A movie starring the family of the future, its' about time!!! But how does it compare to the 1960's cartoons?
In the 24th century, Spacely Sprockets has opened a factory in outer space on an orbiting asteroid. However, there have been some glitches in trying to reach the "one millionth" sprocket, and have scared off four vice presidents. In desperation, Spacely (Mel Blanc in his final voice role before his death) hires George (George O' Hanlon in his final voice role before his death) and he and his family move to the asteroid. But the Jetsons aren't scared one bit by the glitches, they actually want to go in and help solve the mystery.
This adaptation of the classic 1960's television series has several positive messages on the importance of family and setting aside differences for a major cause, as well as the dangers of greed and selfishness. George learns that he needs to focus more on his family rather than his job, and he willingly sets his job focus aside to help save the Grungees from having their home destroyed. Judy (voiced by pop starlet Tiffany) also sets aside her find-a-new-boyfriend motif to help.
The animation is nice for a 1990 movie, with colorful backgrounds and characters. The voice cast does a fine job. In one of his first compositions of his career, John Debney does a nice job with the music score. The songs are nice touches, giving the movie a great amount of 80's music, with "You and Me" and "Home" standing out. For a movie adaptation, the story stays very faithful to the cartoon. A few exciting moments.
As far as negative notes go, I don't think the environmental message at the end was really a strong ending to the movie, especially given that the 60's TV series never really had that kind of influence. Also, Tiffany, while doing respectable as Judy, doesn't sell her performance when in comparison to Janet Waldo.
The Jetsons are personally one of my favorite classic cartoons. They embrace the future with precision, and Hanna-Barbera is personally the masters of Saturday morning cartoons from the 60's and 70's.
Families looking for a way to introduce their children to this franchise will find Jetsons: The Movie an excellent introduction, and fans of the classic TV show will find this enjoyable.
Grade: A-
Content Problems Families Should Be Aware Of:
Language: At worst, a couple of times, "What the...?" is left unfinished.
Adult Content: None. Judy and Apollo stop just short of kissing.
Violence: The Jetsons and various other characters are nearly taken out by an earthquake of sorts. A few other slapsticky moments.
Drugs/Alcohol: None that I can remember.
Other: Mr. Spacely is mean and self-absorbed. Judy and Elroy both act somewhat disrespectful to their Dad at one point. On the other hand, George prioritizes his job position over time with his family (but he later apologizes for this). An environmentalist/recycling message is thrown in the last act that may cause a mixed reaction.
