Jetsons: The Movie [HD]

A film that was truly ahead of its time!
First of all, I am so happy that this movie is finally being released. The Jetsons are without a doubt, one of the most beloved television familes that have ever graced the small screen. Like the Simpsons, they are one of the very few to have graced the big screen in full animated glory.

This movie is a very meaningful one for many reasons. It was the final performances of George O'Hannlon (George Jetson) and Mel Blanc (Mr. Spacely and a great deal of additional cartoon characters) Unfortunatly these gifted men lost their lives in the middle of the filming and you can definitely hear it in the voice of George in bit parts. This was also one of the first animated films to use a very primitive 3-D computer animation. Unfortunatly, I only got to see this movie when it was put on video so I cannot wait to try it out on my 42 inch plasma! It was also a movie that really kept the true elements of the Jetsons show intact with just a few new spins. Some examples would the new home,...

Tiffany almost ruins it.
When they made this movie, they recorded the voices with the original cast. Before release they thought that it would help marketing to replace Janet Waldo's voice with Tiffany's. If this were a new creation that would have been fine, but everyone knows what Judy Jetson is supposed to sound like, and it isn't Tiffany. I don't think enough people knew or cared about this to affect ticket sales anyways. Since they did record the whole movie initially with Janet Waldo as Judy, if that recording still exists, when this makes it to DVD it should have an alternate track with the original vocals. It wouldn't be hard to do, but movies like this rarely get much love on DVD. Hanna-barbera has given a lot of love to their series sets though, but since Universal and MCA are mixed up in this one, I'd be surprised to get more than a bare-bones movie disc.

Some Good and Some Blah
I was so excited when I found this old movie on my shelf. I remember liking it a lot back in the day when I was a kid. This time when I watched it though, I was surprised to see it drag in several places. George goes through the same comic routine of getting caught in the sprocket machine several times, and it takes forever for someone to come up with an idea of staying in the plant after working hours to figure out what's causing all the trouble.

Then again, the film has some definite highlights. It's fun seeing the wonders of the Jetsons' new home, and most of the songs are surprisingly good, except for the one or two awful rap songs. Rap was EVERYWHERE at this time. Most embarassing thing of the 90's if you ask me.

The movie starts getting a little environmentally preachy near the end, without much comic relief to lighten it up and make it easy to swallow.

Good for a rental if you have kids I guess, but the TV show had to be a lot better.

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