While this time they do fight some super villain type characters(none I've ever heard of), there's still plenty of well meaning scientists/inventors and alien races thrown into the mix. The Wonder Twins are even worse than the original kids. Thankfully they are mostly kept to their own short segments where they teach kids important lessons like don't go joyriding in airplanes. The segments were the best thing about this series. Instead of a tedious one hour story, we are treated to 3(sometimes 4) shorter tedious stories. Other than that, it's the same as the original.
Add a Review
-
13Funbags23 September 2017
-
13Funbags8 August 2017This series was actually pretty good. I haven't seen all the old series yet, just the original, and this is much better than that one. The stories are much more entertaining and they actually have real villains. Sadly, they just use the same three over and over(Darkeseid, Lex Luthor and Mxyzptlk). While they seem to often repeat the theme of the Super Friends easily getting captured, it's never boring. I noticed that Darkseid sounded like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget and upon doing a little research, it turns out to be the same voice actor. Surprisingly, the same guy did the voice of Marvin in the original Super Friends series. This time the episodes are only a half hour and that helps a lot. They have proved(n) they can't write a good hour long Super Friends many times. One disappointment is that they couldn't make Firestorm's hair look like fire. It just looks like a stupid hat. This series is definitely worth watching.
-
13Funbags20 June 2018This was an hour long show that was actually two shows put together. Half of it was a continuation of The All-New Super Friends Hour but just a half hour this time. The second part is them fighting the Legion Of Doom. That's the series I remember seeing the most as a kid, it was probably re-run by itself later. This is the only series that came close to the comic book, they even go to the Bat cave. I would highly recommend not watching any series that came before this one.
-
grendelkhan9 January 2003Ah, the Super Friends. Anyone who grew up in the 70's and calls themselves a comic book fan has a special place in their heart for this show; the first cartoon to depict the Justice League of America (well, apart from the Filmation cartoons, but they didn't have the big guns of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in the JLA cartoons). Some hated it because it was watered down, with no memorable villains. Other enjoyed its charm and goofy fun. Some of us were glad to see any show with superheroes.
Now, in the 70's, the networks didn't allow much in the ways of violence in cartoons (except for Bugs and company), so we didn't get any slobberknockers with the bad guys. Still, there were memorable conflicts, with some creativity involved. Yeah, most of the "villains" were misguided and not evil, but there was fun to be had.
Some of my personal favorites were the GEEC episode, where a computer controls all of man's machines, only to go haywire when a mouse gets inside it; The planet-splitting episode, where Superman's origin is retold; the Gulliver episode, where everyone is reduced to the size of a doll; and the episode with the Flash.
The series went out of its way to present environmental issues, moral dilemmas, and other thought-provoking conflicts. It had far greater educational value than the "commercial" cartoons of the 80's and was far more entertaining than most. Yes, Wendy and Marvin were annoying at times, but they did have some value. I'll take them over the Wonder Twins any day. Besides, Marvin made it into Alex Ross' Kingdom Come.
If you wanted action in the 70's, you had to find Jonny Quest reruns or catch Speed Racer in syndication. The Super Friends would suffice until something better came along. It took two more series, but arrive it did; and, it still carried the name, Super Friends. -
13Funbags17 June 2018I'm not really sure what they were going for here. It seems like they wanted this to be their version of The New Scooby-Doo Movies but it seems like they couldn't get the rights to use any of the characters. They have the Thief Of Zagdad and Dr. Frankenschtein. The Middle Earth episode seems like it was written by someone who had only seem that awful Hobbit cartoon from 1977 or South Park's parody of it. Despite all that, the stories are actually better than most of the Super Friends series. Except the time when Zan and Jayna wake up their stupid monkey because he was snoring. Zan says "You must have been having some dream!". Because he was snoring? ugh. There is no spoiler, the mods clearly don't read these.
-
David_del_Real_Reviews_in_IMDb21 January 2018____The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985-86)___ ---- TV Animated Show. " SuperFriends " Last Season.---
This season or show (how you like to see it) of the Superfriends had a superior quality in its drawings and animation by a mile. This last incarnation of the Justice League of the eighties had the most definite and precise drawings ever used to that date to depict heroic characters. Even today, we can notice how good work of art if was. Nevertheless, the improvement on the side of the story-lines is not as clear as on the side of the drawings...or maybe it is, it depends a lot on the episode you are referring to and your personal taste.
