User Reviews

I grew up watching the re-runs of the original Flintstones and tried to avoid the new Flintstone shows. Some of these new shows had the kids all grown up and many of the original voices were not used or not available. However, the original show, especially before the Great Gazoo(sp) was bought into the series, were great. The only real follow up to the original show that was any good was The Man Called Flintstone.

This movie had most of the original voices, except for Betty, and has a good story line. Fred fills in as a substitute for an injured spy and takes on James Bond type missions.

I found this film held my attention and when I watch it now it brings back the good memories from when I was a kid. I hope the DVD is released soon.

THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE was the first-ever animated theatrical feature based on the highly-successful television series THE FLINTSTONES which ended its run in 1966 after six seasons and an astounding 166 episodes when it aired on ABC-TV. The theatrical version came out five months after the television series ended. Today it is rarely seen in some markets,but it was a great follow-up to this TV show. In this version,Peebles and Bamm-Bamm along with Dino are not in this one. This version focuses on Fred Flintstone his wife Wilma,and their neighbors The Rubbles(Barney and Betty). In this version(which in the opening credits of the picture features Wilma Flintstone portraying the Columbia Pictures model is a riot)Fred Flintstone is mistaken for a American secret agent Rock Slag,who was wounded while chasing after international espionage spy Green Goose and his girlfriend,Tanya.

Fred is asked to take Rock's place and fly to Rome(along with Barney and Betty and his wife Wilma of course,leaving the children behind with the babysitter along with the pet dinosaur Dino)to help corral and captured Green Goose once and for all. The whole thing turns out to be a trap for Fred and the real Rock Slag,who comes fully recovered to comes to Fred's rescue and saves the day.

The theatrical version THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE,released by Columbia Pictures was released in theatres on August 3, 1966 and produced and directed by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera,who also served as executive producers with the script written by R.S. Allen and Harvey Bullock(based on a story by Harvey Bullock and R.S. Allen with additional story material by William Hanna,Joesph Barbera along with Warren Foster and Alex Lovy) and for this theatrical version,which is by the way was animated of course featured the voices of Alan Reed, Jean Vander Pyl, along with Mel Blanc and Gerry Johnson with additional voices by June Foray,Paul Frees,Janet Waldo,and Don Messick(in fact Janet Waldo,who was also the voice of Judy Jetson and Don Messick were regular voice-over stockplayers for a lot of animated shows and cartoons for Hanna-Barbera). With a Running Time of 87 minutes,it was shown as part of a kiddie matinée feature for Columbia Pictures. However,Columbia Pictures re-released this feature again in the 1970's and during the early 1980's as part of its family matinée series that was to be shown theatrically. After this,it was rarely shown on television in certain markets.

just bought this on DVD and have noticed a few dialogue additions and changes throughout that add approx 1 minute to the overall running time. These are mostly attributed to the Ali and Bobo characters. Usually "punchlines" to the on screen action and feature Ali laughing at Bobo's mishaps and vice versa. Possibly removed when originally shown to speed up the movie but if this movie was released today, would definitely be cut for stereotyping our "foreign" friends! nice movie with good songs but nowhere near as funny as it could have been either as a 007 spoof OR as a big screen Flintstones opportunity! Flintstone fan

Since I was a mere tot of 3 when THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE was in theaters, I first discovered it when our local ABC TV affiliate showed it yearly on Thanksgiving morning. It became my fave thing about Turkey Day next to the Macy's parade, and when it became available on home video a few years ago, I found I still loved it! Lovable loudmouth Fred Flintstone is recruited by spymaster Chief Boulder to fill in for injured Fred lookalike Rock Slag, the James Bond of the Stone Age, to capture the megalomaniacal "Green Goose." Wacky hijinks ensue as Fred's chased all over "Eurock" by sinister yet bumbling henchmen and slinky glamour gals (the only people in the movie who wear shoes!) while trying to keep Wilma and the Rubbles in the dark about his new "Spy Type Guy" temp job. The spy spoofery ranges from grinworthy to hilarious, the songs are catchy, the voice work is delightful--what's not to like? Best of all for me, now that my toddler daughter has discovered...FLINTSTONE, I don't have to wait for Thanksgiving to watch it (and you know how often little kids watch their fave videos! ;-)!

