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Why of course, of course I didn't forget. Whaddaya think I am, some kinda Scrooge!?

— Fred realizing he has no presents for Wilma and Pebbles after Barney reminds him that Christmas is tomorrow

A Flintstones' Christmas Carol is an animated made-for-TV movie produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally broadcast in syndication on November 21, 1994. It is the fourth Christmas production based on the animated series The Flintstones (though it chronologically takes place between the original series and A Flintstone Christmas), and, as the title suggests, it is also an adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Synopsis[]

Fredflintstone

Fred as Ebonezer Scrooge.

The Bedrock Community Players are putting on a stage production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Brickens, and Fred Flintstone has gotten the part of Ebonezer Scrooge. Unfortunately, he has become so obsessed with the role that he is also treating his own friends and family just as badly. Everyone is shown to be annoyed with his constant bragging about being the leading actor of the play, particularly his wife, Wilma, who is working as the stage manager and also has to make the costumes because the costume designer caught a terrible flu called the Bedrock Bug. Fred scornfully scolds Dino for pouncing on him and getting paw-prints all over his costume, and when he drops Pebbles off at the day care center, he does not even bother to kiss her goodbye.

At the rock quarry, Fred brags about his leading actor status to his coworkers and then runs into the most beautiful woman in Bedrock - Maggie, who is playing Scrooge's love, Belle. It is implied here that Fred is in a secret relationship with Maggie behind Wilma's back. Mr. Slate (who is going to portray Jacob Marbley) shows up and declares that he's allowing everyone to leave after lunch so they won't show up late for the play. While working, Fred and Barney (who is playing the roles of both Bob Cragit and Fezziwig) rehearse their lines, with Fred criticizing Barney for missing his cues and not doing as good a job at his acting. (During this, the dinosaur that Fred is controlling also catches the Bedrock Bug.) When it comes time to leave, Barney reminds Fred that Christmas is tomorrow; upon hearing this, Fred realizes that he has forgotten to buy presents for Wilma and Pebbles. He immediately rushes off to Bloomingshale's department store, where he buys a dress and a necklace for Wilma, and a stuffed pigasaurus for Pebbles. However, because he has no time to wait in line to have the gifts wrapped, he lends them to a random kid who's also waiting in line and tells him to hold on to them until he comes back to get them.

Flintstone-marley

Mr. Slate as Jacob Marbley.

Fred speeds his way to the theater, briefly being stopped by police officer Philo Quartz (making his first and only appearance as an adult in this movie, after having originally appeared as one of Fred and Barney's childhood friends in The Flintstone Kids) when he runs a red light. When he arrives at the theater, a furious Wilma asks what has been keeping him, and he says that he was doing "last-minute rehearsing". Wilma then berates him for the fact that he failed to pick up Pebbles from day care (Barney took care of it instead). After Fred gets into his costume, he goes out onstage and Mr. Brickens begins narrating the show.

Wilma as Belle

Wilma portrays the role of Belle, much to Fred's surprise.

The start of the play goes without a hitch. After the scene where Scrooge is visited by Marbley, Fred goes backstage and brags to Barney that the audience is applauding his performance. However, Wilma then finds out that Garnett Feldspar, the actress who is supposed to be playing the Ghost of Christmas Past, has caught the Bedrock Bug and is unable to perform. At the insistence of Betty and Mr. Brickens, Wilma fills in for the role and shows Fred/Scrooge his past. When it comes time for the scene at Fezziwig's Christmas party, Betty informs Wilma that Maggie has also caught the Bedrock Bug, so Wilma now has to portray Belle too. When Fred sees that Wilma is playing the role of Belle, he silently asks her what happened to Maggie, leading Wilma to angrily ask him why he would rather be doing this scene with Maggie. Then, when they perform the scene where Belle breaks up with Scrooge, Fred cannot help but notice how genuinely sad Wilma is feeling about how selfish he has become.

