Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. (simply known as Hanna-Barbera and also referred to as H-B Enterprises, H-B Production Company and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons) was an American animation studio that dominated American television animation for nearly four decades in the mid-to-late 20th century. It was formed in 1957 by former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (creators of Tom and Jerry) and live-action director George Sidney in partnership with Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems television division. The company was sold to Taft Broadcasting in late 1966, and spent the next two decades as a subsidiary of the parent and its successors. Hanna-Barbera was known not only for its vast variety of series and characters, but for building upon and popularizing the concepts and uses of limited animation.
For over thirty years, Hanna-Barbera produced many successful animated shows, including The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs. Also, the studio produced many television movies, specials, theatrical films and commercials. In addition to winning seven Oscars, Hanna and Barbera won eight Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among other merits. The company's fortunes declined in the mid-eighties after the profitability of Saturday morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication. Hanna-Barbera was purchased from Taft (by then named Great American Broadcasting) in late 1991 by Turner Broadcasting System, who used much of its back catalog to program its new channel, Cartoon Network.
After Turner purchased the company, both Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as mentors and creative consultants. In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, and Hanna-Barbera became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation. With Hanna's death in 2001, it was absorbed into its parent, and Cartoon Network Studios continued the projects for the channel's output. Barbera continued to work for Warner Bros. Animation until his death in 2006. The studio now exists as an in-name-only company used to market properties and productions associated with the Hanna-Barbera library, specifically its "classic" works.
In 2005, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored Hanna and Barbera with a bronze wall sculpture of them and the characters they created.
After Ben Ravencroft, a famous horror writer of whom Velma is a big fan, assists her and the Mystery, Inc. gang in solving a case at a museum, he invites them to his hometown, Oakhaven, Massachusetts. When they arrive, they find the town converted into a tourist attraction by Mayor Corey, complete with 17th-century replicas and attractions based on the alleged ghost of Sarah Ravencroft, an ancestor of Ben's who was persecuted as a witch and executed by the Puritan townspeople in 1657. Ben disputes this, claiming Sarah to be a Wiccan who used natural herbs to heal people and reveals for years he has been searching for Sarah's medical journal to prove her innocence.
Several years after the events of the original series, Fred and Wilma's marriage is in serious jeopardy, as Wilma is growing tired of Fred's attitude, especially while Barney and Betty are enjoying a happy life well into their marriage, to the point that a visit to a family therapist results in a physical altercation between Fred and Wilma. On Fred and Wilma's anniversary, which they both forgot, the Rubbles arrange a trip to Rockapulco in an attempt to save the Flintstones' marriage.
In a college computer lab run by Professor Robert Kaufman, as he goes to check on his two students; Eric Staufer and Bill McLemore, a new creature - the Phantom Virus - comes out of a new game based on the Mystery Gang's past adventures and tries to scare away the game's creator Eric. The next day, Mystery, Inc. themselves come to the college and learn from their friend Eric, that the virus had assumed a lifelike form thanks to an experimental laser which is able to transmit objects into cyberspace, and is now rampant across the campus. The gang goes on the hunt for the Phantom Virus, where the virus chases Scooby and Shaggy through the college. Unfortunately, the whole gang, including the virus, somehow gets pulled into the game after 'someone' activates the laser. Left with no other choice, the gang fight their way through the ten levels of mystery and adventures to complete the game in order to escape it, with the goal of finding a box of Scooby Snax to complete each level. Their efforts are impeded on each level by the Phantom Virus. The first level is on the moon, the second is in the Roman Colosseum, the third is in the dinosaur age, the fourth is under the sea, the fifth is in a (shrunken) backyard, the sixth is ancient Japan, the seventh is in ancient Egypt, the eighth is in medieval times, and the ninth is in the North Pole.
Young bachelors and best friends Fred Flintstone (Mark Addy) and Barney Rubble (Stephen Baldwin) have recently qualified as crane operators at Slate & Company. Soon to be employed, now they want dates, and little green alien The Great Gazoo (Alan Cumming), exiled to Earth by his species, offers to help, although only they can see him. Meanwhile, Wilma Slaghoople (Kristen Johnston) wants a normal life and activities, like bowling, despite her controlling mother Pearl (Joan Collins) who wants her to marry smooth casino-owner Chip Rockefeller (Thomas Gibson). Wilma angrily runs away to Bronto King in Bedrock. Waitress Betty O'Shale (Jane Krakowski) mistakes her as "caveless", and offers to share her apartment, and gets her a job.
The Mystery Machine is driving through the Sonoran Desert. A sandstorm comes up and Shaggy Rogers makes a wrong turn onto government property. Seeing a UFO causes Shaggy to lose control of the vehicle and the gang find themselves on the outskirts of a small town. While Scooby-Doo and Shaggy stay with the van the rest of the gang enters a local diner to get directions. Shaggy and Scooby then see a mythical animal called a jackalope. The jackalope takes their last Scooby Snack and they chase it into a cave, where they encounter aliens. They run into the diner in panic, claiming to have seen aliens.
After routinely chasing the evil Mandark (Eddie Deezen) out of his lab when he tries to steal the "Neurotomic Protocore", Dexter (Christine Cavanaugh) asks Dee Dee to leave the lab. She enters the time machine. Suddenly, Dexter is confronted with a group of robots that have appeared from his time machine. They declare that they are here to destroy the one who saved the future and make ready to attack Dexter. Dexter easily destroys them with the use of various tools and gadgets from his lab, as the robots did not do anything except stand there while Dexter was fighting them. However, news that he is "The One Who Saved the Future" intrigues him, and he decides to travel through time to discover how cool he is.
