Today’s two A Christmas Carol adaptations are animated versions meant for a juvenile audience. The first time I included either on the annual blog was back in 2019. I like the contrast of putting them together.

The Flintstones

A Flintstones’ Christmas Carol is from 1994; it was originally a syndicated U.S. television broadcast. It later became available on DVD. A Flintstones’ Christmas Carol is surprisingly better than it may appear before viewing. Done as a story-in-a-story, the town of Bedrock’s local theatre group is doing A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. Fred Flintstone has the starring role as Ebonezer Scrooge. Most of the ACC names are altered as per tradition of the Flintstones’ “stone-age” naming conventions. Ebenezer is Ebonezer; Cratchit is Cragit; Marley is Marbley.

Fred becomes stage struck as he rehearses for his role as Scrooge. His wife, friends, and co-workers see the change it has brought on him and note that he has become like Scrooge off-stage, too. In his self-centered zeal for the role, he forgets to pick up his daughter, Pebbles, at daycare and forgets to buy Christmas presents for his family. When the show gets to the performance of A Christmas Carol, the cartoon gives us a full, long performance of the story that is generally faithful to ACC. There is backstage action between scenes of their play. This helps drive the exterior story of Fred Flintstone learning a lesson along with his Scrooge character.

Next, we go from the Stone Age to the Future.

The Jetsons

A Jetson Christmas Carol was not a stand-alone special. It was a Christmas episode of The Jetson’s animated series from 1985. In the 1980’s there was a resurgence of interest in The Jetsons (1962-63) resulting in the mid-80’s syndicated series.

George Jetson is attending the office Christmas party at Spacely Sprockets when his boss, Mr. Spacely, tells him he has to work overtime on Christmas Eve. This puts George into a Bob Cratchit-like role while Mr. Spacely is obviously Scrooge. George actually makes a specific reference to A Christmas Carol, saying Mr. Spacely is “worse than Scrooge” and he should be visited by some “weird ghosts.”

While George’s family all go Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, the family dog, Astro, becomes ill and requires a veterinarian. Unfortunately, the family cannot find one on Christmas Eve. Astro becomes the story’s Tiny Tim. The Ghosts of the past, present, and future visit Mr. Spacely in the forms of robots. So, will Mr. Spacely reform and allow George to go home and prevent Astro from dying? The show is just “okay” viewing; it’s not really made for adults and is best left to younger watchers.