The Man Called Flintstone

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! ;-)!

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!

"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!

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...