I don't know if it's down to age or geography (probably both), but this series wasn't a part of my childhood at all. However, Seanbaby arose my curiosity, and so I've bought everything that's available on DVD. At first, this meant only
"Challenge Of The Super Friends":
http://www.sorrynosubtitles.nl/images/DVD%201%20Super%20Friends.jpg
But recently, I have also acquired the infamous Gleek season:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0007XFZMS.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Comparing them, it's shocking how crap the first season is when put up against "Challenge". Like, of course "Challenge Of The Super Friends" was a sinceronic purchase in the first place, and it's pretty bad by any objective standards, BUT it's a laugh a minute, the plots are totally ridicolous, and you get to see tons of classic DC characters. Also, the DVD set has Geoff Johns/Mark Waid audio commentaries which are totally the best thing ever, and have prevented me from amassing the amount of hatred most of ILC has against those two. They're like "Mystery Science Theater 3000" if the wisecracking came from ppl with a genuine affection for the material being presented!
Probably my all-time favourite moment is when Hawkman gets trapped in a fairytale book, and suddenly Jack's mom comes along and yells at him "how could you use that money just to buy stupid beans?" and Hawkman's just all "WHO ARE YOU? WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Oh, wrinklepaws Hawkman!
This new set, however, has very few DC characters, plots that are boring and bad but not hilariously so, and no commentaries. Gleek is like the perfect example of exactly how inept and cynical Hanna Barbera were at making cartoons - like, he's not even obnoxious, he doesn't have enough personality for that...he's just kinda *there*, useless, ending every episode with a joke so lame that even a three year old wouldn't laugh. I swear, sometimes it even looks like he's *drawn* that way, his expressions at the end always have something of the apologetic/"sorry, will this do?" about them. It's almost "Space Ghost Coast To Coast".
Really, the only laughs you get in those eps is when Aquaman uses his aquatic telepathy on evil fish/alien fish/zombie fish/a chair, goes "OH NO IT DIDN'T WORK!" and then gets chased around the ocean.
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 14 April 2006 11:38 (nineteen years ago)
It's good to watch
"Challenge Of The Super Friends" with a non-comic book geek friend, 'cause they'll pick up on the absurdity even more than you can. Like, there's this one episode where my friend Hedgehog noted that the Legion Of Doom's plan consisted in:
1-Stealing superhero's weapons
2-Build robot duplicates of heroes, give them their weapons.
3-Kidnap heroes
4-Hold mock trial ("do you swear to tell untruths and nothing but untruths, so help you Grodd?")
5-Have heroes teleported to random locations to fight their robot counterparts
7-Profit.
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 14 April 2006 12:17 (nineteen years ago)
SF ignited my interest in funny books. So when I saw that the Challenge DVD was out, I rented it. And I could only make it through a few episodes. The WTF aspect wasn't enuff…
I did like the MW and GJ commentary though. when they point out how awesome some of the background music is, I smiled.
have there been no threads about the Justice League and JL: Unlimited shows? I cannot stress how good they are…
― veronica moser (veronica moser), Friday, 14 April 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)
one month passes...
Just watched a few of the first disc of the first season, including the MW/GJ commentary, which is great. If I was a comic charity, I would hold an Ebay auction where the "prize" was a chance to watch cartoons with Mark Waid. That would be a lot of fun.
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)