General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Man Called Flintstone

The Man Called Flintstone is a 1966 American animated comedy feature in which Fred Flintstone, the star of Hanna-Barbera's television series The Flintstones, is recruited as a spy when an injured agent who is his exact double can no longer work. It was directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, written by Harvey Bullock and R. S. Allen, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.¹ The film premiered in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 3, 1966, and was Hanna-Barbera's second theatrical feature and the first and only theatrical Flintstones animated feature.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Release	Premiered Indianapolis, Indiana, August 3, 1966; copyright registered August 1, 1966 (LP33180)¹
Runtime	87 minutes per the AFI Catalog; other databases list 88 or 89 minutes¹^•³^•⁴
Directors and producers	William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, in both roles¹
Screenwriters	Harvey Bullock and R. S. Allen, with additional story material by Hanna, Barbera, Warren Foster, and Alex Lovy¹^•⁵
Lead voices	Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone), Mel Blanc (Barney Rubble and Dino), Jean Vander Pyl (Wilma), Gerry Johnson (Betty)⁴
Villains	Paul Frees voiced Rock Slag, Green Goose, and Triple X; June Foray voiced the femme fatale Tanya Malichite⁴
Music	Songs by Doug Goodwin and John McCarthy; Louis Prima performed in the film¹^•²
Reception	50% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer; audience score 3.4/5 from more than 2,500 ratings; 6.5/10 on IMDb⁶^•⁴

Spoilers

Plot

After master spy Rock Slag is put out of action by henchmen of the sinister Green Goose, leader of the criminal group SMIRK, the Stone Age Secret Service recruits Fred Flintstone, who looks exactly like Rock Slag, to stand in for the agent and hunt down Green Goose and his seductive partner, Tanya.¹ Fred goes on a supposed vacation trip to Paris with his wife and daughter and with Mr. and Mrs. Rubble. Tanya has moved on to Rome, and the two families follow. Fred manages to reach Tanya, yet she lures him into an ambush, leaving him and Barney Rubble captive in a disused amusement park where the Green Goose is based.¹

Both men resist torture until the real Rock Slag arrives to end Green Goose's plan to conquer all of Eu-rock. Once the madman is captured, he and his co-conspirators, including Tanya, are sent into outer space in one of Green Goose's own secret missiles, and the Flintstones and Rubbles return to their stone age life.¹ Other summaries add that Fred must foil a plan for a destructive missile without letting his wife and friends in on his secret.⁴

Production

The film was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., with Columbia Pictures as distributor, in hand-drawn cel animation photographed in Eastman Color by Pathé on 35mm film with a 1.37:1 aspect ratio and RCA mono sound.¹^•⁷ Charles Flekal and Roy Wade served as directors of photography among a nine-person camera crew, William Perez was art director and production designer, and five editors cut the picture: Warner Leighton, Milton Krear, Pat Foley, Larry Cowan, and Dave Horton.¹ Marty Paich and Ted Nichols composed the music.¹

The voice cast reunited the principal performers from the television series: Alan Reed as Fred, Mel Blanc as Barney Rubble and Dino, Jean Vander Pyl as Wilma, and Gerry Johnson as Betty, the actress who had taken over the role on the show in 1964.⁴^•⁸ Supporting voices included Don Messick, Janet Waldo, John Stephenson, Harvey Korman as Chief Mountmore, June Foray as Tanya Malichite, and Paul Frees in three roles, Rock Slag, Green Goose, and Triple X.⁴

Music and songs

The film was promoted as Hanna-Barbera's "first full-length tune-full adventure" and includes several musical numbers.⁹ Songs were written by Doug Goodwin, including "Spy Type Guy," "The Happy Sounds of Paree," "Pensate Amore (Think Love)," and "Tickle Toddle," and by John McCarthy, including "Team Mates," "(Someday) When I Am Grown Up," and the end-title song "The Man Called Flintstone."² Louis Prima performed in the film.¹

A soundtrack LP, Hanna-Barbera Records HLP-2055, was released in 1966, running 29 minutes. On the album Henry Corden sang Fred Flintstone rather than Alan Reed, and although Prima had released a Golden Hits album on Hanna-Barbera Records, the label was not able to use his vocal on the film's LP.²

Release and reception

The film opened in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 3, 1966, the same date The Numbers records as its wide domestic release, and reached Denmark on November 28, Sweden on December 10, the United Kingdom on December 16, and Finland on December 23 of that year.¹^•³^•¹⁰ The Numbers lists no domestic box office figure.³

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer of 50 percent, with an audience Popcornmeter average of 3.4 out of 5 from more than 2,500 ratings; IMDb users give it 6.5 out of 10 and The Movie Database 6.4.⁶^•⁴ The New York Times critic Howard Thompson reviewed it, and the film has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray, including in the sets The Flintstones: 2 Movies and 5 Specials and The Flintstones: The Complete Series.¹¹^•⁷ As of recent listings it can be rented or bought digitally on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, and Fandango At Home.⁴

Place in the Flintstones franchise

The film followed the sixth and final season of the ABC television series, which had run 166 episodes from 1960 to 1966, and it parodies the spy films of the era, sending the Bedrock family to Paris and Rome with animal-run gadgets in the James Bond mold.⁸^•¹² It remains the only theatrical Flintstones animated feature, and its title song has kept a place among fans of the original series.²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026