Hey, kids, knock it off. Christmas isn't all about presents, ya know? Who raised you selfish little ruffians?
This would be followed by Casper's First Christmas and the movie Yogi's First Christmas.
They are kind of like a trilogy of poor story characterization, draining the last bits of life out of dead corpses, all to make a quick buck, for whatever it was supposed to do.
Christmas classics like the Rankin Bass offerings? I Don't Think So!! The Flintstones episode when Fred works as the department store Santa then fills in for the real Santa is a gem. It has aged well and is remarkably sincere.
Children should be made happy during the holidays and their love for Santa Claus is natural.
In the '77 Flintstones Christmas, the kids rant and rave for Santa and those presents like drunks on the weekend in a bar wanting a stripper.
Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are now small kids, not quite teens.
Mr. Slate: "If Flintstone doesn't get here in five minutes, he's fired!"
Wilma: "Ohhhh, that Fred! Wait till I get my hands on him!" This is the plot.
Wilma and Mr. Slate don't gradually get mad at Fred, they turn it on like a faucet.
Where's Fred? Get Mad.
Also worth noting an incredibly weak song that is sung (was it supposed to be Wilma singing?) to Pebbles about having hope. I guess hope that Santa Claus will arrive. Boo Boo Bear sings this same song in the Yogi's First Christmas cartoon. Not rich their either.
There is a much later Christmas special where Fred does the Ebenezer Scrooge bit, which believe it or not, it was just fun seeing the Bedrock gang again.
In the end, that is about where this Christmas special will stand; as a transition from the sixties originality, Flintstones vitamins and Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, to 1970s weak duplication, the movie specials, finally the real life transitions and direct to video.
No harm will be in this cartoon, it may be brainless enough to watch at Christmas, but it could have definitely been stronger.