During last season, Firestorm became a regular member of the team of super-powered heroes, same as Cyborg became a regular member in this one and both seasons had evil Darkseid, ruler of a planet named Apokolips that he already had under his boots, as the most powerful adversary of our team of heroes. While Firestorm and Cyborg didn´t seem in my opinion as characters interesting enough despite how powerful they were, mostly Firestorm, having Darkseid as a recurring villain, among other good elements, made the show worthy of its "Galactic Guardians" title.
Two historically important Episodes:
Episode 4: THE FEAR; it was the first time that the origin of the BATMAN was told in the screen media, that is, outside comics or graphic novels, after that, pretty much every version of the character mentions that origin, pretty much unaltered.
Episode 8: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN; Based on an "out of sequence" story by Jerry Siegel (the original creator of the Man of Steel), it tells the tale of Superman being apparently poisoned by an enormous dose of Kryptonite. In the early nineties, a series of comics and their respective Graphic Novel by the title of "Death of Superman" became among the greatest bestsellers in the field.
Thanks for reading.
David del Real. 2018. -
13Funbags7 August 2017This show is a terrible interpretation of the Justice League. I suspect that all the ridiculous changes and the fact that they didn't call the show The Justice League was a sad attempt to make it more kid friendly. Imagine that, they thought that they needed to make a children's comic book more kid friendly. There's so many things wrong with this show that it's hard to point them all out but I will try. The worst thing is that they added two kids and their dog. None of them have any super powers and can do nothing to help the Super Friends. Yet time and again they somehow manage to save the day. It seems very Scooby-Dooish. They attempt to add the comic relief and the stupid dog even looks at the camera when someone makes a terrible joke. It's extremely hard to watch. One thing that is unforgivable is that there are no villains in the entire series. It's always just a regular person who thought he was doing the right thing. Every episode ends with that person learning an important life lesson and no one goes to jail. To make things even worse, the episodes are an hour long. That could have been a good thing but it's not. Half of every episode is just filler. They could have easily been cut down to fifteen minutes with nothing missing. Another huge mistake they made was having Casey Kasem do ninety percent of the voices on the show. He doesn't even try to change his voice, it's just sad. I won't even mention all the plot holes and on screen spelling mistakes. I hope the other Super Friends series are better.
-
daltonml-121 August 2007I grew up watching the "Superfriends" on Saturday mornings, and I loved it. Yet after a while, the Wonder Twins idea began to tire me out. Despite I also loved the reruns on numerous cable networks, it remained dismal. I hoped that there was a way to have a real "Superfriends" cartoon show without the Wonder Twins.
Finally, in 1985, I got my answer. "Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians" premiered on ABC. The show was a true to form version of the DC Comics characters I loved: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and so forth. And no Wonder Twins in sight. Hooray!
The stories were often dramatic and emotional, such as "The Fear", an excellent toned down version of Batman's origin, with a few scary moments involving The Scarecrow, who was the guest villain in the episode, and a rare appearance of Batman and Robin in their secret identities of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, not to mention Alfred, their butler. Another episode, which was sadly the final one, "The Death Of Superman" really hit a bullseye with its theme. This was aired years before the "Doomsday/Death Of Superman" comic book storyline came out. But in this case, it wasn't Doomsday that killed Superman. You have to see this episode to find out.
"Super Powers Team" did have two very amusing episodes I found quite funny. "Case Of The Stolen Powers" was the first. In this one, The Penguin (Batman's foe, making his only appearance in "Superfriends") accidentally gets Superman's powers after a magic spell cast by Felix Faust, enemy of Wonder Woman. Then chaos erupts. The second one, "The Bizarro Super Powers Team", involved Bizarro creating Bizarro-clones of Firestorm, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman, who are so stupid, they're just impossible to not laugh at.
