The Flintstones, that modern Stone Age family, is back in all their prehistoric finery—this time in a live-action feature comedy. Journey back to the happy town of Bedrock, 2,000,000 B.C., where foot-driven automobiles rumble past dinosaurs, split-level cave dwellings, and every kitchen comes complete with a pig-­powered garbage disposal. It's the zaniest rock 'n' rollercoaster comedy to come along since the Ice Age.

John Goodman (Arachnophobia) plays the ever-popular Fred Flintstone, with Elizabeth Perkins as his wife, Wilma. Rick Moranis portrays Barney Rubble opposite Rosie O'Donnell as his wife, Betty. Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor makes a rare screen appearance as Fred's mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople.

Life changes for Fred and Wilma when a promotion lands Fred in the executive suite at the Slate & Co. quarry. While the Flintstones taste the lifestyle of the rich and prehistoric, the Rubbles, with their newly adopted son, Bamm-Bamm, are not so fortunate and tensions arise between these best of friends.

Despite these temporary tensions, the true heart of The Flintstones is the friendship between Fred and Barney. "These are two guys who have known each other since the first time they both went into the fifth grade. They're next door neighbors, they work together, they love each other," director Brian Levant explains.

And it was audiences' love of these characters that led Amblin Entertainment, executive producer Steven Spielberg (or "Steven Spielrock") and Brian Levant to bring the long-cherished 1960-1966 Hanna-Barbera animation to imaginative live-action life for audiences in 1994. The clever, most often laconic prehistoric inventions (such as household "appliances" including showers, shavers and toothbrushes, the aforementioned garbage disposals, etc., made of laboring dinosaurs and other beasts) of the animated series were brought to life by the wizards at Jim Henson's Creature Shop and Industrial Light and Magic through a combination of puppetry and cutting edge computer-generated effects.

"It's all here," producer Bruce Cohen assured. "We took the basics—the two families [the Flintstones and the Rubbles], the kids (Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm), Dino, and what would be a typical Flintstones plot—then we embellished it, put a modern spin on the humor."

"Being a fan of the show, I want people to feel as I do," said Levant. "I love The Flinstones, and I loved bringing them to life. My goal, like everyone else who worked on this film, is very simple. We want people to [see it] and have a Yabba-Dabba-Doo time!"

The Flintstones was followed by a prequel film in 2000, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, that took audiences, Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty back into even more prehistoric times when the young future marrieds first met.