Meet George Jetson. His boy Elroy. Daughter Judy, Jane his wife. Okay and let’s not forget the rest including Astro the family dog and Rosie the Robot in this 1990 feature length film of the hit cartoon series known as Jetsons: The Movie.
In this film Jetson’s boss Cosmo Spacely (voice of Mel Blanc), is determined to get his remote production plant, called Spacely Sprockets to produce 1,000,000 sprockets. He promotes George Jetson (voice of George O’Hanlon) to be the vice president to run the plant. George is the latest vice president for this position, as Mr. Spacely had sent other vice presidents to the asteroid where they all mysteriously vanished, and the plant was also sabotaged. The Jetsons move to a new place and slowly adjust to their new settings and neighbors. As George settles in, the sabotaging begins again, and he slowly discovers that Spacely Sprockets’ location are disturbing the home of friendly, furry underground creatures known as the Grungees. He and the rest of the family must so something about the facility before any further damage is done to these creatures or vice-versa.
All things considered, Jetsons: The Movie was decent, nothing more than Saturday afternoon matinee for kids and adults who dig the cartoon series and have a feeling of nostalgia when watching. It felt like a padded-out version of the series with musical numbers that were terrible. I don’t think kids that haven’t seen this movie before will mind, although they might get bored because it is close to ninety minutes and action is minimal, and not up to today’s animation. Some adults will probably take an afternoon nap.
Jetsons: The Movie also had some problems with the original voice actors as both Mel Blanc and George O’Hanlon both passed away during production. Jeff Bergman became the fall guy, serving as the voice of both characters for some of the additional scenes in the film. Even the voice of Elroy, Daws Butler had died of pneumonia before the film’s production and was replaced by Patric Zimmerman. Judy Jetson’s voice actress Janet Waldo was replaced by singer Tiffany to get a bigger box office draw.
Jetsons: The Movie gets a Region A Blu-ray release courtesy of Kino Lorber. The image quality is inconsistent but serviceable. There is a bit of dirt, debris and grain to make it hard to clearly see the picture at times. The colors are bold, but at the same time there is some muddy murkiness to it that the boost in contrast cannot overcome.
Kino supplies us with two audio tracks for this release, which are English 5.1 surround and 2.0 lossless stereo. I found the 2.0 lossless track to be more potent, with dialog, songs and other noises are clear, but are also flat and lifeless. The 5.1 option was too timid and had to adjust my remote to hear the dialog and other noises. The 2.0 lossless option was not much better, but that is the one I would go with. No drop-offs or hissing was detected on either channel. Optional English subtitles are available for this release.
There are a few cool extras in this offering. We get an audio commentary by Author and Film Historian Lee Gambin who shares a wealth of information about the movie.
There is an audio interview with voice actor Jeff Bergman who talks about his experiences in the film. He was the one who took over the voices for George Jetson, Mr. Spacely and a was the voice of a board member
Theatrical Trailers for Jetsons : The Movie, Thunderbirds are Go and Thunderbirds 6 are the remaining extras.
Sadly, this movie lacks everything that the cartoon series had, with the horrid soundtrack and lack of excitement that a cartoon should have. I always look for the bright side of things for substandard releases. At least the movie in now available in HD, if nothing else and will serve its purpose. The extras should satisfy fans no doubt. If you are buying this for kids, they will not care about the audio and video quality so much as an adult who was hoping for a superior release of Jetsons: The Movie.
Jetsons: The Movie
Director- William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Cast- George O’Hanlon, Penny Singleton, Mel Blanc |
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 3/29/2021