However, what concerned me about this show is why it only lasted one year. It would've been great to see characters such as Green Arrow, Dr. Fate, or maybe Captain Marvel to appear in this show, had it lasted for another year or two. Perhaps they could've even introduced new villains, too. This show even gave The Joker his first and only "Superfriends" appearance ever in the episode "The Wild Cards". But it never happened. We had to wait until "Justice League Unlimited" on Cartoon Network in 2004 for that to happen. Hey, it was worth the wait.
Now I hear "Super Powers Team" is coming to DVD this October. I can't wait for this one to hit shelves. I'm getting it! Why? This show remains true to the "Superfriends" like no other. -
blanbrn19 November 2017I remember Saturday mornings when I was little at home with mom lying in bed I would always watch Saturday morning cartoons and this one "Super Friends" was one of my favorites as my imagination and life was thrilled with "Batman and Robin". And I loved seeing these characters on screen as the animation was so bright and in color with each episode as watching theses episodes became my escape from reality as a little boy! The greatest heroes from D.C.'s comic world were featured my favorite was the duo tag team of "Batman and Robin" and along for the journey and action ride was "Superman", "Wonder Woman", and even "Aquaman" plus the little "Wonder Twins" were a treat. As the bad guys they faced were "The Riddler" and "Mr. Mxyzptlk", "Bizarro" and others. Even many episodes were stories of the super heroes facing aliens and robots, and even campy ones where they faced "Bigfoot" and "The Loch Ness Monster". Overall good kids series that entertained when I was little as it was my entertainment and imagination escape.
-
SonicBoom7711 August 2008As cheesy, goofy and as predictable as every Super Friends episode is it has a special feel to it. The classic sound effects and animation along with a basic fun story to it is what makes this show great. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are mostly the focus of the shows and the rest are sidekicks, a lot of the sidekick heroes i haven't even really heard of. The show featured a lot of villains from the DC Universe, it was cool seeing Batman face of against Lex Luther and Superman face off against The Riddler. The Legion of Doom is the Super Friends enemies it's always exciting seeing them face each other. Of course if this show started at this day and age it would be a huge failure because people are looking for to much these days.There is just something about 60's and 70's cartoons that makes them excellent.
Super Friends 9/10 -
swimmingsteve14 February 2019Marvin was my kind of boy , although Superman was awesome as well. I often wanted to fly like Superman as a young boy at about age 13, though Marvin was really awesome as well.- EG
-
afonsobritofalves13 September 2018Really enjoyed. One of DC's best classic series. Highly recommend.
-
Rating just the 1st series 4 for the 4 regular heroes--some which got a raw deal and the twins.
I was 11 years old when the 1st Super Friends series came out and I distinctly recall hating Wendy Marvin & Wonderdog passionately--everyone in my house hated them. We tuned in the WMWD era in hopes it they would improve as in being more worthwhile having around they never did. Number of best episodes (as in tolerable) containing their involvement: 2. They ruined the 1st year; a year that would've been decent without them. Lone positive 4 me being introduced to Wonder Woman. They were smart enough to limit her interaction with the crappy trio.
30+ years hindsight has changed my prospective over these first add-on characters somewhat. Wendy wasn't all that bad. She had a slightly above average intelligence. What dragged her character down & as said before 1st season in its entirety: being saddled with the most ugly, stupid teen guy with pet characters in that HB era. It was inferred Wendy wasn't related to Marvin so why in DC Comics was she hanging with the goof? She's endeavoring improving his brain? Dream on. Marvin should been give some sort of super powers besides super stupidity justifying his being in contact with the JLA. Wearing the cruddy cape a even cruddier shirt he's a no power kid who in his a lobotomized brain thinks its forever Halloween.
Rip off Scooby Wonder Dog is nothing short of offensive of his predecessor. Scooby Doo was a coward, a glutton but he had a brain. They tried making Wonder Joke useful; goofy charades, running for help--nothing helped; all I saw was ugly. When he did the quizzical thing with his brow and opened his yap (sounding very close to Scobby). Grr.
