SUPERFRIENDS: THE LOST EPISODES
Studio: Warner Brothers Year: 1983 Rated: Not Rated Film Length: 172 minutes Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audio: English Mono, Portuguese Mono Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese |
The Series
(
out of )The Superfriends was Hanna-Barbera Studios' cartoon version of the Justice League of
America. It ran on ABC-TV on Saturday mornings from 1973 through 1983. After its
cancellation in 1983, ABC brought back the Superfriends in 1984 and it lasted for
another 2 seasons before its final cancellation in 1986. The cancellation by ABC came
as a surprise to Hanna-Barbera since the series was so popular in foreign markets.
As a result, the 8 new half hour episodes produced for the 1983-1984 season never
aired on ABC, although these "lost" episodes did air at the time in Australia and other
overseas markets. Although the package art for this set announces "24 episodes on 2
discs", there are actually 8 half hour episodes consisting of 3 different stories in each
episode.
The roster of characters in the Superfriends usually included Superman, Batman and
Robin, Wonder Woman, and the Wonder Twins with their space monkey Gleek. These
cartoons were produced during the mid-1980s, an era which was the nadir of quality for
children’s cartoons in the United States. The animation is limited to the extent typical
of most children’s cartoons produced during this period. It is difficult to avoid drawing
comparisons to the excellent Justice League cartoons produced by Warner Brothers in
the last decade. Unfortunately, the "lost" episode of the Superfriends suffer by the
comparison.
Video
( out of )
Video quality is excellent given the source material. These cartoons have probably
never looked better than they do on these DVDs, even if the quality of animation fails to
live up to contemporary standards. Some minor debris is apparent, however, the debris
appears to originate from the masters. A good example is when certain objects move
across the screen; the animators accomplished this by moving the cel across the
background. Debris that existed on the clear portion of the cel moves parallel with the
object moving across the screen. In 1983, the largest television sets had a screen of
26 inches or so. On those TV screens, the debris was invisible whereas it is clearly
visible on the larger screens of today.
Audio
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The English Mono soundtrack is typical of a cartoon produced in the 1980s. Dialogue
and sound effects are clearly audible even if it is not the same quality of new cartoons
produced 25 years later. The soundtrack is solid if unexceptional for its time.
Special Features
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The only special feature is a gallery of images consisting of the cover artwork and 2
interior stories from issue no. 1 of The Superfriends comic book published by DC
Comics in the 1970s. The images and word balloons are difficult to decipher even on a
67 inch screen. There is also a DVD-rom option allowing the comic book to be printed
out on your home computer. The second comic book story is noteworthy in that it was
drawn by Alex Toth, the accomplished comic book and animation artist who is credited
with the character designs of the Superfriends cartoon series.
Conclusion
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If you are old enough to have fond memories of The Superfriends from seeing this show
in your childhood, then this set may be a treasure trove of nostalgic memories for you.
If, on the other hand, you want to see the best possible translation of the Justice
League of America into animated cartoons, you will be better served by picking up one
of the season sets of the excellent Justice League or Justice League Unlimited, also
available from Warner Brother Home Video.