After the curtain comes down to close the first act, Fred goes backstage and, feeling bothered by how upset Wilma was during her performance, decides maybe he should go talk to her, but Betty tells him that Wilma is too upset to even speak to him right now. Barney tells Fred to cheer up, since Wilma's likely not going to stay mad at him when they are opening presents tomorrow morning. Fred then realizes that he left his presents for Wilma and Pebbles at Bloomingshale's and rushes back to the store to get them. Unfortunately, since the store has closed early for Christmas Eve, he has to break in through the back window, and then he is unable to find the presents, coming to the mistaken conclusion that the kid from earlier has stolen them. Just then, Philo Quartz shows up again, wearing his Ghost of Christmas Future costume, and explains that he was alerted about a break-in here while he was driving to the theater. Philo gives Fred a ride back to the theater, where he tries to explain to Wilma where he has been, but he has no time to do so because it is now time for the second act.

Flintstones-christmas-carol-17

Scrooge (Fred) encounters the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Dino).

The next two sequences of the play follow with no problems. Over the course of performing in the scenes with the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future, Fred finds himself finally realizing how much of a jerk he has been to Wilma, Pebbles (who is portraying Bob Cragit's daughter Martha), Dino (who is shown portraying the Cragit family's pet), Barney, Betty (who appears as Mrs. Cragit), and Bamm-Bamm (who, now able to say words other than his own name, is portraying Tiny Tim). Then, while performing the scene with Scrooge's redemption at the end of the story, Fred/Scrooge encounters Wilma/Belle working as one of the poor collectors (the reason for this being that the actor playing one of the two poor collectors at the beginning of the story caught the Bedrock Bug offstage); this leads to an entirely ad-libbed scene in which Fred/Scrooge convinces Wilma/Belle to come join him for Christmas dinner with his nephew (who is named Ned in this adaptation, likely to avoid confusion with Fred himself).

After the end of the play (during which Pebbles ends up saying "God bless us, everyone!" due to Bamm-Bamm catching a case of stage fright), the cast unceremoniously drops Fred back down on the stage once the audience couldn't see them, and Wilma, Barney, and Betty reprimand Fred "for being such a Scrooge!" Fred admits to Wilma that he really did realize that his family and friends were important to him while performing the second half of the play. Wilma has a bit of a hard time believing her husband has really had a change of heart, but Fred makes it up to her by saying he'll talk it over Christmas dinner with her, Pebbles, and even Wilma's mother, Pearl; this finally convinces her that he's realized his mistakes and wants to make amends. During the curtain call, it is then revealed to Fred (and the viewers) that Dino was actually playing the Ghost of Christmas Future because Philo caught the Bedrock Bug before he could perform. After the curtain comes down for the last time, as everyone is getting ready to go home, the kid whom Fred met at the store earlier shows up, bringing him the presents that he bought for Wilma and Pebbles. Fred then ends up catching the Bedrock Bug himself, but Wilma tells him that it will only last for 24 hours and he will recover in time for her mother's Christmas dinner.

Trivia[]

  • The Flintstones are shown to be subscribers of The Daily Granite, the newspaper that Wilma and Betty worked for in the Captain Caveman segments of The Flintstone Comedy Show.
  • Fred describes the stuffed pigasaurus that he buys for Pebbles as a "Jurassic pork", an obvious nod to the novel Jurassic Park and its 1993 film adaptation by Amblin Entertainment, which also produced both of the live-action Flintstones movies, the first of which was released in the same year as this movie.
  • When the Rubbles are walking offstage at the end, Philo Quartz is shown walking by in the background, looking perfectly fine, despite that he was stated to have caught the Bedrock Bug.
  • The Flintstones did another take on A Christmas Carol in a Cocoa Pebbles cereal commercial produced a few years after this movie. In this particular advertisement, Fred is told to share the cereal with Barney, who is disguised as the Ghost of Christmas Present, accompanied by Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Dino reprising his role as the Ghost of Christmas Future. Fred soon realizes that he's been tricked, but he shares the cereal with Barney when Pebbles points out to him that Santa Claus is watching.