And they wasted so much screen time on these kids versus the Superheroes. Instead of lots of screen time spent on the real heroes by themselves, figuring out how to fight the villains, save people, mouth ecology tips--a ton that 1st season--Tell me why were they dealing with the three of them? Did they win some meet JLA superheroes and all took pity on Marvin and Wonder Dog? Almost turned smart heroes to laughing stocks. Batman babysitter chauffeurs on regular basis. Aquaman eating Wendy's buttermilk biscuits--thinking this scene through i haven't seen it since the 70s still makes my teeth clench. Still.
When they took them out I deigned it a blessing and believe you me i didn't spend a second missing them. The Twins and monkey were a tad of an improvement. They struck me as real junior super friends oftentimes messing up using their powers; they needed help. -
comic20715 January 2003This was an even better season, with improved art and animation. With the introduction of Cyborg to the TV, the stories seemed to improve both in characterization and plot. For Batman, it became less about the utility belts and more about the man. For Wonder Woman, she finally got to flex her muscles (I think she did last season, too.).
And some of the stories were risque for the time, most notably in "The Fear," which retold Batman's origin and the murder of his parents (The writer of this and the Fox/WB Batman series says he can't believe TPTB let him do it), and "The Death of Superman."
Why they let this series end after one season is beyond me. I truly loved this show and I'm glad Cartoon Network has been rerunning them, even if they *are* on the thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. -
nugatoryunknown24 March 2019My favorite episode was the one where Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog were exposed to massive amounts of radiation from a cosmic gamma ray burst and were transformed into the Wonder Twins and Gleek. Sure, they were still of little practical use to the real superheroes at the Justice League, who grew accustomed to the nonstop Troubalerts telling them that the Wonder Twins had somehow screwed up in some inconceivable way and needed to be rescued yet again. Batman especially was known for responding to these alerts with a bemused sigh, then muttering some expletives followed by "What have they done this time?" Sure, one might think that the best response to Lex Luthor's threat of global thermonuclear annihilation would be a giant rat with a bucket of water, but only if you've been seriously tripping.
-
While all the incarnations of THE SUPER FRIENDS cartoon series are great and fun, I find this one to be the best in all aspects. The stories are very good, the villains are cool and evil and we have the perfect set of "FRIENDS" - Superman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the Wonder Twins and Gleek. I'm not crazy about the extraneous heroes that would pop in and out of other series, I like having this core the best. - While many choose the previous season as their favorite, I find the reasoning for that decision to be the very same one that makes it a bit repetitive - The Legion Of Doom. Though they are cool, we wind up with the Super Friends fighting the same group of people throughout the entire series, which is a way longer series than this one. Like so many things in life the best things are short and sweet and "Challenge Of The Super Friends" is no exception. There are only 8 episodes in this "season 4" which was probably beefed up with episodes of prior seasons during its initial run. All in all, you can't go wrong with any of the SUPER FRIENDS series, but the best ones are 2, 3 & 4 - respectively. "The All-New Super Friends Hour", "Challenge of The Super Friends", and this one "World's Greatest Super Friends" which sits at the top of the entire heap.
-
This "season" of the SuperFriends series involves several episodes that touch on classic western literature of a few different kinds: Dracula, Frankenstein, 1001 Arabian Nights, the Wizard of Oz, and more. The Justice League "Super Friends" characters are thrust into scenarios that are loosely based on the plots or characters from the aforementioned books. These can currently be seen on HBO Max or on DVD.
The core team of Super Friends for this season includes stalwarts like Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the dynamic duo of Batman & Robin. The junior members of the Wonder Twins Zan & Jayna, are present.
(As is the comic relief character, Gleek the monkey.) There are also guest characters in select episodes.
Of particular note is a "middle earth" episode loosely based on Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings/Hobbit" books, which adds a nice touch. The denouement of this episode is rather disappointing, or clever.
Overall, it's not a bad representation. It's best to think of these episodes as being produced in the "Bronze" age of comic books but with a "Silver Age" sensibility of how the plots were presented and resolved. (Usually, very pat resolutions to the conflicts.)
This writer is Generation X, so there is a memory of the original episodes as aired. There is a light nostalgia factor in viewing these episodes again. It is viewable multiple times for younger cohorts (elementary school aged children), though some of them may be puzzled as to why the characters behave the way they do. -
"The Legendary Super Powers Show" was the second-to-last season of the long-running "Super Friends" animated series that originally aired on the ABC network as part of its Saturday morning children's programming block. The characters were all from DC Comics, in particular those featured in the "Justice League of America" comic book series.
