Customer Reviews

Super Friends: Volume Two

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Apparently, someone thought listing the episodes on the _OUTSIDE_ of the box or on Amazon would seriously hurt sales. A very annoying practice. Would you buy an album without at least checking the songs on the label? I think not!

So here you are: A list of the episodes on the two DVDs:

1: Rokan: Enemy from Space
2: The Demons of Exxor
3. Battle at the Earth's Core
4: Sinbad and the Space Pirates
5: The Pied Piper from Space
6: Attack of the Vampire
7: The Beasts are coming
8: Terror from the Phantom Zone
Bonus: The ballad of Zan and Jayna

Disc 2:
9: The Anti-Matter Monster
10: World Beneath the Ice
11: Invasion of the Brain Creatures
12: The Incredible Space Circus
13: Batman: Dead or Alive
14: Battle of the Gods
15: Journey through inner space
16: The Rise and Fall of the Super Friends
Bonus: Pajama-Rama Super Friends Retrospective

The animation is from one of the the lowest points in Hanna-Barbera's career - poor by today's standards. The DVD features are very bare bones. Still, if you watched these cartoons in the 1970's & 1980's they are a must-have item - and they still keep the kids entertained today without some of the violence you see in today's cartoons.

Only the combined superpowers of Earth's greatest heroes can stop the unthinkable dangers that jeopardize humanity in these 16 episodes from the beloved animated TV series! Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Zan and Jayna battle villains from the darkest regions of outer space to the depths of the ocean in their fight for truth and justice. They face extraordinary perils at the core of the Earth and defy the laws of nature to shrink to microscopic size to defeat a radioactive monster. Even Dracula returns from the grave to challenge the Super Friends to a showdown! And with this exciting compilation that boasts cool extras, you can join the Super Friends for the ultimate victory celebration!
Warner Bros announced the release of SuperFriends - The 2nd Season for May 24. These are all 16 episodes from the 1978 run of the show featuring Zan & Jayna: The Wonder Twins! This 2 disc set (365 mins) The release will sport a full frame (1.33:1) transfer, and English mono audio, with English, French and Spanish subtitles. Two bonus features were announced:
-Pajama-Rama: Super Friends Retrospective - A group of pop culture enthusiasts and fun celebrities share their memories of the world's greatest team of '70's super-heroes, The Super Friends!
-The Ballad of Zan & Jayna - A wild and wacky music video celebrating the Wonder Twins, and of course, their pet primate Gleek!
SHOW HISTORY:
1973 saw the original Superfriends show, featuring the heros followed by non-powered kids Wendy & Marvin, and their pet Wonderdog. There are not too many cartoons in that series, and they were repeated quite a bit on and off until 1977's All-New Superfirends Hour came along. That is the show where the tag-along teens were first replaced by the Wonder Twins, Zan & Jayna, and their space-monkey Gleek. In 1978, the show continued, retitled as simply Superfriends. That season is the one which aired the episodes announced today for DVD release. At the same time, Challenge of the Superfriends was running adjacent to this, featuring the episodes of the Justice League of America vs. The Legion of Doom. All 16 of *those* episodes are already on DVD in Challenge of the Superfriends - The 1st Season. Since they call that "the first season" and the new title "the second season", we honestly can't tell if Warner means to ignore the 1973 Wendy/Marvin/Wonderdog installments totally.

Zan, Jayna, & Gleek continued in 1979's World's Greatest Superfriends, with a few new episodes mixed with repeats of the older ones. 1980 saw more than 60 new shorts (under 10 minutes each in length) made featuring just the heroes, with no teenage sidekicks, and those were combined with old episodes into a new Superfriends Hour show. But then that show was shortened to a half-hour for 1981-83 and the show went under various names, accompanied by maybe about two dozen more new shorts...some of which were never aired in the original rotation, but which aired later in syndication. Then, in 1984, ABC wanted to revitalize the series, and that's when they did Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, using the new DC Comics name from the action figure lineup that was being marketed at the time. The cartoons mainly featured the heroes from the toy line, so now Cyborg (from the "Teen Titans" comics) and Firestorm (from "Firestorm: The Nuclear Man") were on the team. There were only 15 episodes produced under that name, and then they finished up the SuperFriends' TV run with The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. That 1985 show had more of the heroes who hadn't been seen the previous year, especially fan favorites who had mostly been missing since Challenge, like Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. There were approximately 10 episodes of that show.

