Jetsons: The Movie

George Jetson is forced to uproot his family when Mr. Spacely promotes him to take charge of a new factory on a distant planet.

I can't say this is a great movie, but I guess it's not terrible, either. It is a family film and one that smaller children will probably enjoy. The message is a bit heavy-handed and may not appeal to everyone, as it exaggerates the idea of conservation.

The creators also seem like they really wanted to build the film around Tiffany / Judy, including a music video that was apparently illustrated by different artists. Could the song have been a hit in 1990 and helped this film? Maybe, but so far as I know that never happened.

I like this movie because of the soundtrack and the adventure. "Maybe Love" is one of my three favorite songs in the movie (my other two favorite songs are "Stayin' Together" and "You and Me") all the songs in this movie seem to have an uplifting beat and I like to sing along to them. I also like to watch all of the adventures that the Jetsons encounter when they move to their new home. George gets a job to produce one million spacely sprockets and after many struggles with the grungies George manages to succeed at his job. Unfortunately for spacely in the end he ends up looking like a bad guy because he did not care if he was destroying the grungies universe, all he cared about was getting his one million sprockets. After Judy's heart was broken over Cosmic Cosmo going out with one of her friends (when he was supposed to date her) Judy found a new boyfriend (Apollo Blue, who was also a musician like Cosmic Cosmo) at her new home. Elroy makes a new friend also (Teddy 2)! When Teddy 2 scored on Elroy, Elroy became very angry with Teddy 2 (and vise versa) but by working together Elroy and Teddy 2 were able to become very good friends (especially when Elroy saved Teddy 2 form flying sprockets). The ending was extremely sad in my opinion, when the Jetsons had to return to their original home. I would definitely rate this movie a perfect 10 along with another perfect 10 for it's soundtrack!

Right off the bat, I have to say that this has a AWESOME soundtrack. Although a Hanna-Barbera production, it takes a kind of Disney "musical" approach with animated song sequences - but with contemporary production with the likes of Tiffany and others providing power ballads, pop-rock, swingin' beats and cheesy rap.

The animation is perfect. The colors are magnificent (e.g. During Judy's song sequence at the new mall). The minimally used CGI is inoffensive. There was an era when CGI complemented cel animation rather than dominating it, and Jetsons: The Movie fits into that happy medium. If there's one issue I took, it was that I initially felt the light shading on the characters were a tad overdone. You quickly get used to it though.

HOWEVER: The plot and story aren't all that. The plot resolves too easily at the end and therefore feels somewhat unsatisfying. Perhaps it could be argued that, as a kids' film, the story didn't need to be too complicated. Well maybe ... but Jetsons presents itself more as a family franchise than a children's one.

I think the film should have focused itself more as an audiovisual feast and perhaps added just one more song. Then I'd rate it higher. It has much going for it, but is frustratingly flawed. A hidden gem that needed a little polishing for it to truly shine.

I loved the Jetson family as I grew up. I wanted to see the movie, but I wish that Janet Waldo could have stayed as Judy. I wasn't used to Tiffany. Mr. Spacely's up to his usual conniving best, and Jane is cute as ever. The plot was interesting. See this movie! I also recommend "The Jetsons meet the Flintstones."

I have a lot of nostalgia for The Jetsons. The cartoon was one of my favorites as a child in the 1980s. I don't have that same nostalgia for the movie or even remember when I actually saw it for the first time. I decided to watch it to see if I wanted to buy the newly released Blu-Ray version.

The Good: The animation is wonderful. The artists took the look right from the cartoon and gave it a boost for the big screen. The story is also nice and fits in with the world of the Jetsons. Daws Butler, the original voice of Elroy, sadly passed away before the movie was made but his replacement does a decent job. Otherwise most of the original voice cast is here, but more on that later. The musical score is well done, the iconic theme is heard throughout in different variations.

Not So Good: It always seems to come down to the voice cast when cartoons are turned into feature films. As I said most of the cast from the show are in the movie. Sadly Mel Blanc (Spacely) and George O'Hanlon (George) died during production and another actor finished their parts. I didn't notice this with Mr. Spacely but there are several scenes where George's voice was much different. I certainly don't blame the studio for this. But my biggest issue is what they did to Judy Jetson's character.

The original voice actor, Janet Waldo, recorded all her dialog for Judy only to be replaced by singer Tiffany. Of course Tiffany doesn't sound anything like the Judy we know and love, and the volume of songs make the movie feel like a vehicle for the singer's career. They should have kept Janet for the voice work and let Tiffany sing the songs, either as herself animated or just for the soundtrack. I would love to see the movie with Janet Waldo's voice restored but I'm guessing that is a pipe dream.

Summary: They did a lot of good things with the Jetsons movie but the studio screwed it up by replacing one of the iconic voice cast with a popular singer for the time. Maybe I'll give it another watch and change my feelings in the future.

Hollywood has kept this trend going with other cartoon properties. They just don't trust the property enough to let it speak for itself, they have to attach big name actors to it. Ugh!