DVD Review: Super Friends The Lost Episodes
Hanna-Barbera, Warner Home Video Brings DC Superheroes to DVD
Aug 21, 2009
Ordinarily, something like Super Friends: The Lost Episodes would be a gold-plated excuse for a certain animation critic to rev up his chainsaw and make like Leatherface. Between the wretched dialogue, weak plot-lines with plenty of deus ex machina moments, laughable action sequences, lack of character (everyone's lines sound pretty much the same, no matter who's speaking them), and the over-hyped voice-overs, this DVD should be the biggest hunk-o'-junk since Barbie and the Diamond Castle.
But, like the 1968 live-action Batman TV series starring Adam West – which was so over-the-top that it became absurdist comedy – Super Friends has that same "wink at the audience" quality. If you watched this DVD along with the show's creators, you get the feeling they'd be laughing along with you, and for the exact same reasons.
DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Home Video Produce Super Friends: The Lost Episodes
These "lost episodes" were created during the 1983 - 1984 season: the period that Hanna-Barbera put the long-running Super Friends on hiatus to avoid competing with a syndication package H-B had been selling to various stations. There are 24 of these episodes, depicting Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman et al taking on various threats, from a lighthouse-eating RMS Titanic (no, you're not reading that wrong) to invading space dolls with faulty batteries.
Of course, several new heroes Hanna-Barbera added, such as the shape-shifting Wonder Twins – along with their annoying pet monkey Gleek – make regular appearances. Given how often they appeared, H-B was clearly hoping they could spin Jayna and Zan off into their own show, but unfortunately audiences didn't seem to go for it (maybe they should have had them form a rock band?).
Super Friends also tried a few nods to ethnic diversity: Native warrior Apache Chief, Afro-American Black Vulcan, the Japanese Samurai and the Hispanic El Dorado. Well-meaning to be sure, but cause for a few facepalms today.
In addition to the wince-inducing dialogue, safe-as-milk action – Superman is more likely to preach at Lex Luthor than give him a knuckle sandwich – and silly villains (Over-sized spacekids? Intergalactic drag racers?), there are plenty of animation mistakes, such as Batman's continually changing colour scheme. It's so bad that you have to wonder if the show's creators were deliberately going for the giggle.
Actually, they probably were. In his autobiography, My Life With a Thousand Characters, Super Friends' creative producer Iwao Takamoto admitted his approach to the show was to work with "all that underlying humor and sense of the ridiculous."
Unfortunately, it will be that rare comic fan who gets the joke, since the darker, more intense view of super heroes popularized by guys like Alan Moore and Frank Miller is still very much in the fore today.
DVD Extras
Owners who load the DVD in their computers can download a printable DC comic featuring the Super Friends.
The Final Analysis
Yes, Super Friends: The Lost Episodes is formulaic, badly plotted. stiffly animated with all the characterization of a cardboard box. Yet that's somehow the point.
If your tastes run towards more serious superhero fare a la Batman: Gotham Knight, you'll want to avoid this DVD like the plague. But, if you approach these Mulroney-era cartoons in the spirit in which they were intended, you'll surprise yourself with how much fun you're having. Super Friends: The Lost Episodes gets a 6/10.
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