This season introduced Firestorm: a teenaged superhero first published in the late 1970s, his secret identity is actually two people: college freshman Ron Raymond, and physics professor Martin Stein. Firestorm has an array of interesting powers, primarily involving transmuting one form of inorganic matter into another (a falling boulder becomes a balloon, for example).
This season also introduces Jack Kirby's "Fourth World/New Gods" characters- more specifically, its villains: despotic Darkseid and his lieutenants, Kalibak and Desaad.
Most of the characters who have traditionally been part of the Super Friends saga can be seen here: founding members Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman and Robin; created-for-television heroes like Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief and El Dorado are here as well as the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna.
Not everybody appears in every episode; they are usually team-ups between 2 - 4 characters. Most of the episodes are standalone but there is a minor subplot in several episodes involving Darkseid, where he is clearly obsessed with taking over Earth and making Wonder Woman his wife.
The character designs are updated slightly. There is a very impressive new introduction. There are a couple of new voices as well- Wonder Woman has a new voice, and Adam West, who played Batman in the 1960s live action show, is the new voice of Batman. (He also voiced Batman in the solo late 1970s Filmation-produced Batman show). -
jemilcar7 September 2023If you're a hardcore DC Comic's fan who grew up reading the comics as well as enjoyed playing with the Kenner's Super Powers Toyline like myself in the 80's then I would suggest watching Challenge of the Superfriends, The world's Greatest Superfriends, Super Powers the Legendary Superfriends and Super Powers: Galactic Guardians. Other than that,the earlier seasons consisted of lackluster storytelling and poor animation. Not too mention the addition of the Wonder Twins and Wendy,Marvin and the Wonderdog. I'll give the last season it's credit cause it gave us diehard comic book fans what we wanted to see on Saturday morning cartoons based on our favorite and beloved DC Superheroes for we got to see Firestorm the Nuclear Man and Cyborg from the New Teen Titans portrayed greatly on the TV screen for the first time. Plus,we got to see Adam West portray a darker and brooding Batman than how he portrayed the character in the Inconic 60's live action series. They also were the first to produce a cartoon episode based entirely on Batman's origin despite all of the restrictions of children's programming at the time. Trust you'll enjoy that show just as much as I did for it paved the way for the short lived Ruby Spears Superman animated series that aired on CBS,Batman the Animated Series,Superman the Animated Series,Batman Beyond,Justice League the Animated Series and all the rest of the DC animated shows,TV shows and Box Office movies that would shortly follow throughout the year's.
-
rcj536527 December 2006SPOILER: Many enduring Saturday Morning characters grew progressively grimmer in terms of quality over their life span. Scooby-Doo degenerated from Scooby-Dum to Dynomutt,all the way to Scrappy-Doo to "The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo" and ultimately to babyfication in the mid-1990's with "A Pup Named Scooby Doo". Even other Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters like Yogi Bear,Huckleberry Hound and other Hanna-Barbera cartoon funny animals went from their mildly amusing late 1950's-early 1960's shorts to the horrific antifun of "Yogi's Gang","Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and not to mention "Yogi's Space Race",during the rest of the 1970's. Other characters too fall aprey as well,for example Looney Tunes' character of Daffy Duck descended from heights like "Duck Dodgers in the 24 and 1/2 Century" and "Duck Amuck"(which basically were two Oscar winning animated shorts)to stupidly chasing Speedy Gonazles in a desultory series of Friz Freleng-directed shorts. Even other shows follow suits as well. The Flintstones went from their own successful original show,deriative but often entertaining,to rerun disgraces and total failures like "Fred and Barney Meet The Thing", "Fred and Barney Meet The Shmoo",and "The Flintstones Mysteries".
