DVD : Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season (DC Comics Classic Collection)

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- We Want More Wonder Twins!!
SuperFriends was an escape for me as a child because it kept me out of trouble and mostly it was enjoyable. You don't get the same of cartoons today as you did in the 70s or 80s but having said that one of my favorite characters are the Wonder Twins. The Cartoon Network televised that during the Basketball Allstar's Favorite Cartoon pick and Jersey Net's Jason Kidd also said that he liked the Wonder Twins. As a result, we were treated with 4 short episodes of the Wonder Twins. Now if only the rest would come out on DVD Complete Season Sets.

Rating:

- The best season of Superfriends ever
I remember crawling out of bed on a Saturday morning before 8am from when I was a kid until nearly high school to watch the Superfriends and I've collected as many episodes as possible over the years. My favorite was always the Challenge of the Superfriends because of the Legion of Doom and the great assortment of villains they presented and now to have all the episodes on one DVD is a collector's dream.

Looking back on it they are naturally hokey and contrived in spots but they still hold up great. My 3-year old son loves them and could watch for hours.

Just a few minor points - it's a little disingenuous to call it the complete first season since I am pretty sure there was only one season with the Legion of Doom. Also, although the Superfriends did air for an hour as another reviewer has alluded, the Challenge of the Superfriends was the title for the episodes with the Legion of Doom only. The other half-hour was a separate show that morphed into the World's Greatest Superfriends the next season (and featured somewhat more mature and better episodes if you can stand the Wonder Twins).

Rating:

- This is not the complete Challenge Of The Superfriends
I remember watching Challenge Of The Superfriends and it was an hourlong show. The first story was a Superfriends story which had the main Superfriends (Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Wondertwins and Gleek) followed by the Legion Of Doom stories. Now I don't know whether the Superfriends stories shown on Challenge were wiped or whether the people putting out this collection are deliberetly ignoring those stories. Regardless of the reason, this is not a complete Challenge Of The Superfriends collection and I won't buy any Challenge collection unless it's complete because it's only fair to us if it is complete.

Rating:

- conflicting DVDs
seems to me that we already have most of these episodes on the individual DVDs that we have for the super friends. i was hoping for new shows for my kids to watch, but we have at least 8 of them already. guess i'll just figure out how to buy the other 8 episodes another way.

Rating:

- The Justice League Of America VS. The Legion Of Doom!
"Banded together from remote galaxies, are 13 of the most sinister villains of all time - the Legion of Doom! Dedicated to a single objective, the conquest of the universe! Only one group dares to challenge this intergalactic threat - The Superfriends!"

That's how announcer Stanley Jones (voice of Lex Luthor) opened this classic show from 1978. The opening scenes showing the Riddler caught [like a deer in headlights] in Batman's spotlight, and Black Manta tied up atop a whale "piloted" by Aquaman still look cool.

The appeal of Challenge of the Superfriends is in the fact that they waged an ongoing battle against actual villains from the comic books. Most of which were direct counterparts i.e. Green Lantern/Sinestro, Flash/Captain Cold, Batman/Scarecrow, etc. So the battles never got repetitive the writers wisely mix-matched the contenders. And don't forget the Legion's very cool Darth Vader-headed headquarters based underneath the swamp.

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Hawkman, Flash, Green Lantern, Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief.
VS.
THE LEGION OF DOOM: Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Solomon Grundy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Manta, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Sinestro, Captain Cold, and the Toyman.

This 2 disc set contains all 16 episodes from the season.

Episodes (by aired & production order):
01. 09-Sep-1978 Wanted: The Superfriends
02. 16-Sep-1978 Invasion of The Fearians
03. 23-Sep-1978 The World's Deadliest Game
04. 30-Sep-1978 The Time Trap
05. 07-Oct-1978 Trial of the Superfriends
06. 14-Oct-1978 Monolith of Evil
07. 21-Oct-1978 The Giants of Doom
08. 28-Oct-1978 Secret Origins of the Superfriends
09. 04-Nov-1978 Revenge on Gorilla City
10. 11-Nov-1978 Swamp of the Living Dead
11. 18-Nov-1978 Conquerors of the Future
12. 25-Nov-1978 The Final Challenge
13. 02-Dec-1978 Fairy Tale of Doom
14. 09-Dec-1978 Doomsday
15. 16-Dec-1978 Superfriends, Rest in Peace
16. 23-Dec-1978 The History of Doom

Features:
Commentary on selected episodes
Saturday, Sleeping Bags & Super Friends: A Retrospective
Hall of Justice - character bios
Legion of Doom - character bios
Trailers - Batman: The Animated Series, The Jetsons: Complete First Season, The Flintstones: The Complete First Season, Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season
Full Frame (1.33:1) aspect ratio
English and Spanish mono tracks
English, Spanish and French subtitles

Anybody else remember the scene where the Flash uses his super-speed to grab Captain Cold and place him in the path of his own coldgun ice-blast thereby freezing himself? "Wild!"

page 11 of 11