The 1994 big screen version of "The Flintstones" was undeniably atrocious, so if you want a decent "Flintstones" movie, then "The Man Called Flintstone" works (if only marginally). The plot has secret agent Rock Slang, who just happens to be Fred Flinstone's doppelganger, getting injured and replaced with Fred. This not only complicates Fred's vacation plans, but makes him the target of spies Ali and Bobo (fortunately for Fred, these guys are beyond incompetent). In the end, Fred's big mission is to stop master criminal Green Goose from destroying the world.

Okay, so this movie won't challenge your mind or anything (and I guess that it does go overboard at times), but at least it's not a travesty of the show (I can't say the same for the 1994 movie). This one passes.

Back in the middle 60s, it seemed like everybody was doing a super-spy movie, including everybody's favorite cartoon caveman from Bedrock. Despite the show's huge popularity, however, this Flintstone feature was not a hit and there were no sequels or spin-offs to follow.

For a feature it plays like an extended episode from the TV series, but there is certainly enough plot to keep the viewer interested for 80 minutes, with Fred doubling for a look-alike spy on a dangerous courier mission to 'Eurock'.

The movie has a more ambitious and polished look than the series, and there is plenty of action. The action animation is quite good too. However, something was missing: it was a little TOO like the series to really achieve an identity of its own. There is no novelty here, and by this point the characters and situations were so familiar that the feature was nothing special, just more of the same. It's watchable enough. Once.

"THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE" was the second of two releases from Columbia Pictures in the mid 1960s-the first one was "HEY THERE,IT'S YOGI BEAR!" that the studio released in 1964! and,,after buying the DVD in 2008,i became enraged,when i discovered that the COLUMBIA logo with "Wilma Flintstone" was not included in the DVD release! Columbia's former TV subsidiary Screen Gems,which was revived in 1999 by SONY,had a very long and prosperous relationship with Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s and early 70s so why they couldn't allow that logo to be used,is both an insult,and an outrage! some history should still be upheld and honored,even though the studio is a SONY owned asset-and both Warners and Columbia had a pretty long relationship,since both studios worked on the Burbank lot! so whatever the exact reasons for this awfully BAD edit of "The Flintstones" first full length movie,it was unacceptable and NOT the same thing i remembered growing up with-this was a great Family film in 1966,when "THE FLINTSTONES" had just finished its six year run on ABC-TV..and that awful edit job,that they replaced the COLUMBIA logo with,just ruined this whole release!

I first remember seeing "The Man Called Flintstone" in 1968 when the elementary school I attended in Warren, Michigan obtained a 16mm print of the film and ran it as an "after-school" movie, complete with popcorn and soft drinks. (My folks never had the time to take my younger sister and I to see it at the theater, but then, in 1966 I was only 4 years old.) Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel ran it a couple of months ago, and it was certainly a treat to see "The Man Called Flintstone" again after so long.

I do agree, the movie's opening with Wilma as the Columbia Pictures torch lady was a riot; her torch exploded into the opening credits. Sadly, current television prints have deleted this opening, since Hanna-Barbera first became part of the Turner Entertainment empire in 1992 and is now a part of the Time Warner empire; Warner Bros. Television now syndicates this film (Sony Pictures Television ceased television syndication of "The Man Called Flintstone" in the mid-1980s). I highly doubt that opening will ever be restored, even if the movie ever appears on DVD.

And I never knew that was Henry Corden, the future voice of Fred Flintstone, singing the duet with Mel Blanc as Barney. I recently discovered (according to a Goldmine record collectors' guide) there was a soundtrack album of "The Man Called Flintstone" - on HBR Records (Hanna-Barbera's record label), naturally - but it is very hard to find. If and when I ever do locate a copy, though, it'll certainly have a place in my record library (I recently found a copy of the soundtrack album of "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear," Hanna-Barbera's first movie musical, and that album is even harder to locate)! Notice to collectors: extant copies of the soundtrack of "The Man Called Flintstone" command $50 and up, depending on the condition of the vinyl (good luck locating it).

I can also hope Warner Home Video will strongly consider putting "The Man Called Flintstone" on DVD soon!

