Modern Families Find Stone-Age ‘Flintstones’ Prehysteric

In “The Flintstones,” well-meaning neanderthal Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) is duped by crooks into a bogus promotion at Slate & Co., but his new status threatens his longtime friendship with co-worker Barney Rubble, who gets laid off. (Rated PG)

It’s hard to remember queues this long for any kids’ movie since “Aladdin.”

But even with expectations cranked up artificially high from a publicity blitz, most kids, especially those who already know and like the cartoon show, were not disappointed.

Six-year-old Tina Mardirossian said she was expecting a good movie and got one.

“I thought it was great,” she said.

The film, which grossed a whopping $37.5 million over the Memorial Day weekend, faithfully translates the cartoon show’s premise (‘50s-style suburban family life played out in the year 2 million BC) and builds on them with special effects and character actors. You have your dinosaurs and TVs, leopard skins and foot-powered cars, your suburban moms who live to shop on credit and their henpecked husbands who retreat to the brotherhood of the lodge.

After the screening, little kids came out mimicking Fred’s famous call: “Yabba-Dabba Do!” Most cared less about the likable performances by Goodman and the other adults, preferring the kids: Fred and Wilma’s Pebbles and Barney and Betty’s Bamm-Bamm.

Tina said she liked the movie version better “because people looked different in it.” Clairisa Maygren, 8, agreed: “It was nice because it wasn’t a cartoon.”

Some said the movie exceeded their expectations because tepid reviews had actually lowered them.

“Most people said it was bad,” said Molly Stack, 11. But she said she liked it anyway, especially the dinosaurs, painted cartoon-like creatures who interacted seamlessly with the actors.

Scott Lineback, 4, said his favorite part was the pigasaurus, a living garbage disposal, who sits under the kitchen sink 24 hours a day.

Older boys, including 11-year-old Brian Callender, were fascinated with the props in the movie. “It was cool,” he said, wandering around a model, set in the theater lobby, of Barney Rubble’s sports coupe, billed as a two-seater with two- to four-footpower and manual everything.

But others were simply mystified as to why the movie is so popular. Erin Brown, 8, said she wasn’t a fan of the Flintstones in the first place, and it was her dad who picked the movie.

“I expected it to be funny,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be like . . . this. I thought it was pretty funny in some of the parts. But some of the parts just didn’t seem . . . modern.”

Like what?

“Like when Betty and Barney and Bamm-Bamm moved out of the Flintstones’ house. I didn’t understand why they did that. Why didn’t they just talk it over?”

Indeed, most of the audible laughter seemed to come from adults, which wasn’t too surprising given that the verbal humor was geared to them. Playing a stereotypical mother-in-law, Elizabeth Taylor criticizes the overweight Fred to her daughter Wilma: “What’s he ever provided you with except shade?”

(Some kids said they didn’t know who Elizabeth Taylor was.)

In the end, Erin gave the movie a thumbs down and wouldn’t even recommend it to her friends.

Others, however, laughed all the way through.

“It was great,” said Kimberly Merino, 9. “It was cute.”