It's Christmastime in Bedrock, now you might be wondering how can there possibly be Christmas in the Stone Age, long before Jesus was even born? Simple, this is a cartoon. Back to the story, the Bedrock Community Players were putting on a production of Charles Brickens' classic tale, A Christmas Carol. Fred Flintstone managed to land the role of Scrooge since Wilma is the play's producer, and talk about a method actor, Fred practically disappears into his character as he ignores his friends and family and putting himself first all for the sake of rehearsing. Wilma began to feel Fred was a bigger Scrooge than Scrooge. Before he leaves, Wilma reminds Fred to drop Pebbles off at Cave Care and to make sure he picks her up at 4:00; At the quarry, Mr. Slate lets everyone off after lunch so nobody will be tardy to the play. Barney uses this time to wrap his presents and Fred... suddenly remembers he didn't buy any for his family so he races to Bloomingshales which is, of course, jammed. This is Christmas Eve, after all. He hastily grabs some gifts and heads to the gift wrap line, which stretched out a mile. Suddenly, it's 4:00. Showtime! Fred asks a kid in line to hold them and hurries out. He stops at home for a bite and then gets to the theater. But it seems in all his haste that he had forgotten something mighty important: pick up Pebbles! Luckily Barney had gotten her when picking up Bamm-Bamm. This selfish oversight on Fred's part was the straw that broke the camel's back as Fred gets a wake-up call, as well as curtain call, so now the play can finally begin. Ebonezer Scrooge (Fred) is the cold-hearted miser who just lost his business partner, Marbley (Mr. Slate). After berating Bob Cragit (Barney) for using coal, Scrooge is visited by his nephew Ned (changed from Fred for obvious reasons), who invites him to dinner. Scrooge rejects the invitation and sets to greedily counting his money, and if you look up 'over-actor' in the dictionary, you'll find Fred's picture.
That night, Scrooge was visited by Marbley's ghost who is suffering for his sins and promises the same for Scrooge unless he changes his ways. Three more spirits would be visiting him. The miser assumes it's all a bad dream and goes to bed, as Act I comes to a close. By the way, there's a running gag where various characters come down with the Bedrock Bug, a prehistoric version of the flu. This causes Wilma to have to fill in as the Ghost of Christmas Past who, after abusing Fred for a bit, takes Scrooge to visit his past. How he started off as a quiet, lonely boy at school to an ambitious young go-getter working for Fezziwig (also Barney). It was at his employer's party that Scrooge met the love of his life, Belle (also Wilma because of the B.B.) Fred was unaware of the cast change so when he asks aloud why he isn't doing the scene with the other woman, Wilma takes offense. As we all know, greed got the better of Scrooge and he broke it off with Belle. This scene gets Wilma overly emotional, mainly because she's still bellyaching over Fred forgetting Pebbles, which Betty takes the opportunity to shame him for. It's at this point that Fred remembers the gifts back at Bloomingshales. Unfortunately, they're now closed, so Fred breaks in. He breaches an alarm, but thankfully Officer Philo Quartz is a friend of his and he's in the play too. So, Fred is off the hook and he rushes back to the theater. Well, onto the present. The ghost shows Scrooge Bob Cragit's family feasting on a meager meal, and he notices his youngest son is ill. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die, you know the story. So after learning that the whole town essentially hates him, but will drink a toast to him on Christmas, Scrooge begins to get a good look at himself, as does Fred. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future shows him a future in which Cragit's son Tiny Tim has died, as has Scrooge, but nobody cares. When returning to the present, Scrooge has seen the error of his ways and was a new man. Fred was like a new man too, realizing how badly he'd neglected everybody, but he finally made amends with Wilma when he agreed to let his mother in-law come to dinner, then the kid showed up with the Flintstones' wrapped gifts, and to top it all off, Fred came down with the Bedrock Bug. Merry Christmas!
For what it is, A Flintstones Christmas Carol is a decent adaptation. Those who have seen Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol will recognize the play format and here, it works just as well, even if they do stray away from the story at times. I'm glad they didn't go the traditional route and have Slate as the Scrooge character and Fred as Cratchit, probably because The Jetsons did that about ten years prior. Now, I like how in this special, it parallels both Scrooge and Fred learning how to be good to their fellow men and how not to be so selfish. Fans of the franchises, both Flintstones and Christmas Carol, should definitely check it out. It's certainly an overlooked classic. Also, fans of The Flintstone Kids get a rare opportunity to see Philo Quartz all grown up!
