BEFORE: A movie about a different animated sitcom family. Despite my best efforts, in watching 500 films in 500 days, my list of films to watch has NOT been shrinking - but instead remaining constant at 400. I'm still taping movies as fast as I've been watching them. So I've got to come up with a plan to get my numbers down - either by doubling up, or cutting off the list and allowing no new additions.
THE PLOT: George Jetson is forced to uproot his family when Mr. Spacely promotes him to take charge of a new factory on a distant planet.
AFTER: All right, so this wasn't too terrible. And like "The Simpsons Movie", there is a bit of an environmental theme, when the Jetsons learn that Spacely's ore mining is uprooting a colony of little furry creatures, who in response are sabotaging the factory. Also, recycling is mentioned prominently - so maybe by the end of the 21st Century, it could actually catch on!
There's also another similarity to last night's film, which uprooted the Simpsons to Alaska - here the Jetsons are forced to relocate to a distant asteroid, when George is put in charge of a factory a good distance from Earth. Was this some reference to U.S. factories relocating to Mexico? Some kind of NAFTA reference in a 1990 cartoon?
Unfortunately, the usual voice of Judy Jetson was replaced by pop star Tiffany for this movie - in an obvious attempt to bring in younger viewers. But they should have limited her to the songs, and left Judy's speaking voice alone - not only is the voice clearly different from the Judy that regular viewers know, but her speaking voice is very whiny, which makes the character seem like a real downer. All she does is fall in love with boys and then complain about them - so it's fairly obvious that the writers just don't know what to do with the character.
This was the final appearance of George O'Hanlon, the voice of George Jetson, who died in 1989 - which sort of explains why there haven't been any Jetsons projects since 1990, but they are talking about a new big-screen version for 2012 (if the world doesn't end by then). Also, this was the last screen credit for Mel Blanc, the voice of Mr. Spacely, who also died in 1989.
Quibble #1 - there are just too many different cute, furry aliens in the film. How many do we need, between the Furbelows and the Grungies? Enough already.
Quibble #2 - if the mining asteroid is so remote, how come there's an apartment complex (a residence mostly for robots and aliens, apparently) and a shopping mall nearby? This is just an excuse to give Jane and Judy a chance to shop, which is all that their characters seem to get to do.
Quibble #3 - why are there traffic jams, after the flying car was invented? Are people really going to create "highways" in outer space, with so much empty space NEXT TO each space lane? Doesn't having a flying car mean that you can drive wherever there is empty space?
RATING: 4 out of 10 sprockets
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