Digital Digest: The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones DVD Review

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Digital Digest: The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones DVD Review

Welcome to Digital Digest, your weekly dose of all things digital relating to all of your favorite sitcoms! This week, we have a review of The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. Let's get moving from the stone age all the way into the space age!

DIGITAL NEWS

It's been a slow few weeks, but we've got a plethora of news this week! We start with current TV series, specifically current series on NBC. This week, the recently canceled series Outsourced - The Complete Series was announced for a September 13 release at a $39.99 MSRP. Just one week later, on September 20, Parks and Recreation - Season 3 will be released at the same MSRP.

The CBS series Mike & Molly gets a DVD release with Mike & Molly - The Complete First Season on September 20, but it'll also get a Blu-ray Disc release on the same date. The DVD comes at a $44.98 MSRP while the Blu-ray comes at a $54.97 MSRP.

Now over to ABC, the current series The Middle - Season 2 has a DVD release scheduled for September 27 at a $44.98 MSRP. We'll have reviews of this and all other current sitcoms when they are released, of course.

That actually isn't all for the sitcoms, though... TBS has sitcoms too, and now, Meet the Browns will finally get a DVD release. Meet the Browns - Season 1 comes August 30 at a $29.98 MSRP.

We head off from current sitcoms into classic sitcoms now, with The Lucy Show - The Official Fifth Season! Although it isn't set in stone yet, a tentative release date seems to be planned for December 6. We'll have more information on this when we know it. It is not yet available to pre-order.

Over to classic series that aren't sitcoms, Shout! Factory made some big announcements this week, with an announcement of Police Story - Season One (coming September 6 at a $39.97 MSRP) and Kojak - Season Two (coming September 27 at a $44.99 MSRP)

Have you ever wanted to watch Family Matters from your computer? Well, now, amazon.com is offering the second season of the series for online streaming! You can watch the entire season for $39.99 or individual episodes for $1.99. However, there is one problem, is it does appear that the episodes are syndicated versions.

UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW

Tuesday (June 21) has only one sitcom release, with Mister Ed - The Complete Fifth Season, from Shout! Select. Shout! Factory is also releasing Rocko's Modern Life - Season One on Tuesday, as a wide retail release.

BLOG FEATURE REVIEW

In the 60s, Hanna-Barbera brought what could perhaps be considered among their most iconic series to the small screen, with The Jetsons and The Flintstones. Despite one taking place in the space age and the other taking place in the stone, the series had very similar premises, with different families living an ordinary life in a time period that nobody at that time (or even at this time) would never actually experience. In the '80s, these two series clashed together toward the end of the syndication run of new episodes of The Jetsons for a classic crossover movie, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. Here is our review of this set.

DVD Review: The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones

by Pavan

The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (Warner Archive, $14.95) is FINALLY on DVD and it's a great cross-over movie from 1987 between two of the most beloved animated series of all-time! It's the wackiest animated adventure of all space-time when the world's favorite Modern Stone Age Family comes face to face with the First Family of the Future in a match-up that only Hanna-Barbera Studios can delightfully make possible! Thanks to Elroy's malfunctioning tie machine, the Flintstones and Rubbles are zapped into the robot-run future while the Jetsons suddenly find themselves in the dinosaur-filed past. Can our fearless families adapt? And more importantly, will they ever get back home? Find out, in a time-hopping animated feature-length romp packed with all the gags, gadgets and nonstop fun unleashed when The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones.

The movie originally aired in 1987 in local syndication. If you love The Jetsons and The Flintstones, then this is a dream movie for you. Yes, the voices for these differ from the original series, as we have new voices. However, The Jetsons was revived in local syndication from 1985-87, so the new voices are the same people who were in that series. The Jetsons originally aired on ABC for one season in 1962-63. It was so popular in repeats it was revived in the mid-80s as a new series. The Flintstones aired on ABC from 1960-1966 and was popular from the start. There were many reincarnations and specials after that, so The Flintstones never really disappeared from TV when this movie aired in 1987. In fact, more TV movies and specials were created for this series after this movie aired, so back to the original point about the original series voices--it doesn't matter, because there were so many specials and movies.
Anyway, the movie runs 92:05 and is unedited of course. We have 10 chapter stops for the movie, but it is every 10 minutes rather than at the end of acts.

