posted
Do/did y'all have the toys? I still have mine (somewhere) in my parents' garage. I never did get most of the 'Wave 3' characters (Shazam, Mr. Miracle, Plastic Man, etc.) but I always loved hunting those figures.
From: Alameda, CA | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
They've been showing the Wendy and Marvin episodes for the last week. I hadn't seen these episodes for many years, but decided to try them out again.
I have a few observations:
The producers learned a lot after that first season, particularly about pacing. The hour-long format did get the stories to drag a bit.
It's implied in these episodes that the Super Friends and the Justice League are not quite synonymous, a bit of information lost in later seasons. Wendy and Marvin often refer to Supes, Bats, WW and Aquaman as "our Super Friends" and that their Super Friends are part of the Justice League.
The episode in which Clark Kent appears includes Clark stating that he is from the Galaxy Broadcasting System, which would have been in keeping with the comics of the time. Later seasons refer to Clark as a Daily Planet reporter.
Wonder Dog is quite possibly the most annoying cartoon mascot of all time.
Now they need to show Schoolhouse Rock after the episodes!
-------------------- The only character in all of literature who has been described as "badnass" while using the phrase "vile miscreant."
From: The Pyngwyn Colonies of Planet Hyustyn | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
As I already mentioned in the Shout Box, I just bought a DVD set of Super Powers, or as Prof calls it, The Firestorm Season.
I'm fangirling like crazy, so as soon as I log out, I'm watching it. What a thrill -- as a kid, I only saw one episode, but I loved it, and Frank Welker's voice acting as Darkseid left an indelible impression on me. When I write my Imperial Guard fanfics, the Supreme Intelligence invariably speaks in That Voice (even though I also have the Supreme Intelligence steal a few phrases from Silverhawks' lead baddie, Monstar.)
I'll post mini-reviews of all the episodes over the next few days.
posted
If either Wonder Twins or Marvin,Wendy and Wonder Dog were in the Cyborg season episodes would their appearances be slightly altered?
Imagine Jayna with the big hair look or a jheri curl look? How would Zan look with a mullet or a Mohawk?
Wendy would dress similar to those Madonna wannabes or the 'Flashdance' look and Marvin...hmmm, what about him? what eighties fashion trend should he embrace or still wear that white sweatshirt and green cape from the 1973 series?
Meanwhile,Gleek is still Gleek and likewise Wonder Dog!
Registered: Oct 2003
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Before getting to the individual episodes, I must address the overall effectiveness of the voice acting. I've already mentioned how much I like Frank Welker as Darkseid, but what is a villain without a sidekick, in this case De Saad, played with just the right degree of campiness by Rene Auberjonois (there's also Darkseid's son Kalibak, but even with Welker doing his voice, he comes up short. Next best are Mark L. Taylor and Olan Soule, both spot on as the two components of Firestorm, college kid Ronnie Raymond and wise old Professor Martin Stein. If Olan Soule's voice sounds familiar, it's because he had voiced Batman during all the previous seasons of Super Friends. In this season, Batman is voiced by Adam West -- personally that doesn't work for me, because West sounds like he's not putting any real effort into his voice acting. Another weak link is Constance Cawlfield, taking over from Shannon Farnon as Wonder Woman; she's too nasal and too colloquial. There is comfort in having some longtime cast member around in familiar roles, among them Danny Dark as Superman, Casey Kasem as Robin, and Stanley Jones as Lex Luthor. And the cherry on top for me is the presence of one of my favorite voice actresses, Mary McDonald Lewis, making cameos as Lois Lane -- the same year as Super Powers, she also debuted in the second G.I. Joe miniseries in what would prove to be her most famous role, Lady Jaye.
It goes without saying that I had to start with the one episode that I saw back in the day and impressed me so much. Looking at the tracklisting, it was easy to figure out that the episode in question was DARKSEID'S GOLDEN TRAP, PARTS 1 AND 2 (when I saw it in the 80s, the title cards had been edited out, and I wasn't aware that the episodes were usually only 10 minutes each.)
A big plus in my book is that, except for a couple scenes at the Hall of Justice, this episode takes place entirely in outer space, so we see lots of weird aliens and alien cities and space vehicles, the kind of stuff I like a lot. In the episode, one team of Super Friends fails to prevent Darkseid from acquiring a hunk of Gold Kryptonite, and instead are captured and imprisoned on an asteroid; despite the danger to him, Superman joins a second team of Super Friends to find the asteroid and rescue their teammates, but without Superman getting exposed to the Gold K, which would permanently remove his powers. Despite giving too much screen time to El Dorado, one of those Annoying Ethnic Stereotype Super Friends, this is still a terrific episode that I enjoyed as much as I did 20 years ago.
Now for the rest of the episodes on the first disc:
The first episode of the season, THE BRIDE OF DARKSEID PARTS ONE AND TWO, thankfully transcends its dreadful title and the bad idea of having Darkseid obsessed with making Wonder Woman his queen (it's a credit to Frank Welker that he rises above the scripts and does better by Darkseid than the writers do.) This episode should have been titled something like THE COMING OF FIRESTORM, because that's really the main thrust, introducing Firestorm and Ronnie and the Professor to viewers, and very effectively too -- I haven't read many comics with Firestorm, but he's so likeable on the show that it's made me interested in investigating his comics appearances. Could anyone please make some recommendations?
There follow three excellent one-part episodes, THE WRATH OF BRAINIAC (with Brainiac in his cool and creepy skull-faced robot design from 1983-85), REFLECTIONS IN CRIME (I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Mirror Master is an underrated villain -- oddly enough, the Flash does not appear), and NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES (featuring a Darkseid/Luthor team-up, clever twists and turns, and an armada from Apokolips.)
