Warner Brings Back Animated Stone-Age Family

Funnyman Will Ferrell and partner Adam McKay are working on bringing back everyone’s favorite stone-age family. The duo’s production company Gary Sanchez Productions is in development on a new Flintstones animated feature. Warner Bros. previously tried a Flintstones TV series produced by Seth MacFarlane, but that project never got beyond the pilot stage.

The Flintstones- Fred Flintstone and his wife Wilma, neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble– first appeared in Hanna-Barbera’s 1960 animated series. The prime-time animated show was a take off on The Honeymooners set in prehistoric times. It proved a cross-over hit that appealed to children and parents alike.

Gary Sanchez Productions partner Chris Henchy will write the movie, with Ferrell and McKay Executive Producing. The Flintstones last appeared in a series of live-action films from Universal. The 1994 live-action version featured John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis and Rosie O’Donnell, and grossed an impressive $341 million.

Warner Bros. recently announced a slate of three animated films for 2017–2018. The May 26, 2017 released was announce to be The Lego Movie 2, sequel to this years big hit The Lego Movie. The February 10, 2017 release was assumed to be Storks, the project written by Nicholas Stoller and headed by Doug Sweetland, and the February 08, 2018 was thought to be Smallfoot, helmed by Sergio Pablos. Both features had previously been announced with no set release date.

It is not currently known if The Flintstones will be added to the previously announced schedule, or added to it.

I'll be honest... I'm not a huge fan of these series "Reboots" ... The classic versions are usually always better. There's just too much "political correctness" in society today such that any such series reboot would be rendered useless, IMHO. Consider that Fred Flinstone used to smoke and do cigarette ads. That certainly wouldn't fly today, even if cigarette ads were still permissible on the air. Not that I'd want to see them do cigarette ads, these days (I never started smoking), but...

If they can bring me a reboot that's just as politically incorrect as the original, I'll definitely take a look at it.

So, with "The Flintstones" coming to MeTV this fall, could this be a sign that other classic cartoons from the H-B library may end up coming to MeTV someday? I mean, they do still have some demand and shows like "Scooby-Doo" do have a cult following. Neither Cartoon Network nor Boomerang is interested in airing these classic cartoons, so I think MeTV is the perfect place to air them, even if in a Saturday morning block. I don't know if there is any politically incorrect material in "Scooby-Doo" cartoons, but I do know "The Funky Phantom" did have one episode involving gun usage and even firing bullets in the air.

I am also another person who is not a fan of modern-day reboots, though there is one exception. I do happen to enjoy "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?" more than any of the Scooby series since "What's New" launched in 2002. At least the character art looks very close to the original.