There is so much padding here that the movie seems to last three hours instead of one and a half. The plot parts are fine, with some good gags and an okay spy spoof story, but the songs are just interminable. The kids one has cute animation but serves no purpose to the plot and slows the movie to a crawl. If they'd cut out all the songs, you'd have a decent movie here, but with them it's just bleh.

I found the movie a couple years back on a recorded video tape. I watched it and found I was missing around 15-20 minutes of the movie. So for the longest time I had been wanting to buy the DVD and never found the time to do it. I put it on my Christmas list and sure enough got it. I remember growing up with the Flintstones back when Cartoon Network and the Disney channel actually played good classic cartoons and shows (now you have to get Boomerang or Toon Disney in order to see the classics) and I loved the show. I was thrilled to see they would be releasing each season on DVD and have since bought all four seasons that are currently out as well as this DVD. Now back to the movie. It is over all an excellent cartoon. I have always loved it and have found that I can watch it over and over again and never get tired of it (same with the show) One of the few where I can honestly say that. All in all it is a classic and I can't wait until they release the other Flintstone cartoon movies (like a Flintstones Christmas etc.)

The Flintstones is a milestone in the television history, an animated show that is just as adult-oriented as much as it's aimed for children; it spoke loudly of the topics a kid show rarely spoke of those days, and in a modern way too, despite its Stone Age setting, and it was both funny and sweet. That's why it was a somewhat disappointment to tune into The man called Flintstone after six seasons of this fantastic show - when comparing these two the movie falls flat on its face hard.

To begin with, The man called Flintstone has almost nothing to do with the original series - and it came out the same year the TV show ended - it has the same setting, the same characters and the same voice actors who portrayed them on small screens but after that the resemblances end. It's another, standalone story that has little to do with the heart of the show - family and friendship - instead it is an adventure spy flick, a kind of spoof of the then popular James Bond movie series and its own spoof series, Get Smart. The plot has Fred mistaken for a famous spy who Government sends on a mission to save the world - sounds like something the Great Gazoo could've made up on the spot. In addition, it is being stretched into a full-fledged movie, which brings us to another thing I disliked about the movie.

Besides being a spy flick the movie also tries to be a musical with tons of song and dance numbers and routines which are not bad per se, in fact I found them rather charming and even think they're better than the main narrative in a way, but they distract from the plot a lot and in the end it feels like what could've been a 25-minute episode of The Flintstones is a 25-minute episode with an hour of commercials sewn into it.

Fred and Barney are also not the Fred and Barney I knew from the series; Fred is not grouchy and Barn does not joke around - they're all acting out strangely and it's really a head-scratcher for me as to why Bill and Joe even made this movie in the first place. To me, if you put out a movie after the series' cancellation it's supposed to bring some closure to the story and characters we fell in love with over the course of the series but The man called Flintstone does not have that at all.

You can see that this movie was made on a slightly bigger budget than the series had and despite it being a fairly well-done picture, with good jokes, nice musical numbers and dream sequences I just couldn't grab the essence of it in relation to the series it fell right after and therefore couldn't rate it any higher than 6.5/10.

I always thought the scripts for "The Flintstones" TV show were a cut above the usual cartoon. Rife with satirical humor and cutting jabs, many of the episodes made my parents laugh as often as us kids. Too bad, then, that Fred Flintstone's big-screen spy-adventure is loud instead of funny, hectic instead of witty, and woefully extended. Like three sub-par television installments strung together, this trip to Eurock has no juice. The Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm fantasy number is cute, but Fred--mistaken for a spy--takes up too much of the on-screen time. And what's with that title? Since the movie poster has Fred seated backwards in a chair à la James Coburn, I would imagine "In Like Flint-stone" or "Our Man Flint-stone" would be more in keeping with the spy scenario (and more clever, too). ** from ****

The first movie of the modern Stone Age family came out in the midst of the spy craze that was all through films and TV at the time (and at the end of the series' run in 1966), so given Hanna-Barbera's fondness for leaping on bandwagons it was a given that Fred would become mixed up with spies (as in fact he was in an episode of the TV show).

