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

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Superfriends
"My heat-vision will melt that rock away!", "Quick Robin, use the Batarang!" ... that was so lame! Imagine the Superheroes had to say what they're gonna do before they act. Superman in the Superfriends cartoon is almost all powerful except for kryptonite. Almost nothing can stop him. He's too powerful and the bad guys are just too stupid. As compared to the current Justice League Unlimited, it is more realistic and Superman do get hurt with powerful laser beams or forces and this makes the show more exciting. Well, we simply can't compare different cartoons of different eras...

Rating:

- An absolute "Must-Have"
Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season is a must-have DVD set for any fan of DC Comics' most memorable and exciting Saturday morning cartoon series ever created. Even if you're not a fan and are just looking for a fantastic adventure, I would encourage you to check this out.

Back when Saturday morning cartoons were geared only towards toddlers, along came this "adult-themed" science-fiction and fantasy adventure for the "older" crowd. Pushing the boundries of science, imagination and characterization, Challenge of the Super-Friends introduced real drama, conflict, heroism and horror into one fine cartoon series.

This is a classic tale about good versus evil. The Super Friends (consisting of Aquaman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, The Flash, Hawkman, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Samurai) face off against a team of villianous foes calling themselves the Legion of Doom (Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Gorilla Grodd, Giganta, Black Manta, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow, Cheetah, the Riddler, Bizarro, Captain Cold and Toyman). In each episode, the evil Legion of Doom hatches a horrific plan, and in each episode the Super Friends fight to stop them.

Although originally produced as a Saturday morning cartoon, this series boasts two very distinguishable attributes:

The first is that of incredible characterization. Each hero and villain has his or hew own unique look, personality and voice characteristics. In fact, the voice-over work done on this series is the best ensemble voice work ever done on a series of this magnitude. Indeed, no one can argue that the the voice of Black Manta is not the creepiest in cartoon history.

Second, the stories may be geared towards youngsters and teens, but there are elements in them that take it well above "kiddie-fare". There is an inherent quality of gothic horror in most of the tales (marauding zombies/attacking gorillas/evil swamp hags) that take this series up to a higher standard in cartoon story-telling.

The DVD also contains extras, such as commentary by current DC Comics writers. In addition, you haven't lived until you watch Challenge of the Super Friends dubbed in Spanish! (Just listen to them dub Black Manta's voice through what sounds like a tin can!)

Bottom-line: If you watched this series as a kid, you're already hooked. If you haven't watched this as a kid, then watch it now. This is a guaranteed winner!

Rating:

- A Super Series
I love Batman and the Superfriends. I can still remember watching this cartoon on Saturday mornings and after school back in the seventies and early eighties. I still watch it every so often on Boomerang. Watching these cartoons has brought back some very fond memories.

I am so glad that this is all on one set so I do not have to have lots of individual videos with four or five episodes on each.

If you liked the series and you like watching the shows over again then you will be super happy with this set. The picture is great, I liked the stories and this is the series that featured Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom- no Marvin and Wendy.

Boomerang is always showing the Marvin and Wendy or Supertwin episodes and lately they have shown the newest Superfriends episodes. Now I do not have to wait for them to to get around to showing the Legion of Doom shows. I have then in my hand to watch any time.

Rating:

- 'Meanwhile back at the Hall Of Justice...
...the world's greatest super heroes unite to keep a watchful eye on the planet earth.' And it's so cool to be able to be back with the Super Friends once again! Kudos to the creators of this once-in-a-lifetime and unprecedented Saturday morning series event that is certain never to be equaled again. Because of complex licensing issues producing a similar show on television today with all the same characters would be utterly impossible. And so a reunion of the 'World's Greatest Superheroes' is sadly unlikely as well.

Well, if you've seen even one episode of "The Challenge Of The Super Friends" you know it's no Hall Of Fame animated classic - at least not as far as the continuity is concerned. There are some very grievous errors that are hilarious to spot. For instance in the episode "The Time Trap" three sets of the Super Friends get trapped in various eras of earth's past, among them Batman & Robin who are captured and held by the troops of one of the Roman emperor Caesars. In the present day Superman discovers a clue that can pinpoint the time frames each of the set of heroes is being held so off he goes to the lab to have the piece of evidence analyzed; and who should be there amongst the other Super Friends waiting for the analysis - none other than Batman himself! Maybe he was just there in spirit and only we (the fans in Saturday morning TV land) could see him? Another sparkling moment comes in the episode "The Monolith Of Evil" when suddenly Green Lantern has three arms - I can't tell if he has more than one power ring. Other blunders that happened periodically were Hawkman missing his wings; the inversion of colors and/or direction of logos on the uniforms of Batman & Robin; Green Lantern's power ring would emanate a yellow (!) glow instead of green and, best of all, the Flash would go flying off (!!) with Superman and Hawkman whenever it was convenient to the plot. The Flash had no capability of flying in any of his comic book appearances that I can remember - and you'd think the creative staff behind the show would be aware of that. But these are all forgivable mistakes to the fans of the series because it's the strong points of the show that make it the classic that is revered by fans still to this day.

The positives of this program are many beginning with the vibrant theme music; heroic and majestic sounding it is reminiscent of the theme for the classic early 60's animated cult favorite 'Johnny Quest'. It certainly wouldn't surprise anyone to discover that this quite probably was the inspiration behind it. The idea of 'The Legion Of Doom' is a great concept that is still unsurpassed. Scavenging back through the vaults and archives of DC Comics to get the right mix of villains must have been daunting at the time and not as easy to piece together as it appears when seeing the show. There were literally tons of adversaries, antagonists and nemesis's to choose from and creating a balance - that is a viable and believably powerful enough force to challenge the Super Friends - wasn't something that just jumped out at you I'm sure. Seeing such archenemies as Sinestro, Gorilla Grod and Gigantress in television animated form is a rare treat that is doubtful to happen ever again. The headquarters for 'The Legion Of Doom' is equally as impressive. They could go anywhere they pleased as a group; outer space, inner earth, backwards or forward in time, etc. The Super Friends on the other hand all have their own separate forms of transportation - and the Hall Of Justice is anchored to the ground permanently. While the stories are unquestionably juvenile in conception some of them still remain quite entertaining. My favorites are "Fairy Tales Of Doom" and especially "History Of Doom", and the episode "Secret Origins Of The Super Friends" is also memorable. There are other positives about this show I could list but they are already mentioned in other reviews here on this webpage so I encourage you to read them also.

The DVD set is nicely packaged and has an excellent 13 minute mini-documentary titled 'Saturday, Sleeping Bags & Super Friends: A Retrospective' that I think every fan will be pleased with. Also included are bios on each of the Super Friends and also the members that make up 'The Legion Of Doom' that I found indispensable. If I had one quibble at all it would be the title of the set "The Challenge Of The Super Friends: The First Season" - was there ever a second season?

page 7 of 11