Studios reimagining their properties is nothing new.
Long dormant characters are often updated to change with the times, given sexy facelifts
or adopt an edgier, more adult-oriented tone.
Cartoon studio Hanna-Barbera is no stranger to this but what I think makes DC’s recent
revival of their characters so interesting is that they’re subverting boomer nostalgia.
They present once beloved characters as social commentary, a satirical look of the culture
of 1950’s and 60’s America.
Ostensibly, the post-war boom the United States experienced was a period of prosperity.
The country was riding high from victory, suburbia and the idea of the ‘teenager’
was born.
Advances in technology made life more comfortable and convenient than ever for some, while others
fought for basic human and civil rights.
No other invention to come out of this time impacted society quite like the television.
Information and images could now be beamed directly into people’s homes and producers
were looking for as much content as possible to fill the airwaves.
Animation had long been a staple of the movie-going experience.
Film studios had entire divisions dedicated to producing cartoon shorts to run before
their features.
It was in one such division at M-G-M that animators William Hanna and Joesph Barbera
first met.
Their first collaboration, Puss Gets the Boot, was nominated for an Oscar and served as the
blueprint for the Tom and Jerry shorts.
Their partnership proved so successful that they were put in charge of the all the studio’s
animated output from 1954 until it shut down in 1957, as it was more marketable to simply
rerun their backlog on television.
After forming their own studio, it was there Hanna and Barbera set their sights.
They first explored this new medium by animating product commercials but soon moved to children’s
programming.
The demand of producing an entire season’s worth of animation mixed with a lack of studio
backing meant a dip in quality.
Budgetary constraints lead to limited animation, with the bare minimum being drawn to convey
movement.
This gave Hanna-Barbera cartoons a look for which today they’re derided, but their
trailblazing within the medium of television, I think makes up for this stilted style.
They were innovators experimenting, formatting a structure that would be followed for decades.
More than anyone, Hanna-Barbera is responsible for the idea of “Saturday Morning Cartoons,’
as executives quickly learned anthropomorphic animals paired well with product placement.
Some of their earlier creations, like Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear, were immediately successful
but none were more prevalent or influential as The Flintstones.
For as iconic as The Flintstones is, the concept really isn’t that revolutionary.
The idea of a modernized pre-historic setting can be seen in Max Fleischer’s Stone Age
shorts, produced 20 years earlier, down to the rock-based puns, and it’s well known
a lot of the humour and dynamics came from The Honeymooners.
But again, Hanna-Barbera’s ingenuity doesn’t lie in the content itself, rather, the way
it’s presented.
This was animation specifically for an adult audience.
A cartoon sitcom airing in prime time.
The first.
After decades of the Flintstones being marketed towards children, seeing these characters
shilling cigarettes can come as a shock but this is truer to the original vision than,
say, chewable vitamins.
The Flintstones held a mirror up to society, albeit in a safe and lighthearted way.
What satirical edge it had would largely be forgotten in favour of, well, sight gags and
puns.
However, in 2016 Hanna-Barbera formed a partnership with DC Comics to revive these characters
for modern times.
The puns remain but the comfort and ease of the 1950s suburban lifestyle have been replaced
by financial stress and past trauma.
Exploitation is a major theme and capitalism isn’t exactly painted in the best light.
The use of animals as appliances is portrayed as cruelty while the convenience of modern
stone-age life is made possible by cheap labour.
The neanderthal is presented as an Indigenous culture that was colonized following a war
in which Fred and Barney participated, with parallels to Vietnam.
Once a fraternity, the Loyal Order of Water Buffalo has been replaced by the Veterans
of The Palaeolithic Wars, a support group for ex-soldiers suffering from P.T.S.D.
Though this sounds heavy these comics aren’t without humour.
Creators Steve Pugh and Mark Russell have done an excellent job at balancing their commentary
with comedy.
It’s strange seeing The Flintstones in these situations but fitting, as these characters
were used to illustrate the consumerism boom of the 1950s.
They are doing the same here, only reflecting the realities of today.
Now, the Flintstones were iconic but my favourite reimagining within the Hanna-Barbera Universe
involves one of their more obscure creations. Snagglepuss.
Snagglepuss first appeared in a slightly different form on an episode of The Quick Draw McGraw
Show before he was given his own in 1961.
The fact that he had lisp, was pink and into theatre lead to the assumption Snagglepuss
was gay.
Working with this, Mark Russell once again subverted 50s culture with 2018’s Exit Stage
Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles.
This finds the character as a closeted southern playwright caught up in McCarthyism and the
blacklisting of entertainers during the Atomic Age.
This comic explores the persecution experienced by anyone who didn’t fit in to the societal
norms and values of the time.
We see Snagglepuss experience love and success, only to have threatened simply because of
who he knows and who he is.
These are just a couple examples of what DC has done with Hanna-Barbera characters.
I love that Hanna-Barbera is not as protective of its properties as, say, Disney.
They allow them to develop and have new dimensions added, even if they’re controversial.
I can see some people being put off by the politics of these comics.
They’re overt and very left-leaning so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing,
maybe read something else.
I mean, I feel it’s only a matter of time before the right reappropriates a classic
cartoon character anyway.
My money’s on Popeye.
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