Super Freinds: The Legendary Super Powers Show – The Complete Series
Studio: Warner Home Video
WorkNameSort: Super Freinds: The Legendary Super Powers Show – The Complete Series
Form of a box set! Shape of a bonus feature! This isn’t the original early-’70s Super Friends show, but the later 1984 incarnation created to tie in with the Super Powers Collection line of action figures (thanks, Reagan-era FCC deregulation of children’s television!) The box boasts ‘The Complete Seriesâ?� but that’s less impressive once you realize that each episode tracking the innocuous adventures of perennials like Superman and Wonder Woman (joined by Supertokenminorities El Dorado, Samurai and Black Vulcan) is only 11 minutes long. The on-the-cheap animation isn’t much fun to look at ‘ one of the show’s writers interviewed in one of two featurettes accurately describes the format as ‘illustrated radioâ?� ‘ but the sound effects recycled from every Hanna-Barbera production inspire a certain unconscious Proustian reverie for now-adult veterans of the Saturday-morning cartoon experience. For the full effect, save this DVD for a day when you can wake up early, leave your pajamas on and eat sugar cereal until you’re jumping off the couch.
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2007.