THE SUPERFRIENDS on the other hand,got better and better in each episode of their incarnations. This was a series that was one of the top rated programs during its entire thirteen and a half year run on ABC-TV from September 8, 1973 until September 6, 1986 and was mostly seen during the earlier part of ABC's Sunshine Saturday Morning schedule. Produced in association with DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera Productions. At the time of their first appearance,the Superfriends were a sort of stripped down version of DC Comics' Justice League Of America. The characters of Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman were already old hands on Saturday Morning. Wonder Woman was the only newcomer,but in comics terms she was a long established a fairly well known character. Even during the earlier seasons(between 1973 through 1975),a few other characters made brief appearances,like Green Arrow. During the show's first three seasons by the way,the heroes never got the chance to fight any villains(that wasn't until The Challenge Of The Superfriends six years later). Instead you got to see these superheroes running around like toddlers saving the world from natural disasters. The worst of this was during the years 1973-1975(seasons one through three). The cause of this fiasco was the repulsive sidekicks that had on the show basically were the characters of Wendy,Marvin and Wonderdog-who were basically teenage kids who hung around the Superfriends. Marvin was the antithesis of Shaggy while Wonderdog was the copy of Scooby Doo(and of all the Scooby clones that came around during the 1970's,Wonderdog was the worst of them all). At least Wendy was mildly competent while Marvin was one of the dumbest kids ever conceived. Wendy and Marvin were just that--the ultimate degenerate form of the kid sidekick that was repulsive and annoying to which in just about every episode Wendy and Marvin always stumbled into trouble and every time were to be rescued in one form or another by The Superfriends. The other aggravating thing and this was what the producers thought was educational during the first three seasons of The Superfriends was the profunsion of short public-service blurbs,in which Batman would help kids cross the street property or various others with Superman telling kids not to smoke cigarettes or used drugs or Aquaman telling kids not to pollute the environment or Wonder Woman telling kids not to get near or talk to strangers. All of that would change quickly in 1975.
At the start of the 1975-1976 season,Wendy,Marvin and Wonderdog were completely eliminated and were replaced by The Wonder Twins-which consisted of Jayna,Zan,and their space monkey Gleep(which was a recycled version of Hanna-Barbera's Space Ghost which consisted of Space Ghost's two sidekicks Jan and Jayce and space monkey Blip). Unlike Wendy and Marvin,they actually had superpowers. Hailing from an alien planet,they were able,whenever they touched hands,to take on the form of an animal and the shape of some kind of water. At least the Twins were not helpless idiots like Wendy and Marvin. Most importantly,the new format had more to offer too--more superheroic adventure and some reasonably interesting plots and the occasional addition of new members of the Justice League including Hawkman and Green Lantern and others that featured insulting ethnic characters too like Apache Chief, Black Vulcan,and Samurai. Zan and Jayna were given their own format adventures as well featuring them helping hopeless teens in tight situations. By the end of the 1977-1978 season Zan and Jayna were eliminated from the group. By the start of the 1978-1979 season,the Superfriends FINALLY get the fight their villains which was the next incarnation of the show which in my opinion was one of the coolest and innovative shows ever the grace Saturday Mornings in the late 1970's. "The Challenge Of The Superfriends" premiered during the 1978-1979 season and it featured the Justice League battling the Legion Of Doom(which consisted of Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor)and other diabolical villains not to mention once again saving the world from doom and total destruction.
The overall success prove brilliant and from there at the start of the 1979-1980 season,The Superfriends expanded to a full 90 minute format that offer more action and thrills than ever which also included repeated episodes from earlier seasons too. That lasted until 1983. The final content of this came at the height of the show's final season with "The Superpowers Team:Galactic Guardians"(premiered during the 1984-1986 seasons) which they faced a new sinister and more deadlier villain "Darkseid" and along with new heroes to join the Hall Of Justice(or the Justice League Of America) as well to battle deadlier and menacing foes. However,after the success of The Superfriends there were other shows that could do follow the same formula,but this was show that change like the colors of the rainbow in different segments. -
Steve_Nyland26 November 2006Yes, this is easily the best of all the different visions of Hannah-Barbara's "Super Friends" shows. The first with Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog was quaint but unless you were under the age of 9 just too friendly. The second version with Zan, Jayna (rrrowr!) and Gleek the Space Monkey had a darker, more edgier tone with actual destruction, but would always stumble at the last minute and go for cuteness.
