The
Man Called Flintstone (1966) + Hey There, It's Yogi Bear
(1964/Warner DVDs)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: D/C- Animated Films: C+
Knowing
their TV success was limited to a small screen with most people just
getting color TVs, Hanna Barbera decided to make a few animated
feature films in the shadow of a declining Disney and as their TV
hits kept adding up. In 1964, they decided to issue a big screen
version of their then-biggest character and the result was the
quasi-musical Hey There, It's Yogi Bear, followed in 1966 with
their attempt to have fun with the Spy craze and their new biggest
character In The Man Called Flintstone. Both have finally
been issued on DVD by Warner Home Video.
Yogi
is child-friendly and pretty much in keeping with the TV show, making
it child safe and a little more entertaining than expected, with time
for several music numbers and more of Yogi, Boo-Boo and Cindy Bear
waking up for Spring and trying to make another fun season out of
things. Though nothing very challenging it here, it is a very
colorful, upbeat, quality film that young children are likely to
really enjoy and fans will be happy to have.
Especially
targeting the James Bond and Derek Flint films, The Man Called
Flintstone is a much darker than you might expect, going for a colder
sense of humor atypical of the whole franchise, but refreshing as
compared to the recycled direction the characters sadly landed up
being in by the late 1970s. It has a disconnected feel like some of
the odder episodes of the classic series, but it has it moments, yet
the dissonance is clear to the point that it could have been a new
set of characters except that the originals are used here.
It
also has the unintended implication that the TV show is some kind of
lie or phony set-up, which may confuse younger viewers. With that
said, it is interesting in the spirit in which it is done, though the
films and era sent up is distant enough at this point that some of
the jokes are bound to be lost on some. Otherwise, we recommend both
films are worth a look.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 color image on Yogi and 1.33
X 1 '1.85 X 1 safe' image in Flintstone look very good for
their age, despite some minor print issues and some noticeable grain
here and there.
The
EastmanColor by Pathe can be vibrant and is correct in both cases.
The lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 is available in both original monophonic
and is weaker more often than it should be, making me wish for a
sound upgrade or at least lossy 2.0 Mono. Yogi has a title
song by no less than David Gates before his band Bread hit it big,
plus the film offers an instrumental score by Marty Paich and the
main musical songs by Ray Gilbert and Doug Goodwin. Extras include
trailers on Yogi, while Flintstone has nothing to
offer, but they deserved extras and Warner could have at least found
some trailers and posters, but maybe for a future Blu-ray or 4K
release?
Flintstone
is included in a recycled transfer on the Flintstones: Complete
series set reviewed elsewhere on this site, but it is not true HD.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