Broadcast history[]

Following its syndicated premiere on November 21, 1994, A Flintstones' Christmas Carol began airing annually on TBS. It later aired annually in Cartoon Network's Christmas marathons from 1999 to 2004, and reappeared there for Christmas Day of 2011; it is set to run there again on December 14, 2024. The movie also aired on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang every December from 2000 to 2016, and again in 2020, 2022, and 2023. It returned to over-the-air television on MeTV Toons' 'Tis the Season for Toons block in November 2024.

Availability[]

Almost a year after the movie's original broadcast, Turner Home Entertainment made it available on VHS as a Turner Family Showcase release. Turner released it on VHS again on September 24, 1996, this time as part of their Cartoon Network Christmas video series. This release also featured a bonus Yakky Doodle cartoon short preceding the movie.

Warner Home Video released the movie on DVD on October 2, 2007, with the original series' Christmas episode, "Christmas Flintstone", included as a bonus feature. The DVD was later reissued in a 2-pack with Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas in 2009, and later as part of the 4 Kid Favorites: Holiday Family Fun Collection box set in 2013 and the Hanna-Barbera Holiday Triple Feature box set in 2017.

Cast[]

Flintstones Christmas Carol curtain call

The curtain call at the end of the movie.

Voice actor/actress(es) Character(s)
Henry Corden Fred Flintstone
Jean Vander Pyl Wilma Flintstone
Frank Welker Barney Rubble
Dino
B.J. Ward Betty Rubble
Boy who helps Scrooge (uncredited)
Russi Taylor Pebbles Flintstone
Bird
Don Messick Bamm-Bamm Rubble
Joe Rockhead
John Stephenson Mr. Slate
Marsha Clark Maggie
Garnett Feldspar
Will Ryan Ned
Brian Cummings Ernie
Rene Levant Philo Quartz
John Rhys Davies Charles Brickens
Howard Morris Old Joe
Rip Taylor Venus Flytrap
Additional voices (uncredited)
Joan Gerber
Maurice LaMarche
Jan Rabson
Additional voices

Gallery[]

See also[]

External links[]

Hanna-Barbera
Productions
Shorts and episodes The Night Before ChristmasGood Will to Men • "Christmas Flintstone" • "A Dickens of a Christmas" • "Baby's First Christmas" • "The Nutcracker Scoob" • "Insanity Claus" • "A Jetson Christmas Carol" • "Happy Howlidays" • "The Nativity" • "The Magic Sack of Mr. Nicholas" • "The Ghost of Christmas Paddington" • "Santanapped" • "Don Coyote and the Christmas Bell" • "George and Junior's Christmas Spectacular" • "Santa Klutz" • "A Cavekid Christmas" • "Dexter Vs. Santa's Claws" • "Twas the Night" • "Happy Baboon Holidays" • "Scary Christmas" • "Scroogey Doo" • "It's a Wacky Life" • "Dashing Thru the Snow" • "Signed, Sealed and Wacky" • "The Spirit of Frostnos"
Specials and movies A Christmas StorySilent Night, Holy NightA Flintstone ChristmasCasper's First ChristmasYogi's First ChristmasThe Smurfs' Christmas SpecialChristmas Comes to Pac-LandYogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas CaperThe Little Troll PrinceThe Tom and Jerry Christmas Special'Tis the Season to Be SmurfyThe Town Santa ForgotA Flintstone Family ChristmasA Flintstones' Christmas CarolA Scooby-Doo! ChristmasTom and Jerry: A Nutcracker TaleScooby-Doo! Haunted HolidaysTom and Jerry: Santa's Little HelpersTom and Jerry: Snowman's Land
Albums
Merry ChristmasPebbles & Bamm-Bamm Singing Songs of ChristmasExciting Christmas Stories with Scooby-Doo and FriendsHanna-Barbera's Christmas Sing-A-LongA Christmas in BedrockA Flintstones Motown Christmas
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