The film has a plot that would be flattered by the word "skeletal," and as a result it's padded out with endless musical numbers - even Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm get in on the act! The amazing thing is that despite the emphasis on music and the painfully weak plot it's STILL miles ahead of the 1994 movie...

(1966) The Man Called Flintstone ANIMATION/ FAMILY

Made for TV and based on the popular syndicated cartoon series which anyone who are already familiar with the character should know that the Flintstone persona has been slightly altered. The plot has something to do with Flintstone coincidentally switch places with a look-a-like secret agent with a mission imposed on to reveal the true identity of the "Green Goose" going to an all expense paid trip to France and Italy. The main highlights are of course, the use of birds and dinosaur animals to get through their daily lives. The scene where the baby "Pebbles" and "Bam-Bam" started singing kind of caught me off guard and thought it was profoundly strange.

This movie based on the famous TV series may be one of the best annimated movies ever made. It is a spoof of James Bond movies of the era. The script is well written with an interesting story line and an exciting ending. The musical numbers are fun too. There is a song that Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm sing where they are dreaming about their futures and the visuals during the song are animated in stick figures that look to be drawn by kids. This has to be the cutest song and animation that I have ever seen.

An expansion on the classic TV series, intertwined with 'music videos' before there were such a thing. It has musical numbers, some trying to make a social comment on the times, like the kids singing 'someday when I grow up'. You have to remember that this was during the cold war, and at the beginning of the Vietnam war.

This movie has slightly better quality animation, and the familiar characters look a little more detailed like Hanna Barbera spent more $$. I guess with the backing of the Columbia Studio, they had more money to spend. This was also the end of the original Flintstones series, and what a way to go out!

It's just a so-so story, as far as The Flintstones go. They never were known for emmy award-winning writing, anyway!

I love the original series, whose first season is now on DVD. I remember seeing this at a 'kids matinée' when it was reissued at the theater in the 1970's. Viva La Flintstones!

I love tis movie it is very well done excellent lovely quite long. When I first watched this movie I was very entertained I didn't want it to end it made me want to watch it every day i became addicted to it. The green goose's assistances made me laugh a lot they just crack me up. This movie was made 1966 I think for that time I think that the the movie was very well made. I love it when they are in the airport the plane was very cool I liked it, it looked very original. This movie is one of my favorite movies that they have ever made. This movie is a musical. I think that this movie is going to be a movie that will be remembers for a very very long time, my rating for this movie is 10/10.

By Dale Buttigieg

While I still love the original series, the 1st 3 seasons being the best and less watered-down for the kiddies, this film version didn't hold up as good as I had hoped. Some of the early Bond influenced original episodes are much more entertaining. It is what it is....memory was better than the actual product in this case. Yet another fond memory from my youth has been tampered with....

I found this on a brand new DVD for $0.99 in a thrift store and thought it odd that I'd never even heard of it, considering I grew up watching the original cartoon. Then I watched it. Pretty lackluster, forgettable stuff here with a couple laughs but overall lame, like they took the content of two normal episodes and fleshed it out into a movie with musical numbers. I was hoping it would have more for the adult audiences like the earlier shows, but it was pretty much kiddieville, although I fail to see how most kids would find it all that entertaining--especially modern audiences of young people. If you are like myself and never heard of this thing, there's a reason for it and you aren't missing much.

I really liked "The Flintstones" cartoons growing up. I watched them in reruns, as I wasn't alive when they were new. Although this had some of the elements of the old cartoon, overall it almost sent me to sleep. I had to fast forward a few times to even finish it. I still occasionally watch reruns of the cartoons, but I guess cartoons are sorely lacking in that certain something when people try to stretch them into film length.

It probably would have worked fine if they had let the characters enjoy the places they went for a little bit. They also may have wanted to enhance the plot, and up the suspense and comedy bits. There were some funny moments, and some potential that wasn't quite actualized. Mostly, they should have skipped the very boring, and generally poorly sung songs! Other than Pebbles' voice actor the singers seemed a bit unskilled at singing, and don't get me started on the lyrics! Improv people could have done better than that, and they don't have a script. Oddly, even though the voice of Pebbles' song was the least bad, I think the lyrics for it may have been the worst? Although, since I started skipping the songs, I'll admit to not being certain on that point.