A fun little movie.
In this film Santa has an accident on top of Fred Flintstone's roof and Fred and Barney take over for Santa, delivering presents all around the world (which is very similar to what happens in the Christmas episode of the TV show). Yet while he is busy helping the real Santa, Fred is supposed to be playing Santa at the Bedrock Orphanage.
This is a charming little film. The characters are just as likable as ever and it is always great to see The Flintstones again. This movie also has a nice, warm Christmas-y feeling to it. On the downside this film does lack the amount of laughs the TV show had, and the songs come out of nowhere and don't fit in well. Though this may not be the classic that the Christmas episode of the TV show, or A Flintstones Christmas Carol were, it is fun, and that is just what you want from The Flintstones.
The movie's director was Charles A. Nichols. My fellow Disney buffs might recognize his name because he directed a lot of Pluto cartoons. Charles A. Nichols had also worked as an animation director on the original TV show. Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Ply reprise their roles as Barney and Wilma. Jean Vander Ply even is still the voice of Pebbles, even though Pebbles is older and can talk now. However, Fred and Betty's voices have been taken over by Henry Corden, and Gay Autterson, both would voice the characters many more times in the future. This film even features some of the original Flintstones animators like Ed Barge and Hugh Fraser. The song Hope was used earlier in the Hanna-Barbera Christmas special A Christmas Story (1972) and later reused in the made for TV movie Yogi's First Christmas (1980).
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