Thanks for the info. I actually love the 90's adaptations of Spider-Man adn X-Men but seeing as how I've never seen an episode of The Fantastic Four (I don't think) and the word isn't all too convincing, I think I'll hold off for the 60's cartoons to surface...
well, this is VERY disappointing news for me. while this was never a property that i probably would have ever actually asked for myself, the more i thought about it, the more the prospects of getting it had started to make me kind of giddy. in fact, from everything that had been announced so far for this year, both hinted and official, this release was one of the few i was most eager for.
so if not now, when would they ever have a reason to release it? especially if the FF film underperforms?
Sad to see that the 60's shows won't be coming, but I love all things FF, so I'm pretty excited about getting a (hopefully) complete set of the 90's series. Season 1 was a bit "childish" but S2 really captured a lot of the atmosphere of the FF ....
What's to say for sure that this won't be the 60's Fantastic Four series though, do we know for sure? I believe there were only something like 15-20 episodes in the entire series so it would be really easy for Disney to release that in a nicely packaged collection...
We know for sure. Marvel NEVER owned the rights to the 60's Fantastic Four cartoon. Hanna-Barbera always has. That's why it was never included in the VHS series Marvel Comics Video Library. AND that IS why you see it from time to time on Hanna-Barbera related channels such as CARTOON NETWORK and BOOMERANG.
All the other Marvel cartoons were kept by NEW WORLD ENT after that company acquired Marvel in the late 80s/early 90s. NEW WORLD sold them to the FAMILY CHANNEL. FAMILY CHANNEL was then bought by Disney with all the programs intact. FAMILY CHANNEL then became ABC FAMILY. So Disney has the rights to ALL the Marvel cartoons (EXCEPT 1967 FF, 1979 Fred & Barney meet the Thing, and MTV's Spider-Man.)
The 60s Fantastic Four has been held onto by Hanna-Barbera since the beginning.
Hopefully we'll see some cross-promotion from WB when the feature-length hits than. I'd love to see Warners put together a box set like they did Superfriends compiling ALL of these cartoons...
So, much time has passed. Is this release dead in the water or are they waiting for some time in the future (hopefully while I'm still alive) when they intend to do an Iron Man, Captain America, Thor or Sub Mariner movie?
Not really. Since the release of the 90's FF DVD, Disney has pulled all the Marvel cartoons from air (ABC FAMILY and TOON DISNEY). The internet speculation is that something is going on with the rights; that Disney may have lost them...but nothing official has been said.
Boomerang had Fantastic Four on thier schedule until this week when they replaced it with Herculoids. I was able to record all the episodes on DVD. Looks like that was a good idea with the legal tangle preventing a video release.
I recently came across a review of a German release at DVD Basen. A quick search on Amazon.de shows it was released on 10/27/06 and sells for 23.89 Euros. For those who are region free/PAL capable, an option. Shipping is expensive from Germany though, about 14 Euros.
I'm still surprised the Spider-Man '67 Collection was ever released. That was under Buena Vista which I believe Disney owns. Jetix is Disney, and I have always wondered what the hold up was with the Marvel Properties (Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends included) that Jetix broadcasts but have never been released to DVD.