This one was the essence of why kids love super hero cartoons distilled down into a raw, somewhat darkly toned vision where the VILLAINS are the key. The Super Friends were the squares here, with Lex Luthor and his 12 partners in crime stealing the show episode after episode. My favorites were always Black Manta and Solomon Grundy: They were both somewhat frightening characters with pretty nasty background stories. Solomon Grundy was some guy who died face down in the swamp and was infected by an evil energy field or something like that -- an overgrown swamp weed.
You can get the entire series on an excellent DVD box set that has the magical ability to transport you back to the age of 11, hunched in front of the set on Saturday morning with your bowl of Crunchberries. One almost finds themselves rooting for the forces of darkness in this, realizing the adage about action/adventure superhero tales that you need a good villain. The show also had some pretty morbid story ideas, my favorite being the "Swamp of the Living Dead" episode where the Legion makes a pact with a devilish sort of being who unleashes a horde of zombies to battle the Super Friends.
You also get time travel, inter-dimensional travel, background stories of both the good and bad guys, peril and destruction and doom in every episode. The lack of cuteness in the form of juvenile superhero wannabees is replaced by a sense of urgency to hurry up and save the world & you won't miss it. And the hand-drawn animation style has a kind of warmth and humanity to it that is annoyingly absent from more modern day equivalents. You only get to be 11 once, might as well do it right.
10/10 -
Stebaer428 October 2016Yes in giving credit where it's due this was acknowledged in the TV Guide as a Comedy Adventure Series.
For among the reasons as you'll see when watching it too. When in Episode:one Superman is in an arm wrestling match with Marvin and one Super Friend after the other asks if they should help Superman and upon agreeing Marvin then runs and jumps into midair and is floating above.
Also in Episode #1 Batman says "Robin,Superman,Aquaman to The Batmobile."of which is very heart touching because of that famous quote from the 1960's TV-Show and 7 years later when I saw in the comic of World's Finest #90 this similar scene in which Superman is Flying The Batmobile with Batman,Robin,and Batwoman in it.
Also in this first episode we see Superman flying some Super Friends as passengers in 2 of hands and maybe one on his back and saying he's flying them as he said courtesy of Superman Airlines.in one hand as I recall he's holding Batman with Wendy in his lap.
Truthfully,Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a. "Ste" of Framingham,MA USA -
McFrogg19 April 2017Superfriends was one of the first superhero shows I saw as a kid. I was probably three or four years old. My favorite character was Robin, probably because he was the youngest superhero. Sometimes, my older brother and cousins and I used to reenact the episodes in the playroom.
It felt so magical and epic, watching the goodhearted superheroes save people's lives, defeat the bad guys and visit strange worlds. Sometimes the episodes were a bit scary as well, with giant monsters and weird villains, but the episodes always had a happy ending. The episodes I remember the best are the ones from "The World's Greatest Superfriends", like "The Lord of Middle Earth" and "Superfriends meet Frankenstein".
I miss good, clean shows like Superfriends, where the heroes behaved like heroes and inspired kids to do good. They didn't torture or kill the villains. The villains didn't have to skin people alive for us to know that they were evil. Shows like Superfriends and He-Man had positive messages and moral characters. What do the most popular shows these days have? Yelling and screaming, weirdness for the sake of weirdness, crude jokes, disturbing images...
Fortunately, most of the episodes have been released on DVD. I can finally watch them again, with my own kids. Who knows, maybe they'll reenact the episodes in their own playroom? -
IrockGswift16 February 2003I remember watching this cartoon at 8:30 in the morning if I had a day out of school. At the age of 10 I realize that this is the best superfriends cartoon. The cartoon pit their arch enemies against the superfriends which derives from the DC comics. I enjoy watching Lex Luther always trying to make a way to destroy the superfriends. Especially superman,wonder woman,and the green lantern because they all the most powerful ones of them all. Superman serves as the superfriends leader and at the end they prove that evil never prevails. If you noticed The Challenge of the Superfriends and The Scooby Doo Show(1978) has the same danger background music.
-
afonsobritofalves5 October 2018The most classic super heroes in one of the best and most classic D.C. Comics series. Highly recommend. The best animated version of Super Friends ever.