SUPER FRIENDS: THE LEGENDARY SUPER POWERS SHOW - THE COMPLETE SERIES (DC COMICS CLASSIC COLLECTION) (1984)

Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show - The Complete Series (DC Comics Classic Collection) (1984)

Actors: Jack Angel, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Bell, William Callaway, Constance Cawlfield
Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 2
Run Time: 179 minutes

DVD Features:

Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
16 episodes on two discs
Commentary on five episodes
Evolution: New Heroes, Viler Villains, and Ethnic Additions: how Super Friends prefigured the era of diversity in animation
The Super Powers Collection: The Effect of the Toy Industry on the Super Friends

Movie: * *
Disc: * * *

As can be expected this Hanna-Barbera-produced Saturday morning kids cartoon show from the mid-1980s doesn’t exactly represent a new high in animation standards.

The “Super Friends” are well-known DC Comics superheroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Flash and a few others such as Firestorm to whom time hasn’t been as kind. As a kid I remember not being too impressed with the Super Friends comic books because they were rather simplistic compared to the regular Justice League of America titles.

Simplistic storylines mar these 16 twenty-minute episodes too, as the Super Friends spend most of their time fighting a villain named Darkseid and his two sidekicks plus a selection of “guest” super villains, mostly foes of Superman such as Brainiac and Lex Luthor.

As said before, the animation is below par but there is some corny fun to be had. We can never tire of the husky voice talent behind the Darkseid character. We also believe that this TV show has somehow been time-warped in from the pre-Feminist era. Bra burning? None of that for Wonder Woman whose role in all these episodes seem to be designated kidnap victim who has to be rescued by her male compatriots all the time. It is also positively unhealthy how Darkseid wants her to be his “queen” all the time and how her male team members sexually fixate on her as well. Kids won’t pick any of this up though, but adults will find themselves raising the occasional eyebrow . . .