The movie opens with Mystery, Inc. being pursued by a moat monster. After an accident with Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes), he is caught and revealed to be a counterfeiter. This is actually an old case of the now-dissolved Mystery, Inc., who went their separate ways because they were frustrated with their mysteries having all involved mere crooks in monster costumes, as told on a talk show program by Daphne Blake (Mary Kay Bergman), who now, along with Fred Jones (Frank Welker), is running a successful TV series Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake, which involves her and Fred going to historic and inspiring places all across the country. For the show's upcoming second season, Daphne intends to visit haunted and mysterious places and track down real ghosts. When Daphne confesses on air that she misses the gang and that she wishes they were with her, Fred arranges a reunion and contacts Velma Dinkley (B.J. Ward), who has gone on and become the proprietor of a mystery bookstore, and Scooby and his owner Shaggy Rogers (Billy West), who have been bouncing from job to job, including working in customs at an airport, from which they were just fired after eating all the confiscated imported foods. The reunited gang surprise Daphne on her birthday and they go for a trip to Louisiana for her show.
A villainous fox wants to put Hard Luck Duck on his menu. Hard Luck Duck has a friend/bodyguard, an alligator named Harley. Harley routinely thwarts the fox's efforts to make a meal of the duck.
Slate and Co. Senior Executive Cliff Vandercave (Kyle MacLachlan) and secretary Miss Sharon Stone (Halle Berry) look at the company workers in the gravel pits while discussing their plan to swindle the company of its vast fortune and flee, but decided that they need someone to take responsibility for it. Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) loans his best friend and neighbor Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) money so that he and his wife Betty (Rosie O'Donnell) can adopt a child named Bamm-Bamm, who can only pronounce his own name. Although the child is initially difficult to control due to being raised by Mastadons, as well as being superstrong, he eventually warms up to his new family. Barney vows to repay his friend, but Fred is visited by his mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople (Elizabeth Taylor), who objects to his decision. However, Fred's wife Wilma (Elizabeth Perkins) remains supportive of his decision.
Richard "Richie" Rich Jr. (Macaulay Culkin) is the world's wealthiest kid, the son of billionaire businessman and philanthropist Richard Rich, Sr. (Edward Herrmann). Richie has been raised with the best of everything money can buy, but with only his loyal butler Herbert Cadbury (Jonathan Hyde) as a companion, he lacks any friends his own age. But he thinks he might get his chance at a dedication to the reopening of United Tool, a factory Richard recently acquired (intending to modernize the factory and give it away to the workers as a token of goodwill). There Richie encounters a group of sandlot kids playing baseball. Unfortunately, before he is able to talk to them, the too-strict head of security, Ferguson (Chelcie Ross), stops Richie and sharply pulls him away.
Scooby and Shaggy arrive in Arabia on a magic carpet to become royal food-tasters for the young Caliph. They are soon hired, but they eat everything in sight and leave no food for the Caliph. He gets mad and has his guards chase them, Shaggy and Scooby soon find a place to hide and Shaggy soon takes on the disguised as a harem girl. The Caliph who is looking for a bride, falls in love with the disguised Shaggy and decides that they shall be married. Hoping to make The Caliph fall asleep while they make their escape, Shaggy tells him two classic stories.
The story opens in a forest known as Dapplewood, where "Furlings" (a term for animal children) live alongside their teacher, Cornelius (Michael Crawford). The four Furlings central to the story are Abigail (Ellen Blain), a woodmouse; Russell (Paige Gosney), a hedgehog; Edgar (Benji Gregory), a mole; and a badger named Michelle (Elisabeth Moss), who is Cornelius' niece.
The film opens to the voice of a narrator (Ray Bradbury) describing one small town's preparations for Halloween night. Four friends are shown at their respective homes donning costumes excitedly: Jenny as a witch, Ralph as a mummy; Wally as a monster; and finally Tom Skelton as a skeleton. They all hurry so as not be late meeting up with each other and the infamous Pip (described as their communal best friend and as a truly amazing person and friend which the narrator asserts by saying, "Some say that on the day he was born, all the soda pop bottles in the world fizzled over. Pipken, who could yell louder, sing better, and eat more popcorn. Pip, the greatest boy who ever lived"). Jenny, Wally, Ralph and Tom meet up, but Pip is absent. Believing it a trick, as Pip would never miss his favorite holiday, the four head to Pip's home on the edge of town.
In the future, while Elroy is busy working on a time machine, George Jetson comes to Mr. Spacely's office for a serious discussion. Spacely's rival, Cogswell, has been stealing Spacely's business ideas, putting their jobs in jeopardy. Spacely orders George to go spy on Cogswell where George finds out that Cogswell's robot computer, S.A.R.A., has been seducing the Spacely robot computer, R.U.D.I., into leaking Mr. Spacely's secrets. George tries to report to Spacely, but R.U.D.I. sabotages his efforts.
In the late 21st century, Spacely Sprockets and Spindles has opened a new mining colony on an asteroid. The proposed project is meant to increase productivity at 1/10 the cost of making the items on Earth. However, the factory continues to be sabotaged by someone or something. As Cosmo Spacely (Mel Blanc and Jeff Bergman) checks up on the "Orbiting-Ore Asteroid" again, the latest head of the factory, Alexander Throttlebottom, has run off, making it four vice presidents of the new plant that Spacely has lost so far.