So glad to see Superfriends brought to life on DVD. This was hands down my favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Volume 2 delivers the lesser seen 1977-78 season of episodes that were excellent. The animation was really starting to develop here. The best are Battle of the Gods, Batman: Dead or Alive, Terror From the Phantom Zone and Attack of the Vampire. The latter being a prequel to Superfriends Meet Frankenstein (one of the all time best episodes where the 3 Superfriends are combined into one monster and Robin finally gets to save the day as a true superhero). The worst episode in this set is definitely the Anti-Matter Monster which is more of a who-dunnit from a Scooby-Doo episode than the Superfriends saving the world.

There is also a humorous retrospective from 30-something "celebrities" which is worth a watch.

I wish they had done more to enhance the sound and picture, but I'll take this collection over the VHS ebay hacks that we've had to endure until now. This is a must buy for all Superfriends enthusiasts. Looking forward to the next season!

This set contains only 16 of 23 episodes. The 8 missing episodes are:

- Rub Three Times For Desaster (featuring a genie)
- Lex Luthor Strikes Back
- Space Knights of Camelon (featuring King Arthur)
- The Lord of Middle Earth (!)
- Universe of Evil
- Terror at 20,000 Fathoms (featuring Captain Nemoy ;))
- The Superfriends Meet Frankenstein
- The Planet of Oz (!)

Some of these episodes featured crossovers and might have tangled copyright issues (Tolkien, Land of Oz, Frankenstein, King Arthur) so I ask myself whether this is the reason they are missing in this release? It's a pity this set isn't complete.

I watched these episodes as a kid and nearly 30 years later I enjoyed them all over again as a married adult. The storylines are all the same and the drawings are crude compared to today's Justice League but what makes this a great DVD is the dialogue. The voices go with each character especially the voice of Batman. This is a wonderful way to bring the Superfriends to your kids both young and old.

The reviewers saying that these episodes are from the 1977-78 season of The Superfriends are wrong. This DVD release is a compilation of episodes from the 1979 season "The World's Greatest Super Friends". It should be noted that this release does NOT contain every episode from that season. It only has 16 of the 23 episodes. Why they did not include the entire season is anyone's guess. If you doubt what I say, go to the "Superman Homepage" and check for yourself. Whatever you do, don't listen to these turkeys. They have no clue what they're talking about.

These are the original 1980's episodes that I loved so much as a kid! And now my twin 4-year-olds are watching them and loving every minute of it! If only I could find Volume One...

This is the second series to be called simply The Super Friends (1978-1979) Thus the label volume 2. The First series under the same title which ran from 1973-1974 is the one that featured Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog. The episodes on this disc were not part of the All New Super Friends Hour. Or any other Super Friends incarnation. This was a stand alone series. Check out Hanna- Barbera's Super Friends Chronology. It's a great source for helping you keep track of all the Super Friends series and their actual titles.

The people who are saying that these episodes are from 1977(or 1978)are wrong. These episodes are from the 1979 season "The World's Greatest Super Friends". Except this DVD release only has 16 of the 23 episodes aired that season. Why they did not include the whole season on this DVD is anyone's guess.

First off, everyone has an opinion on the entire SUPERFRIENDS series. Sticking with the episodes at hand on this DVD i liked them all. Before i read any reviews on here, i watched the DVD and i actually liked the story of the Anti-Matter Monster. The little, subtle things like Aquaman for example being taken to Atlantis in "World Beneath the Ice" is a good use of character history. I have my favorite episodes from the DVD, however. The favorites for me are "Rokan: Enemy from Space", "Battle at Earth's Core", "Terror from the Phantom Zone" which features Superman aging after being exposed to red Kryptonite and his having to travel to the asteroids of the blown up Krypton and recover blue Kryptonite to reverse the aging process, and "Attack of the Vampire" on DVD #1 and "Anti-Matter Monster", "World Beneath the Ice", and episodes #13 through #16 on DVD #2: "Batman: Dead or Alive", "Battle of the Gods" which makes good use of Wonder Woman's nemesis, Hara, and other mythical Gods more specifically Medusa. "Journey Through Inner Space" is just a knock-out episode...giving Aquaman center stage and using radiation and an underwater disaster to transform Aquaman into...well...i won't give the plot away. The last episode on DVD #2 is another good one. It involves an actual comic book villain, Superman's foe, Mr Myxlpltk. I know i have the name spelled wrong...it's pronounced "mixel plick". All in all, the DVD isn't as bad as it is being let on to be...plus, in my opinion, the Wonder Twins are what created the hype when these episodes were first being aired. Like them or not, they did bring in the viewers...keeping the show a success in re-runs and in first-run syndication for a few years. If i were to have a complaint it would be the use of Flash and Hawkman and Apache Chief on the DVD fold-out cover...scenes that took place on CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS are shown on the fold-out cover. Those characters are NOT on this DVD. Oh, of course, scenes from the actual episodes on this DVD are also shown in small thumbnail pictures on the fold-out cover, too.