1500th Blog Post Special: Movie Series Review - Hanna-Barbera films

So maybe I forgot to do something for the blog's anniversary which I do apologise for. But instead here is my 1500th blog post and for this milestone, we're going back to the late 20th century to look at what is arguably some of the best cartoons that came out during that time. I am of course talking about Hanna-Barbera. A company known for making a number of great cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear and they even helped Cartoon Network with their very first original programing in the form of Dexter's Laboratory and the original Powerpuff Girls. The creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were also the creators behind Tom & Jerry before forming their own studio which Turner Broadcasting (the company who run Cartoon Network) would later purchase before merging with Time Warner and ultimately be absorbed into Warner Bros. Which is why you see so many of those cartoons on Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang (as well as their international equivalents). So today we are looking at the films they have done, but instead of going through every single one, I have decided to single out the best or worst (or only) film from each of their franchises (excluding Scooby-Doo which I have already reviewed the worst of) with the intention of looking at the other ones on a later date. And of course any that I have reviewed previously will not be on this list. So let's Yabba Dabba Doo and get right to it:


The Flintstones (1994)

We kick off the list by going to everyone's favourite stone age family. In the film, a group of higher up corporate a**holes hatch up a plan to rid Bedrock's Slate International of it wealth and fortune. But to do this, they need a scapegoat and thus Fred Flintstone (played by John Goodman) is picked as that person. First order of business sees Fred fire his best friend Barney (played by Rick Moranis) as well as a series of events which puts a strain on all of Fred's loved ones and thus he must set things right before things get crazy. Despite it being a pretty bad film, it has some good things. Despite being a live action version of the cartoon, it remains faithful with the characters, costumes, settings and all the devices they use. The casting for Fred, Barney and Wilma is pretty much what would be my first pick as I've always seen Goodman, Moranis and Elizabeth Perkins being those characters. Rosie O'Donnell is a bit meh with Betty I find and the use of original characters kind of sways away from what many of us would've wanted from a Flintstones film like this. The story is largely things that children would not quite understand or get and that's kind of bad for this film. So overall, its not the absolute worst film out there as it does have some good things going for it. But I just wish it was better than it was. 7/10

Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

Now Josie and the Pussycats is an interesting one as its not an original creation of Hanna-Barbera as it was based on an Archie comic book series of the same name. Still it is one of Hanna-Barbera's cartoons so it still sort of counts. To best sum up this film, its a film that follows that age old plot of a music executive (played by Alan Cumming) wanting to make money out of a band or artist and upon losing his so called best one, he seeks out another to do that very same evil scheme. He gets the attention of the titular group (comprised of the actresses Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson) and signs them on to a deal with the group being unaware of his true intentions. You know for a film that is trying to mordenise a 70s cartoon, it just doesn't work. Its like watching a feature length singing competition on the big screen and just an average one at that. Maybe it should've stuck to its source, but I think that would've been even worse. But despite all that, the singing is pretty good if anything as well as the acting, but that's it. 7/10

 

Yogi Bear (2010)

Its at this point where I wonder why Hanna-Barbera was OK letting film studios continue making live action films based on their cartoons. I mean yeah its all well and good trying out something new with cartoons, but sometimes having animated films is ok as most of those tend to do really well. But anyway, here we are with Yogi Bear. As in the cartoons, Yogi (voiced by fellow Ghostbuster, Dan Aykroyd) and his sidekick/friend Boo-Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake) reside in Jellystone Park where they like to steal people's picnic food, but must always try to evade Ranger Smith (played by Harrison Wells himself, Tom Cavanagh). Things are going well for the park generally, but when the town's budget is low, the mayor plots with his chief of staff in an attempt to close down the park and open it for logging. Of course Smith and the bears don't like the idea and must do what they can to stop him. Its another one of those films where the villain tries something and the heroes oppose it even though they are in a losing battle. The CGI in this film is actually not as bad as it was in Scooby-Doo and most if not all the actors play their parts well. I think where the film bombs is that like with similar films, the titular character is just a side character in his own film as the film is more about Smith's love story more than them. In other words, the story is predictable and mediocre and maybe some more work could've been done to make the film better. It is however faithful to the source material none the less, but I think we would want a film where the titular character is in fact the main focus. 6/10