Three good ones followed by three bad ones: MR. MXYZPTLK AND THE MAGIC LAMP (I hate Mxyzptlk -- even Welker can't make him work), THE CASE OF THE SHRINKING SUPER FRIENDS (featuring that old kids' TV standby, the shrinking ray), and THE MASK OF MYSTERY (where a nerdy high school kid wants to be a superhero.)
Which brings us full circle to DARKSEID'S GOLDEN TRAP PARTS ONE AND TWO, which I'll undoubtedly watch again very soon.
But not before I watch the second disk, so watch this space for more reviews.
ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU...oops, I mean...ISLAND OF THE DINOSOIDS -- Just like with the shrinking ray episode, this kind of plot is too well-worn for me.
THE ROYAL RUSE -- Now this one is great! I can never get enough of Darkseid as voiced by Welker. As with DARKSEID'S GOLDEN TRAP, it takes place almost entirely in outer space, and there's a plot twist that actually surprised my jaded self.
posted
I finished the rest of the episodes, sort of:
UNCLE MXYZPTLK: I had to stop watching this one, it was getting on my nerves. Way too much Silver Age DC frivolity for my taste (Superman turns into a little kid.)
THE CASE OF THE DREADFUL DOLLS: In the commentary track, this episode's writer says that in his early drafts, the villain was the Toyman, but later turned into a new villain named the Dollman -- much more interesting than the episode itself.
THE VILLAGE OF LOST SOULS and THE CURATOR: Both of these were okay but not memorable. The former has Brianiac mentally enslaving a small town, and the title villain of the latter is a case of DC ripping off Marvel, in this case the Collector (unless someone who is much more knowledgeable about the DC universe than yours truly is aware of some obscure villain that Marvel ripped off.)
So, in all, half good-to-great and half fair-to-middling -- NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES, THE ROYAL RUSE, THE WRATH OF BRAINIAC, REFLECTIONS IN CRIME, THE BRIDE OF DARKSEID PARTS ONE AND TWO, and of course, DARKSEID'S GOLDEN TRAP PARTS ONE AND TWO are all due for multiple viewings.
quote: Wonder Dog is quite possibly the most annoying cartoon mascot of all time.
. True that! A blatant rip-off of Scooby Doo if ever I saw one and Marvin was no better than a younger, stupider, less-stoned Shaggy, with a cape. The only episodes I remember with them were the one with the Balloon People and the one having something to do with Cape Canaveral and the totally goofy "Super" villain -with a mentally deficient henchmen, who said " Hungry, thirsty whatta day, whatta day what a hungry thirsty, thirsty day!" Which was hilarious enough to have stuck with me for thirty-some years.
-------------------- Is that a moon?
From: Portland, OR | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
After a couple false starts (my local Barnes & Noble is usually very good with pre-ordered DVDs, but somebody screwed up this time), I finally got a copy of the final Super Friends series, "The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians" aka "The Cyborg Season".
I watched it this weekend. Despite an increase in action and much improved animation and production design (the model sheets were by an uncredited Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez) and most of the previous series' voice cast intact (B.J. Ward as Wonder Woman was a slight improvement over Constance Cawfield, but Ward can't hold a candle to Shannon Farnon), it left me cold.
In the "Making Of" documentary, somebody says that the series was a bridge between the older Super Friends cartoons and the DCU cartoons of the past 15 years, and I think that's why it left me cold; it was neither fish nor fowl.
And, like many of the lesser 80s action cartoons, it had a great title sequence that none of the actual episodes could live up to.
posted
Shannon Farnon will always be the definitive voice of Wonder Woman for me.
In the 1977 season, I think she and Liberty Williams (Jayna) voiced just about every female character who appeared. All the women pretty much sound like Wonder Woman or Jayna trying to disguise their voices.
-------------------- The only character in all of literature who has been described as "badnass" while using the phrase "vile miscreant."
From: The Pyngwyn Colonies of Planet Hyustyn | Registered: Aug 2005
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I remember on the commentary track for one of the Challenge of the Super Friends episodes, Mark Waid and Geoff Johns joke about how one nameless bank robber is obviously Casey Kasem doing double-duty as both Robin and the robber.
Rocky, what are your sources for all the cool behind-the-scenes stuff that you've posted?
Would you believe Internet Movie Database, Wikipedia, an attentive ear and 30-plus years of loving this show?
-------------------- The only character in all of literature who has been described as "badnass" while using the phrase "vile miscreant."
From: The Pyngwyn Colonies of Planet Hyustyn | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Here's something I've wondered for years: Why was Aquaman the fourth of the big heroes on Super Friends instead of, say, Flash or Green Lantern? DC always has stated that they consider their primary five characters to be Supes, Bats, WW, Flash and GL. So, why Aquaman? He may have been more familiar to Saturday morning viewers because of the Filmation cartoon in the late '60s, but it still seemed like he was out of place.
-------------------- The only character in all of literature who has been described as "badnass" while using the phrase "vile miscreant."
From: The Pyngwyn Colonies of Planet Hyustyn | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I guess you might as well ask, why did Filmation do AQUAMAN in 1967? I figure Hanna-Barbera was just following their lead when SUPER-FRIENDS started 6 years later.
1966: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (w/Superboy)
1967: THE SUPERMAN-AQUAMAN HOUR OF ADVENTURE (w/Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Atom, Teen Titans, Justice League of America, and RERUNS of the previous year's Superman-- cheap bastards)
1968: THE BATMAN-SUPERMAN HOUR (and still more reruns of the same Superman cartoons-- did they think no one would notice?)
Due to the local Philly station's long-running 90-minute show CARTOON CORNERS, the '68 series was run here about 7 AM, making it difficult to see unless you had insomnia, but I always liked to sleep a little later on weekends.
Registered: Aug 2003
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