The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown

This direct to DVD movie is like a new extended episode of The Flintstones, featuring a handful of WWE wrestling superstars—it's just long enough to not be considered a short film. Fred Flintstone (Jeff Bergman) attempts another scheme to get rich quick. This time it's to face professional wrestlers, and in the stone age, it's not staged. WWE fans will like this as they see animated version of what are often referred to as real-life animated characters. Appearances are made by John Cena, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, The Undertaker, Rey Mysterio, Mark Henry, The Bella Twins, and WWE owner Vince McMahon as Mr. McMagma. Each one has a stone age counterpart name but half the fun of this movie is hearing what the names are so I won't spoil the rest. Older fans of the original Flintstone series will probably be annoyed by the voices, particularly Barney's. Guys like Rick Moranis did a decent job of replicating Alan Reed's voice in the 1994 movie "The Flintstones," but I feel Kevin Michael Richardson does a terrible job. It's not a great movie by any standard, but lives up to its expectations

I'm a very HUGE fan of WWE and I was a fan of the Flinstones when i was a kid, so i was afraid, but really curious of the final result of this project, but as a surprise, it was good, even better that the other WWE crossover movie: Scooby Doo Wrestlemania Mystery. It feels that this movie was having more fun with itself, and the animation here was really funny, and "mobile" comparing to the other movie, allowing the characters to feel more alive, doing some funny moves and complementing the voice acting pretty well in the process, in that subject, the voice acting was one of the best part for me. Saw Cm punk playing himself and wrestling against Barney Rubble was simply hilarious, and the others like John Cena, Mysterio did an OK job. Is just an "ok" movie, nothing really good or bad to say about. That is my only problem, the movie is nothing special, is very predictable and "by the book" for that i give the movie just a 6. In conclusion, if you are a WWE fan, and want to have some silly fun with the wrestlers and the Flinstones, is worth it to check it out at least once, you can get a laugh or two, or feel really awkward with some of the Undertaker lines...

If only Surf's Up 2 Wavemania wasn't bad enough this movie makes the previous mentioned movies look like a masterpiece the animation is trash, the characters are horrible including the WWE stars and this is another poor attempt to make money so kids can be interested in wrestling, this is not a real movie it is just a commercial break with nothing just the same characters and every crossover of WWE is bad including Scooby Doo and The Jetsons, just send that movie to the garbage can and never return. It only exists to be another make money quickly just for kids to enjoy it and nothing more to say.

I know, I know. I thought I would dislike this as much as the rest of you. I mean, The Flintstones, and WWE? How in the world could those two concepts possibly come together and work?! Well, to be honest, it actually did rather well! The plot actually plays out somewhat like a standard episode of The Flintstones (or a short animated film) with Fred becoming a manager and promoter of wrestling matches as part of a get rich quick scheme in order to afford a family vacation, featuring stone age versions of several current WWE wrestlers.

As much I was preparing myself for a lot of pandering to wrestling fans and the sensibilities of modern animation, storytelling and humor, this film was surprisingly low key and reserved, not resorting to the usual gaggle of ironic pop culture puns on the latest movie releases and the like, except when they could be adapted into the story for a quick gag, (i.e. a quick joke about prehistoric digital devices made out of stone), but like celebrity cameos, these were also a common quality of the Flintstones universe, so, I let it slide.

The wrestling itself is thankfully not too realistic, there are a lot of cartoonish exaggerations, that still don't clash too much with the semi-realistic tone of the Flintstones universe.

There are a few references to catchphrases and the like that may confuse or otherwise irritate you if you're not a fan of pro wrestling, and a few plot devices may seem a little contrived, but thankfully, they are sparse. A bunch of the WWE entertainers actually do a reasonably good acting job, so that's another plus.

This, coming from a longtime advocate of traditional, hand-drawn animation and traditional storytelling, this film, which I was not quite looking forward to, this was like a relieving breath of fresh air for me personally. It sort of put me in the mind of the multiple Flintstones specials from the early 1990s that would be played on Cartoon Network ad naesuem back in the day.

In short, for the casual Flintstones fan, you may want to give this a watch. For children, I'm not sure if I would recommend it if the concept of several scenes of somewhat revealing swimwear and women with sassy, sexualized attitudes and cartoonish violence offends you. Also, if the kids or teens seem to be more into the frantic pace of most of today's animated output, this may not be for them, either.

Final thoughts. Animated projects with this type of art and story style are so unheard of to this day, that this gave me some pretty pleasant nostalgic feelings. Overall, I'm not sure if I would necessarily watch it again, but if it just happens to be on television in the future, I might sit through it.

Whatever we think of this movie, based in Bedrock and guest stars WWE Wrestlers and their boss (if we count out CM Punk, which left before this cartoon was released but was left there as part of the story line), I kinda enjoyed it for the nostalgia and the fact that part of the WWE world is a cartoon by itself...

Most of the movie was drawn like season one of the original series. Even Barney gets close to the original voice (but I miss Mel Blanc or even Daws Butler in some of season's two episodes). However, it gets back to Fred's original "get rich quick" schemes, when he was denied of a vacation cheque due to an accident. An event staged by the Water Buffaloes gives him an idea with a few wrestlers he meets on the way (like John Cena, El Mysterio and The Undertaker) or some brutes (CM Punk and Mark Henry) and sassy Divas (the Bella Twins). And not forget Mr.McMahon ! And Barney might be the solution to get the clams in the pocket for a Rockapulco vacation for the families...

Watch for the fun of it, take it light. It's been a long time in my book the Flinstones lost it in animation (the original series were the best from 1961-66) but it brings back some nostalgia about how the Flinstones and the Rubbles were part of prime time a long way back.

Watch it in English mostly, not in French. Very bad Parisian dubbing and WB should have known Quebec had one of the best French versions in the 70s with the original series...

And by the way, watch again the one in season 3, when Barney does a ventriloquist trick to Pebbles to fool Fred, but ends up being spectators in a wrestling show to make it up...