Officially in stores this Tuesday is “The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age SmackDown” on DVD and Blu-ray, so here’s a first look and a review of the animated movie!
Let’s Yabba-Dabba Do this…
How many nights have you laid awake wondering what would happen if your favorite WWE Superstars and Divas crossed paths with the most well known and beloved prehistoric families?
Folks, welcome back slumber into your life as now we have The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age SmackDown. What ensues is a combination of mild hilarity and an ample dose of hijinks.
The total run time of the special is just over 51 minutes and this marks the first time in nearly 15 years since we have had a new Flintstones feature. Also did you know that when The Flintstones first hit the airwaves almost 60 years ago, WWE was operating as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation and hadn’t yet debuted their own World Title! (If you are wondering, over at the National Wrestling Alliance, Pat O’Connor was the reigning and defending Champion)
“Stone Age SmackDown” features all of the Flintstones regulars, from Fred, Willma, Barney and Betty all the way to Bam Bam, Pebbles, Dino and even Mr. Slate. For “Stone Age SmackDown” the Flintstones regulars are joined by a total of nine WWE Superstars and Divas (each of whom provided voice overs for the special – including The Undertaker!).
The WWE Superstars featured included Mr. McMagma (Vince McMahon), the main heroes of the feature: John Cenastone (John Cena), Rey Mysteriopal (Rey Mysterio) and The Undertaker, with Marble Henry (Mark Henry), CM Punkrock (CM Punk) and Nikki & Brie Boulder (Nikki & Brie Bella) assuming the role of the protagonists. Also while he doesn’t actually get involved in the wrestling action Daniel Bryrock (Daniel Bryan) can also be found rocking Bedrock with a chorus of YES! YES! YES! chants.
The basic premise behind the special is… after Fred fails to negotiate an advance on his wages he needs to come up with a way to raise the clams for his family vacation and in doing so he makes the discovery of a sport which would ultimately be known as pro-wrestling.
The inspiration for Fred’s latest scheme comes following an incident between his old pal Barney and CM Punkrock at a Water Buffalo fundraising event, after Punkrock ‘punks’ out Barney’s Hopparoo (Hoppy) who is putting on a boxing exhibition. Following the event Fred sets out to recruit a band of wrestlers for his promotion beginning with the quarry’s newest starter, John Cenastone. Together Fred and Cenastone manage to bring Rey Mysteriopal and The Undertaker on board.
After successfully putting on his first show (headlined by Barney vs. The Undertaker in a cage) Fred secures a TV deal and holds the first “FFE (Fred Flintstone Entertainment) Saturday Night Spectacular”. However, after Barney pulls out of his one-on-one encounter with CM Punkrock, Fred has to don the tights to help defend the honor of his buddy. The event is so successful that it inspires a young Mr. McMagma to get involved in the wrestling biz, with McMagma promising to make a success of it, even if it takes him millions of years!
What would The Flintstones be without the wisecracking animals that are used to assist with the functions of modern-day prehistoric life. On this particular front Stone Age SmackDown does not disappoint, so keep your eyes peeled for those scattered throughout the show.
Obviously Stone Age SmackDown likely won’t be picking up too many gongs during next year’s awards season, and if you were expecting to see the movie love child of: The Shawshank Redemption, and The Godfather, your expectations were probably a tad too high, maybe think love child of Fight Club and Knucklehead. However, it was a fun 50 minutes, moving along at a great pace and certainly not dragging in the slightest.
Also, in my opinion, this latest WWE Studios partnership eclipsed the previous animated special – Scooby-Doo: WrestleMania Mystery, as rather than creating a “WWE City” where all the Superstars live, Stone Age SmackDown took the WWE characters and dropped them into a whole new universe, and the result was really pretty damn good.
Special features:
“The Superstars of Fred Flintstone Entertainment (FFE)” – this 9 minute feature looks at the superstars and divas featured in Stone Age Smackdown along with comments from the producers and a selection of WWE Superstars and Divas (namely John Cena, Mark Henry and The Bellas).
“How to be a Stone Age Superstar” runs for 4 minutes and discusses how Stone Age SmackDown managed to capture the authenticity of the WWE Superstars through their identities, signature moves and costumes.
The Blu-ray/DVD version also comes with two complete episodes of The Flintstones: “The Engagement Ring” (originally broadcast: November 25, 1960) and “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” (originally broadcast: April 27, 1962).
“The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age SmackDown” officially hits stores this coming Tuesday and while it might not quite be worth the near $20 price tag, it was still a pretty cool watch and much more enjoyable than last year’s Scooby Doo offering.
Get your copy of the The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown now…
– Blu-ray + DVD + UV: Click here to order from Amazon.com.
Is Bill Goldberg’s role in this film big? It says on Goldberg’s IMDB.com that he has a voiceover part in this movie which is kinda weird cuz I thought Goldberg and WWE were on bad terms
That’s an error on IMDB’s behalf, Bill Goldberg isn’t in the special.
Im oddly attracted to the animated versions of the Bellas…..
As a big Flintstones fan, I was really looking forward to this. But the Flintstones voices are all wrong, Fred and Barney sound nowhere near they originally did, plus, Fred and Barney aren’t really the same characters in this one. Barney is a big hero in this and he never was on the oringnal cartoon unless it was an accident. The idea that Fred would refer to it as “sports entertainment” sounds completely ridiculous. With the exception of CM Punk, all the other superstars don’t really sound into it. I expected much more from Cena’s delivery of his lines. They were so flat, and there wasn’t a single Flintstones character that was ever flat sounding, they all had some kind of charisma. The best part was definitely CM Punk, who of course they’re not going to advertise. He was a great bad guy and really seemed to enjoy playing that character in this movie. If the Flintstones character voices would have been better, I could watch this more than once. But with CM Punk being the only good part of this, it’s not worth owning for me. I’m sure someday the WWE Network will have a section for their films.
Most of the original cast of the Flintstones are dead.
Good, it have a soundtrack in French and subtititle too!
Subtitle sorry…
I do not dig these crossover projects that wwe are so engaged in the recent years. .
but,like always wdn delivers an entertaining review,even if the product seems to be trash.
Careful attitude.era.4life! You’re about to have several hundred wrestling fans coming after you saying, “Good for WWE for expanding themselves!” and “WWE can do whatever they want! I found this DVD delightful.”
you’re absolutely right..wwe can do whatever they want.. as well as I can put whatever I want in my bluray- and dvd player… and the cross over sesame-street adaption production that wwe is the recent years, is not allowed in my players for sure. 😉