The DVD comes in a movie-style case. The cover art has a nice shot of Fred & Wilma in the Jetsons' car, while George, Jayne & Elroy are in the Flintstones car. Dino and Astro are outside running around. There are some characters missing, but oh well. But the back of the case has nearly everyone. We have a nice episodic image of Fred and George looking at each other, along with info on the movie & set, and three smaller episodic images. Inside the case we just have the disc on the right panel. The panels are not decorated, so it is just plain black. The disc art is the same as the cover art, but the disc art is more zoomed in.

The menu design is good and uses the same artwork as the cover art, but a bit more focused and in an oval shape. The menu is very simple as well. There is only one option: Play Movie. It's as simple as that. I wish we had options for subtitles at least, though. And maybe scene selections? There isn't music playing in the background either. It's all good though, as long as we get to watch the movie!

Video and audio quality are both good. There are some dust and debris here and there, but it looks good. This isn't re-mastered or anything, so it isn't HD quality. It's better than your VHS recordings of this movie, I'm sure. It's the best you can get anywhere.
There are no special features, which isn't really surprising since this is a made on-demand set from Warner Archive. It would have been nice to have some original promos or something, but it is what it is and I'm just happy this movie is FINALLY on DVD!

I think Warner Archive did a decent job on this set. They bring a lot of rare items that would never be released on Warner Home Video, so they focus on the main feature itself rather than bonus features or any other item. That being said, yes the packaging, menu features, the special features and even the audio/video could be better, but this isn't a general release, so expectations are lower. I hope more The Flintstones movies and specials get released by Warner Archive, as I'm a big fan of the franchise. It just seems Warner Home Video won't release those for some reason, so Warner Archive is the way to go! Get ready for two classic animated series families getting together in a wild and wooly mammoth movie treat! Fred or George? Sound off to us on Twitter and Facebook!

(3.5/5 stars)

To purchase this DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
Warner Archive

Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Main DVD Reviews Page
The Jetsons TV.com page
The Flintstones TV.com page

LOOKING AHEAD

Be sure to come back next week for more Digital Digest. We'll have more news and reviews for you, and we hope that you'll be back for it. Until then, keep it digital!

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Tuesday, November 12

The Conners - "Tempest in a Stew Pot" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Jackie and Becky pitch their business plan to Darlene in hopes of getting the Lunch Box back, but Darlene’s decision leads to hostility among the three. Meanwhile, Dan bans Odessa from the house, causing a rift with Harris; and Mark makes extensive Thanksgiving plans that may inevitably fall apart.

Bless This Mess - "The Visit" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Donna springs a last-minute trip to Nebraska on Mike and Rio, which she claims is to relax, but Mike and Rio soon find out she has other plans in mind when she steps into competitive mode to get them to participate in the harvest. Meanwhile, Constance’s son Brandon is driving her crazy working at the store, so she pawns him off on Rudy.

mixed-ish - "Puttin' on the Ritz" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT)
The kids are excited to learn more about their grandad after Harrison invites the crew to family day at his country club. Although Paul thinks it’s a bad idea, he is eventually overruled. Meanwhile, Alicia attempts to fit in at the country club but ends up fighting with Denise about keeping it real.

black-ish - "Daughters for Dummies" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
When Dre realizes that his relationship with Diane has been distant, he plans some daddy-daughter bonding sessions, but the plans backfire when he realizes the interest is one-sided. Meanwhile, Bow covers for Junior at his ChoreBoar gig.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of November 11)

Tuesday, November 12

Patrick Stewart (Blunt Talk) - Catch Patrick on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph (People of Earth) - Da'Vine appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Kristen Bell (The Good Place) - Kristen visits The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. She also talks about Frozen 2 on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Laurie Metcalf (The Conners/Roseanne/The McCarthys/Getting On/The Norm Show) - Laurie stops by The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Jenny Slate (Married/Parks and Recreation/Bob's Burgers) - Jenny is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Rob Schneider (Real Rob/Rob) and Esther Povitsky (Dollface/Alone Together) - Rob and Esther are panelists on Lights Out with David Spade at 11:30pm on Comedy Central.
Lizzy Caplan (Party Down/The Class) - Lizzy drops by Conan at 11pm on TBS.
Ilana Glazer (Broad City) - Ilana appears on Watch What Happens: Live at 11pm on Bravo.
Laura Dern (F Is for Family/Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Robin Givens (Head of the Class) - Robin visits The Real, so check your local listings.
Donald Faison (The Exes/Scrubs/Clueless) - Donald appears on The Real, so check your local listings.
Nicole Byer (Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Tim Robbins (The Brink) - Tim talks about Dark Waters on New York Live on WNBC in New York at 11:30am ET.
Kristin Davis (Sex and the City/Bad Teacher) - Kristin talks about Holiday in the Wild on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.