Top Cat: The Movie

So before any of you go on to say that this is a Top Cat rip off, its not. The film was made in a Argentinian animation studio with some involvement from Mexican and Spanish people, hence why the above poster is not in English. But all the same, it is to do with Top Cat,  not some rip-off and it has an English dub which is the one I'm reviewing today. In the film, our titular cat (voiced by Jason Harris Katz) falls in love with another cat called Trixie (voiced by Melissa Disney and before you ask, yes she has some connection to the Walt Disney family) and hatches a scheme to try and impress her. But when the scheme seemingly fails, both Top Cat and his long time frenemy Officer Dibble (voiced by Bill Lobley) learn of the Police chief's son in law who takes over as chief of police with the intention of using a robot army to cause problems for the gang and the city they live in. An uneasy alliance must therefore be formed to stop this madness. The first thing I will say is that at least Hanna-Barbera have learned their lesson despite their creators no longer being around in that the best way to make a film based on a cartoon, is to make that film a cartoon film. The animation is great and faithful to the source. But that is largely the only good thing about the film. While all the characters are OK, the plot is another one of those plots in which a villain wants the main hero gone and manages to succeed in doing so, only to be thwarted by the hero at the last minute which is this film in a nutshell. Nevertheless, its the one I don't particularly mind seeing more because unlike the previous films listed it, it actually does try very hard to be like the source without going into live action territory. 7/10

The Powerpuff Girls Movie

The Powerpuff Girls was among the first of Cartoon Network's original programming of which Hanna-Barbera made for them. It was a very good show while it lasted and although the reboot is (at least in my opinion) not as great as the original was, it manages to keep to what was and still is good about it. To sum up the film in a nutshell, its an origin story for our main characters. Now the origin has been breifly shown both in the title sequence and in a few of the episodes in the show's original run, but never really been told in full. It answers questions such as the truth behind how the girls were made, how Townsville came to know and love them, who their first ever villain was and a whole pile of other things too. Like with the Star Wars film about Han Solo, The Powerpuff Girls Movie is what I pretty much expected. Answering all or most of the questions that fans have while giving us a feature length episode of the show. Its fun, action packed and very faithful to the source material to the point where the majority of the cast and crew themselves worked on it. Just wish there were more Cartoon Network films released on the big screen because many of them deserve it. 9/10

Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip

Alongside The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory was another show that Hanna-Barbera worked on that was also among Cartoon Network's first original programming. It was also one of the first projects that Genndy Tartakovsky made before becoming the well known and beloved animator that he's known as today. So Ego Trip was a TV film made originally to end Dexter's Laboratory, but ultimately became the finale of Tartakovsky's era of the show before it switched directors and animation for its further seasons (though a controversial episode in his tenure which never aired, arrived on YouTube many years later on Adult Swim's channel). In it, Dexter (reprised by Christine Cavanaugh) travels in time to meet his older selves upon learning about a person who would save the world in the future. But in almost all scenarios, it turns out his arch nemesis Mandark (reprised by Eddie Deezen) has managed to one up him and upon travelling to one time period where he has become ruler and dictator of the world, Dexter and his future selves team up to stop him with Dee Dee (reprised by Kat Cressida) not too far behind. Its a good film that puts Dexter in a pretty epic, but bizarre scenario involving time travel and its just very funny and action packed all the way through. Its a shame that the show carried on after this film as it would've been a great end to the series. But oh well. 9/10

So there they are. Seven films based on Hanna-Barbera properties and although most of them are not very good, it shows how far the company have gone and despite some bad decisions and other things, they still are going strong today with cartoons still being made and even a new series of comic books being done too. Hopefully the future will be bright for the company, but let's hope we don't get any more bad films in the future. Though I hear the Scooby-Doo reboot may be fully animated this time, but we shall see.