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STUDIO: Warner Home Video
MSRP: $18.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 168 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Pitch
The Lost Episodes found…unfortunately.
The Humans
Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, Aquaman, Wonder Twins, Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai, Atom, Flash, Green Lantern et al.
The Nutshell
In one of the many incarnations of the Superfriends, eight half-hour, three-adventure episodes were made by Hanna-Barbera, even after the series was canceled in 1983. The episodes were eventually aired in syndication, but not as heavily rotated as other versions of the show, so they became known as the “Lost Episodes.”
“Where the f&%k is Geoff Johns when you need him? ‘Cause this is some bullshit right here…”
The Lowdown
Even those of us who grew up on the Superfriends can get lost in the many variations the show underwent through its dozen or so years on the air. Hands down for me, the best version was The World’s Greatest, which featured episodes such as Universe of Evil, Lord of Middle Earth and Lex Luthor Strikes Back. These featured one episode every half hour, and generally some of the best animation, and were easily the best written of the entire lot of Superfriends episodes. From there, they get progressively worse, culminating in the Wendy/Marvin/Wonder Dog episodes, which are nigh unwatchable. Maybe one or two spots above that dreck are these “Lost Episodes” installments.
The format of these 24 shorts (three per episode) are that there are team-ups between primary Superfriends (Supes, Bats, Robin, WW, Aquaman), and/or the Wonder Twins and secondary Superfriends (Flash, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Green Lantern, Atom, etc.). They come up across some dastardly villain or situation, and – if Superman is on the job – there’s some weird way that kryptonite involved to keep him from solving the problem by himself. These aren’t Wendy/Marvin/Wonder Dog bad, but they’re not far behind. These episodes were made for kids 25 years ago and don’t hold up anywhere near as well as they should. Only the most die-hard Superfriends fans who are nostalgic for more carefree times are going to be getting this set. They’re hastily plotted, clumsily resolved and inferior in every way to even the worst episodes of Justice League.
“See, look at this: Forty f$#king years later and I’m still dealing with this Marston bullshit…”
The Package
Animation is run-of-the-mill from the period, and in several cases even worse. The transfer is probably as good as what was available, which isn’t saying a lot. Audio is the expected Dolby Mono, in English and Portuguese. Only special feature aside from trailers are a printable comic book. Whoopee…pass.