Super Friends - Season 1, Vol. 2

I enjoyed watching the Super Friends cartoons in this Season One, Volume Two release and while the plots are soaked in environmental messages, strangely enough, the stories do not condemn those who have an opposing view. There's great pains took to show how people have the right to live as they see fit as long as it doesn't endanger or directly threaten the rights of others. In all the episodes in this collection the Super Friends set out to fix the problems created by those who are described as misguided. Most of the villains are written as eccentrics who mean no real harm to human life and that the motive for their actions is based upon correcting an existing "problem" in society.I title this review "The EPA Era" because it was in the early '70s that the EPA came into existence. The Environmental Protection Agency and it's mission apparently had a big influence on the writers of this version of the Super Friends due to many of the stories relying on mad scientists and "misguided" citizens seeking to solve the problems of the world. In "Fantastic Frerps", for example, the Super Friends battle a villain named King Plasto. The plot of this episode deals with Plasto creating plastic replicas of buildings and cars and entire towns in an effort to preserve the use of natural resources that 'real' cities, cars, and factories use up. His creations are kept inside egg shells and when cracked open the contents unfold right before your eyes.Greed is dealt with in the "Ultra Beam" episode where the villain uses a device he calls a Getty Graph to extract atomic matter and gold from the Earth. He doesn't do this for selfish reasons...instead he uses his device to rid the Earth of what he must consider one of the most dangerous elements of all-time, Gold, due to it's tendency to spur on the greed in people.In "Balloon People", a family from another planet land in Marvin's backyard and gain the unfortunate attention of Wonder Dog, who appears as a growling monster in the eyes of the small balloon people. The family has the ability to inflate and deflate with a twist of a knob. The family is scouting for planets that are suitable for their race and free from pollution. A villain named Noah Tall and his assistant, Twisty, want to capture the balloon people.In "Gulliver's Gigantic Goof" we have a story of a man, Dr. Gulliver, who uses a device to shrink people. In his mind he theorizes that if he shrinks the population it would aid in population control. He has at his side a pet cat named Igor. Gulliver's voice is based on horror/gangster movie actor, Peter Lorre, and it's performed by Casey Kasem. In fact, Kasem is not only the voice of Robin and the Justice League computer, he's also the voice of most of the villains or their assistants during Season One. Kasem is heard hilariously as the bumbling assistant, Twisty, in "Balloon People" while Norman Alden, the voice of Aquaman in Season One and the 1977 season, is heard as Twisty's boss, Noah Tall (a pun on the phrase, Know-it-All).In "Planet Splitter" Wendy and Marvin are abducted by two eccentrics, Dr. Laban and Wilbur, who are out to split the planet in half. To pass the time Marvin tells the two about Superman's life and how his planet, Krypton, blown up seconds after having escaped as a baby in a rocket ship built by the baby's parents, Jor-El and Lara. We see Jor-El and Lara work on the device in addition to the famed scene of Jor-El delivering his speech to the High Council about Krypton's upcoming destruction. Toward the end of Marvin's story they try to get Marvin to reveal Superman's real identity...but Marvin caught himself in time.In "The White Dwarf" we see the story of a villain named Raven who is bent on revenge. He terrorizes a rural family due to there being a kryptonite stone on their property. The Super Friends manage to gain access to the kryptonite and hide it in a lead box. In addition to launching the Washington Monument to a cloud (with Marvin and Wendy inside), Raven puts Superman on trial.All in all Volume Two as well as Volume One of Season One are entertaining and yes, there's social messages for sure, but I came away with the feeling that the messages were just that: messages. The messages conveyed didn't bother me at all and a lot of that has to do with what I hinted at earlier: there's no strong condemnation or holier-than-thou attitude displayed at the characters who are described as 'misguided'...and that, in my opinion, makes all the difference between a cartoon coming off as preachy and one that doesn't come off as such.

