Baby Wilma and Betty

I'm just going to say it: I don't really like Hanna-Barbera.

I'm going to pause to either let that sink in or wait for the horrified gasps I'm gonna get.

You heard right, I don't care for Hanna-Barbera, the cartoon studio that brought us shows like The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, the works. I mean, I do like Tom & Jerry and I do enjoy a lot of the cartoons that were distributed by them later on in their career, like Dexter's Laboratory and Cow & Chicken. But their limited animation stuff from the late 50s, the 60s, and ESPECIALLY the 70s doesn't click with me. You can go ahead and tell me how they "saved" cartoons by resorting to limited animation, but when you really get down to it, that approach only hurt the industry in the long run with both its cheap animation AND its formulaic scripts. And I know Joe Barbera tended to believe that his characters had "heart" and that they still managed to be "relevant." I'm sorry, Joe, but stuff like The Flintstones has not really aged well at all and their stories aren't that memorable. Heck, I hardly remember most of the episodes I saw of them. But then again, what do you expect from a cartoon that was a surprisingly boring revision of The Honeymooners? 

I tend to be a bit more forgiving of the early stuff compared to the 70s dreck, but not by much. The 60s stuff was trying to be funny and wacky. It didn't always work, but you could KINDA tell there was some form of creativity involved, even if it was mainly for stupid jokes. The 70s was when they REALLY lost themselves, releasing a plethora of uninspired Scooby-Doo clones, as well as confusing animated versions of sitcoms, (Laverne & Shirley in the army with a pig sergeant? Happy Days time traveling? What the hell were they smoking?) and the tendency to go for a more "realistic", stiff moving Filmation-esque style.

But what really baffles me is that people like Fred Seibert and John Kricfalusi try to defend these cartoons. Why? I mean, yes, they look decent, but honestly, there's not much substance to them, from what I can recall. What do these people see in them that I don't? Personally, I think Rocky & Bullwinkle was more enjoyable than most of what Hanna-Barbera put out, because they made up for THEIR animation with funny, well-written scripts. And yeah, I know H-B managed to get Warner Bros. writers like Warren Foster and Michael Maltese on board, but let's face it, even the brightest minds tend to have dark periods.

I could go on, but I don't want to bog this down anymore than necessary. Point is, I tend to have pretty high standards when it comes to cartoons and animation, and Hanna-Barbera doesn't really meet those. However, I will give them this: at least it's not the appalling monstrosity that is Clutch Cargo.

All that said, however, if there is one thing about H-B that I do like, it's the designs. Despite the lackluster quality of these cartoons, Bill & Joe managed to bring such a distinct look to their shows thanks to designers like Ed Benedict, Gene Hazelton and Iwao Takamoto. Heck, I try to take some inspiration from these designs, since they are so stylistically cartoony. If I don't take anything away from most Hanna-Barbera cartoons, I can at least take that from them. And I feel they have the capability to be remade to be better than the original series, like Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated I hear is a pretty good update.

So I managed to bring my fascination with drawing cartoon moms/hot females as babies and/or little girls and apply it to Wilma Flinstone and Betty Rubble from (obviously) The Flintstones. I had depicted them like this before on one of my Baby Cartoon Mom charts, but I decided to update their appearances a little to reflect my own improving drawing skills. Shame they've never been shown like this on the show, like in a flashback or anything. I'm sure they would have been adorable, especially if this was involving regression and they wound up playing with their own children. Ah well, I can dream, can't I? Anyways, enjoy these cutenesses. I'm trying to decide if I should ink and color them in or not.

The Flintstones, Wilma, Betty (c) Hanna-Barbera