The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! (2015)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The acting in this movie is really good.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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

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...

I have to say that when I was a lot younger I occasionally watched a "Flintstones" episode on television. So I was curious to see what this new film was about. I knew that i couldn't care less about the wrestler part, so I had almost no idea who all these people were. Still, the Flintstones core story kind of delivered. Fred wants to take his family and friends on a holiday, but he loses all the money. So he convinces Barney to go with him and take a journey into the world of Wrestling. I did like that they included some of the original funny moments of the television series from over 50 years ago, like that household items are made of dinosaurs. And all the other prehistoric references were fun to watch as well. Biggest flaw was possibly Wilma's voice for me. Yes the actress is super experienced, but she was way too old for the part. Wilma sounded like her own mother or as if she had smoked 10 cigarettes every day since the original cartoon series ended. Oh yeah, this one is not 44 minutes long as stated on the IMDb title page, but 50 (with credits), so this is almost a feature film already, not a short movie anymore. Decent watch all in all, some good moments in terms of the story, some boring ones too unfortunately, but as a whole not a complete disappointment. The animation is fine as well. Enjoy your stay in Rockapulco, Fred.

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.