You've been waiting for it and now it's here. Volume 2 of the 1973 First Season of Super Friends, with Wendy, Marvin, & Wonder Dog is now on DVD!The episodes from this season were an hour long each (about 46 minutes without commercials) and focused more on mystery solving and plot developments rather than pure action and adventure stories like later Super Friends incarnations.Episodes included with Volume 2:Disc 1:01) The Balloon People02) The Fantastic Frerps03) The Ultra Beam04) The Menace Of The White DwarfDisc 2:05) The Mysterious Moles06) Gulliver's Gigantic Goof07) The Planet Splitter08) The WatermenJust like Volume 1, there will be another Super Friends interactive Trivia Challenge Quiz game included as bonus material.If this sells well, we should see the release of the three remaining Super Friends series some time in the near future. "The World's Greatest Super Friends" is even mentioned on the back of the case, which may be an indication that it will be the next season to be released. (Update: Turns out "World's Greatest Super Friends!" was the next season to be released on DVD [as a TARGET STORE EXCLUSIVE], but it took nearly 3 years to come out since the last release. All other seasons are also now available to order.)"Up! Up! And Away!"COMPLETE SUPER FRIENDS DISCOGRAPHY BELOW:[Season 1]  "Super Friends!": Vol. One  & Vol. Two - Sixteen 46 Minute Episodes (1973)[Season 2]  "The All-New Super Friends Hour": Vol. 1  & Vol. 2  - Fifteen 21 Minute Episodes & Forty-Five 7 Minute Shorts (1977)[Season 3.1]  "Challenge of the Super Friends"  - Sixteen 21 Minute Episodes (1978)[Season 3.2]  "Super Friends": Volume Two  - Sixteen 21 Minute Episodes [Aired along side 'Challenge] (1978)[Season 4] "The World's Greatest Super Friends!" - Eight 22 minute episodes - TARGET STORE EXCLUSIVE 4/23/13 (1979)[Season 5]  "Super Friends": A Dangerous Fate  - Twenty-Four 7 minute shorts (1980-81)[Season 6]  "Super Friends": Legacy of Super Powers  - Eighteen 7 minute shorts (1981-82)[Season 7]  "Super Friends": The Lost Episodes  - Twenty-Four 7 Minute Shorts (1983)[Season 8]  "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show"  - Sixteen 11 Minute Episodes (1984)[Season 9]  "The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians"  - Six 21 Minute Episodes & Four 11 Minute Episodes (1985)

This is it!! If you started collecting from the first DVD release, then you know it wasn't a journey but a struggle. Warner Bros releases of this cartoon were tortue. They released the series in no particular order. Like 1977 was first, 1983 second then maybe 1980 then 1985 show and given stupid names like "Lost episodes". The only thing lost were our patients. Arrrghhh!! but here it is. I made a list for those who want them in original airing dates.Season 1 Super Friends (1973) Vol. 1 Super Friends (1973) Vol. 2 Season 2 Super Friends (1977) The All New Super Friends Hour Vol. 1 Super Friends (1977) The All New Super Friends Hour Vol. 2 Season 3 Super Friends (1978) Challenge of the Super Friends Vol 1 Super Friends (1978) Challenge of the Super Friends Vol 2 Season 4 Super Friends (1979) World's Greatest Super Friends Season 5 Super Friends (1980-81) A Dangerous Fate Season 6 Super Friends (1981-82) Legacy of Super Powers Season 7 Super Friends (1983) The Lost Episodes Season 8 Super Friends (1984) The Legendary Super Powers Show Season 9 Super Friends (1985) The Super Powers Team, Galactic Guardians

Excellent sound and picture quality by these to complete set

There's very little I can say in this review, as I purchased the DVD collections because I wanted to have something superhero related that my 5 year old daughter could watch. I did watch a couple of the episodes, and although to me the 45 minute length is just too long for my patience, I'm glad to report that my daughter loves watching them. Since that was ultimately the goal, then I can only rate the purchase as a complete success.

Return to your childhood and relieve Saturday morning cartoons as they once were, or introduce your children to a simpler time when heroes were more about the bright costumes and adventures, before they became dark and scary. Super Friends is light, and silly, but still great entertainment.

This is a television series from 40 years ago, so given its age, the animation and the stories in the series are clearly dated with its simplicity and wholesomeness. On the one hand, the series is safe for children to watch, but on the other hand, children might lose interest in the series if they are used to watching the more recent animated superhero stories of the 21st Century.