Caryn James of The New York Times wrote that Goodman "goes a long way toward carrying The Flintstones over a script that is essentially a bunch of rock jokes and puns stretched to feature-film length", but James also said the film is too faithful to its 1960s source material and lacks modern pop culture references.
Todd McCarthy of Variety said that "with all manner of friendly beasts, a superenergetic John Goodman and a colorful supporting cast inhabiting a Bedrock that resembles a Stone Age version of Steven Spielberg suburbia, this live-action translation of the perennial cartoon favorite is a fine popcorn picture for small fry, and perfectly inoffensive for adults".
Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the film resembled "a mountain of production, a rock of a cast, [and] a pebble of thought".
A few reviews were positive, including one from Richard Schickel of Time, who said that "nothing has been lost—or worse, inflated out of proportion" in the adaptation. He said it "doesn't feel overcalculated, over-produced or overthought".
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".
=== 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 4-day Memorial Day opening weekend in 1994 (a then-record gross for the Memorial Day weekend). 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. The film had one of the biggest May opening weekends until it was taken by Twister in 1996. In the United Kingdom, it had the second highest opening week at the time behind Jurassic Park, with a gross of $8.7 million. In Mexico it had a record opening with $4.9 million in four days. In Australia, it grossed $2 million in its opening weekend, also the second highest at the time behind Jurassic Park. In Italy, it grossed $4.8 million in its first six days, again the second biggest opener in Italy at the time behind Jurassic Park. It set opening records in Hungary and Poland. It went on to gross over $15 million in Italy, $35 million in Germany and $31 million in the United Kingdom. It did not perform well in France or South Korea
==Trivia==
* Halle Berry's character was named after actress Sharon Stone. According to pre-release publicity for the film, Sharon Stone was invited to play the role herself, but declined.
*Harvey Comics published a comic adaptation of the film in two different art styles that could be read through a pair of enclosed 3-D glasses - one style was drawn in the film's realistic style, the other in the style of the cartoon.
*This is the second Hanna Barbera movie to be released by Universal Pictures, the first being Jetsons: The Movie.
*Both original creators: William Hanna and Joseph Barbara make cameos in the movie.
==Videos==
Category:1994 films
Category:Hanna-Barbera films
Category:Amblin Entertainment films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Flintstones (film), The
Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, The
Category:Films produced by Steven Spielberg
Category:The Flintstones
Category:1990s films
Category:Live-action films based on cartoons
Category:Live-Action films based on Hanna-Barbera cartoons
Category:Sound Effects
Category:Films
Category:List of films based on Hanna-Barbera Cartoons
Category:Live-action films based on animated series
Category:Films starring John Goodman
Category:Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects
Category:Films starring Halle Berry
Category:Films starring Rosie O'Donnell
Category:Films starring Kyle MacLachlan
Category:Films starring Elizabeth Taylor
Category:Films starring Jonathan Winters
Category:Films starring Elizabeth Perkins
Category:Films starring Rick Moranis
Category:Films starring Jean Vander Pyl
Category:Films starring Mel Blanc
Category:Rated PG
Category:Blockbusters